Toronto's real sister city

Wow, I cannot believe that it is already January 2017! Nick and I are back in San Francisco again, after the most amazing year traveling the world. It really was a dream come true for us and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to do something like that.

As we settle back into the comforting, well-loved routines of our lives in SF, I am really going to buckle down and finish writing about our experiences. There are so many things that I wanted to share with family and friends, but just didn't have time to cover properly. Better late than never...right? So without further ado, we flash back to December 2015!

While we were in Chiang Mai, we learned that Nick's friend from Australia would be in Laos on business soon. Since the opportunity to see him was simply too good to pass up, we made our way to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, to meet him. While Mark was occupied with work during the day, Nick and I wandered around being complete tourists.

SCLEG Park: Safe, Clean, Light something something, Green

Although four days isn’t a whole lot of time, it was enough to give us a feel for the place. And my overall impression of Vientiane was...well...meh.

It was far too early in our travels for travel fatigue, and there was no shortage of things to see or do, yet I was totally underwhelmed by the city and I didn't know why. It wasn't until months later that it finally hit me: Vientiane is Toronto.

The parallels are uncanny, actually...