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!