For the Chinese New Year holiday my first year in China, I decided that my first extended solo trip would be to Southern China and on to Laos.

Arrived in Laos angry over having to leave a motorbike at the Chinese border, a little anxious over being in a new country for the first time since I had moved to China, and unsure of what I was planning to do in Laos.

Stumbled around Luang Nam Tha looking for something to do, and around lunchtime came across a museum that was closed.  As I sat, and read, construction workers from the building site next door settled in for their lunch.

Upon seeing me, the main guy in the group immediately invited me over for food.  Felling like I should contribute something, I scampered off to buy a round of Beer Lao (which everyone happily accepted).

As tends to happens in such situations, language and gesture wore away after a while.  I thanked the gentlemen (my first phrase in Laotian!) and took off to explore Luang Nam Tha, but now with a much happier mindset.

That, really, was all it took to come back to the realization that people are awesome and happy to see you no matter where in the world you are.  A realization that I continually find myself confronted with throughout South East Asia.

Towards the end of the day, stumbled across an empty and inviting looking restaurant.  Some time to put thoughts to paper (one of my favorite souvenirs, a look back into my mindset as I explored a new place) and my second experience with the beautiful thing that is Beer Lao.  Best beer in all of SouthEast Asia.