Laos

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Monday the 26th of July

Hello from Laos everybody. We are currently in Vientiane, the capital, where we flew into three days ago. The most noticeable difference with between Laos and the other countries we have visited in South East Asia is that we have been here three days and nobody has tried to run us over yet. I think the reason for this is that there seems to be nobody here. Vientiane is definitely the weirdest capital city I have ever visited; it feels more like a small town than a capital city. The streets are quiet and it seems very laid back and relaxed. This is not a bad thing though as it is nice to be able to calmly walk about without the hussle and bustle (and kamikaze moped drivers.)

It is not all good however as the flip side is that there really is nothing to do here. On the day of arrival we wondered around and saw the palace and a few monuments and yesterday we took in the museums and now today we have nothing to do. In fact it almost seems as if a quarter of the city are tourists just wondering around looking for things to do. It is lucky that the restaurants are of a high standard and the local beer excellent, otherwise I think most tourists would go mad from boredom.

As we seem to have exhausted Vientiane we have decided to move on tomorrow and head north to Vang Vieng, which sounds a lot more interesting. One of the main activities there is kayaking or tubing (sitting in a giant rubber ring) down the river. The tubing sounds the most fun but I am not sure if we will be able to do it as the river can be to strong during the rainy season. Anyway we will wait and see.

I am going to wrap it up here, as I don’t really have much else to say. Three days in Vientiane does not seem to inspire one to write much, so farewell for now.

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Saturday the 31st of July

We can now say we have 'tubed'. Very strange water activity that is was. When we first arrived into Vang Vieng I should not have been surprised to see grown men walking around town sporting great big rubber rings but I was for some reason. I think it is because they looked absolutely ridiculous. This has to be one of the only places in the world where it is socially acceptable to proudly display water floating devices whilst drunk.

Saying that though, we had to give it a try which probably was not the best idea seeing as I had a cold. Anyhow we rented our rings and 10 of us crammed into tuk tuk and headed 6 km north of the town to the river. Then we were dumped and we waited to see who was brave enough to jump in first. Ruairi being the dare devil that he is dived in and I followed on, quite unsure of the whole thing.

Now I probably should explain that on the river there are several watering holes to stop off at and most people who tube partake in a bit of beer drinking. Sound dangerous? Well not really the river was calm, you’re never far away from the edge and well you have a great big rubber ring to keep you afloat.

Well we merrily merrily merrily floated down the river watching the amazing scenary pass us by and various other crazy tourists. All was going well until it started to bucket down and well by the end of the trip I was never so glad to have a hot shower and get into bed. Boring eh.

If that doesn't float your boat well there is loads else to do in Vang Vieng, such as cycling to caves, kayaking and trekking but I have mainly spent the rest of the time in bed with a bad cold and we are both a bit worse for wear since coming here. I would not mind so much if I could actually sleep though, but the bloody cockerels next to our guesthouse don't seem to know when to let up. Surly they were taught to cockadoodildoo once as the sun rises, to act as a natural alarm clock but no they do it all day and all night the annoying little things.

We are off tomorrow on another epic bus journey north which we will report on soon. X Lou

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Tuesday the 3rd of August

I am sorry to say that I have been in bed with the flu for the last couple of days, so apart from telling you about the view from the window I don’t have much news. We left Vang Vieng a few days ago as Lou was almost recovered from the flu and felt ready to move. Unfortunately that very day I started feeling ill and by the time I got off the bus at Luang Prabang I was feeling terrible. Thankfully I am feeling a lot better today and as such today is my first day out and about in Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang is much like the rest of Laos, as in it is very laid back. This whole country has got to be the most relaxed place on the planet. From what I have seen so far Luang Prabang is a very beautiful city and has managed to retain almost all of its French colonial buildings, which makes a nice change from the concrete bunkers which seem to constitute modern architecture in most of South East Asia. There also seems to be a vast amount of temples (and monks) here and it almost seems that a fifth of the city is made up by monks.

Well I am afraid that I can’t think of anything else to say as I have slept the last two days away so I am going to wrap it up here and go and do some exploring.

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Thursday the 5th of August

Well this is to be the last entry from Laos as tomorrow we fly back to Thailand. It has been quite a strange place Laos, as although both Lou and I have really enjoyed it, we have not really done much whilst here. I think this is for two reasons. The first being that tourism in Laos is not really that big, so apart from tubing or kayaking down a river, or visiting a temple, there really is not that much to do. Secondly, Laos and its people are so laid back that you find yourself joining in and as such, waste your day’s away just chilling out. So although Laos has been a really nice couple of weeks, ultimately I don't think I will return as there just does not seem to be anything to do, apart from the tubing which was ace!

This may not come as a surprise but today we have not been doing much. Yesterday on the other hand we headed out of town to visit some waterfalls. It took an hour to get there and an hour to get back and we only stayed for half an hour, which gives you a rough idea of how much we thought of it. I am not sure if this is waterfall fatigue on our parts (well we have seen about 500 of them) or the waterfall was truly a bit on the dull side but either way we were not impressed. I think this is one of the bad things when you are traveling for so long, things just lose their wow factor. I am sure if we had seen that waterfall on the first week of the trip it would have been, wow! With me taking 50 pictures. Now to get the same response out of me that waterfall would have had to be a beerfall (or chocolatefall in Lou's case.) Having said that, there are still lots of things that do amaze us on this trip, just not the waterfalls. An example was the bus ride to Luang Prabang; the scenery was just out of this world, although the journey also was a bit un-nerving. The reason for this was the groups of teenage boys with sub machine guns who were at the side of the road. I am not sure if they were the local militia or drug gangs but either way it made for an unusual journey. There was also the local guy who got on our bus half way through the journey. I thought he was extremely pleased to see me until Lou told me he had a gun in his pocket. I am not sure if he was there for our safety but I can say he did not make me feel that safe.

Well that is about it from Laos as I am off to enjoy our last day here by sitting around doing nothing and daydreaming about beerfalls. See you back on the Thailand page.

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