Laos do you do?

Greetings,

Apologies once more for the lack of update. If anyone has any major issues, all complaints should be addressed to the Laos Internet Speed Regulation Board, or some such body.

Anywho, that said, whats been going on of late. Well, as you can guess from the above pun-genius I have been to Laos. After leaving Bangkok I travelled to north Thailand and stayed in Chiang Mai which was a nice place. In Bangkok there is an estimated 300 temples (thats in a city of about 9 million), now in Chiang Mai there are only about 170,000 people, but the quantity of temples identical to Bangkok! Extraordinary - goes without saying that temples would very much be the theme in Chiang Mai, so I set about wandering around and having a look at some of them. One of the most spectacular was the Doi Suthep temple, high in the mountains overlooking the city. Very impressive.

After Chiang Mai I left Thailand and travelled into Laos. After crossing the border we stayed in a small village called Houay Xai where we visited a local village to witness for ourselves how Laosians live. Great fun drinking rice whiskey and deep-fried termites with the locals.

Following this we travelled down The Mekong, which, of course, should not be confused with The Mekon; leader of The Treens and mortal enemy of Dan Dare:



I digress, we travelled in a slow-boat down the Mekong and, after spending the night in the most bug infested premises I have had the misfortune of staying in Pakbeng, we arrived the following day in Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang was a great place, plenty of things to see there, lovely temples and one especially high on a hill overlooking the town was beautiful. We also made a small excursion to a series of waterfalls nearby which were fantastic for jumping off and swimming around, and also great to look at.

After departing Luang Prabang we travelled to Phosovan where we were to base ourselves to see the Plain of Jars. To those that aren't familiar with what the Plain of Jars is, well, the answer is in the title really. There are literally stone jars spread across a plain. To what use said jars were for, no-one really knows for sure - some say for making whiskey, others say for burning the ashes of the dead. This was a mighty impressive sight.

After learning about the CIA's secret war on Laos, which not alot of people know about, we walked through the Plain past many unexploded shells and grenades and such - scary stuff!

Trivia Moment: Laos is the most bombed country in history - ever - fact!

Following Phosovan we travelled to Vang Vieng. A small place really, full to the hilt of backpackers, but it was set in the volcanic mountains providing it with some stunning scenery - beautiful! After a couple of days there (spent climbing mountains to see Buddha caves, jumping off various trees the height of a 2-storey house into lagoons and floating down the river in a tractor inner-tube, beer in hand) we left and made our way to the national capital; Vientiane.

Again, this was a lovely place - the most quiet and subdued capital I've ever witnessed. Highlights here included temples of various sorts, an Arc de Triomphe type thing (which was rather amusingly made using money from the U.S. government who were promised that a new airport runway would be built with the money), and Buddha Park which had the most incredible statues including a Reclining Buddha in excess of 30 metres long.

From Vientiane, back to Bangkok, which is where I am at time of press.

Impressions of Laos were very positive, so much more than I was expecting, some truly wonderful scenery, sights and places and a whole recent history that I didn't anything about. Fantastic.

I will leave you with a few photos from over the recent weeks. Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other.


Part of the Doi Suthep temple, Chiang Mai, Thailand.



A fantastic white temple we stopped at on our way to Laos.



This is the wad of Laos money I exchanged at the border, the equivalent of about 40 quid sterling!



The waterfalls. See that bit on the right? Its just perfect from jumping from!



Me on a jar. Guess where? Thats right - The Plain of Jars.



The wonderful Reclining Buddha at Buddha Park, Vientiane.



The Laos gang (l to r: Jim, Melbourne, Rob (tour leader), Me, Tanya and Maria)



And, finally I shall leave you with this quandary. Two of the three people in this photos are actually blokes - answers on a postcard please!

Wat's Been Going On?

Greetings,

When last we spoke I was on my way to Cambodia, so now that I have been there I thought I'd best you lot know what it was like!

The first port of Cambodian call was Phnom Penh. At first I was slightly perturbed as it just seemed like a big city, however, there are enough sights and other thing to do in the local area to make it worthwhile.

Firstly, I visited the National Museum which was pretty good. Alot of statues and stuff of Buddhas taken from the Angkor ruins. Next I went to the incredible Royal Palace, which was simply stunning. The beautiful architecture, and the colour of the buildings against the stark contrast of the blue sky was amazing.

After the Royal Palace I went to the Silver Pagoda next door which was superb too. So grand and almost gaudy which various Buddahs and other statues cast in gold encrusted with 25 karat diamonds. Pretty strange thought really, when you have all that decadence, when, only a few hundred yards away, you have people whose legs have been blown off by an errant landmine begging for money to feed themselves.

In the afternoon there was a definite subdued mood clouding the group as we made a visit to the S.21 prison and The Killing Fields. Both were incredibly moving, and it would be unnecessary, inappropriate and morbid to describe the brutal goings on that occurred here. Anyone that is familiar with the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge will understand.

The next day we left Phnom Penh and travelled to Siem Riep for what would prove to be another highlight of the tour - Angkor.

After the incredible experience of watching the sun rise over Angkor Wat we visited some other temples at the Angkor site.

First off was the Ta Prohm temple which was wonderfully atmospheric. This site is featured on the front of the Cambodia Lonely Planet guidebook. Overrun with trees and tree roots protruding from the most unlikely places it looked more like something from the set of an Indiana Jones film of something like that. In fact so much so, it was actually used as part of the Tomb Raider film set a few years back.

Following Ta Prohm we visited Angkor Thom and The Bayon site, which again were wonderful. Bayon is made of many large turrets all engraved with images of the heads of Buddhas overlooking the site which gives it such a presence and looks incredible. After that we returned to Angkor Wat for a proper look round and to climb the oh-so steep steps to its summit.

All in all, absolutely magical, I can't recommend it enough.

The next day we took a ride to the mine museum in the outskirts of Siem Riep which was really interesting. Basically, its all run by this one guy called Aki Ra who has completely devoted his life to the safe removal and disarming of landmines across Cambodia (of which there are still an estimated 3 million remaining, and those that are still there claim the lives of approximately 2 people a day). An absolute legend and modern day hero.

I thought I would share with you some of the photos that I have taken over the past few weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia so here they are:

A giant dragon in the Cantonese Assembly Hall - Hoi An, Vietnam



Me getting ready to unload a few rounds from an AK



Me and Anna (my tour leader) on the Mekong - Mekong Delta, Vietnam



The Royal Palace - Phnom Penh, Cambodia



A random monk enjoys the Angkor views - Angkor, Cambodia



Sunrise over Angkor Wat



Hoped you enjoyed those. As for me, I am now in Bangkok following a 10 hour journey (including 5 hours in a pick-up truck over the most bumpiest roads you would ever have the misfortune to drive over!) so its all good.

Right, thats all from me for the moment, hope you are all well. Take care of yourselves and I will speak to you soon.