Lovely Laos

Just a month till I'm back in Oz.....I've arrived back from another visa run to Laos, this one involving a 5 day trip to catch glimpses of it while the tourist industry is still in its infancy (has only been open for about the past 10 years).

I followed the tourist highway, for sure though, after flying in to the UNESCO-world heritage listed city of Luang Probang in the north, busing it to backpacker-central in Vang Vieng, then on to the capital Vientiane. Laos was a french colony for about a century, influencing it's architecture, cuisine and multi-lingual abilities. It is also the poorest country in south-east asia, and the most bombed during the war. We passed ethnic minority villages high on steep mountain slopes, with widespread deforestation leaving them (Jen concludes) with little ability to earn an income except for collecting grass seed heads to make into brooms. And this was on the main highway - probably the situation is ten times worse in remoter areas. World Vision is one of many NGOs active in the country.

So Jen's take on the tourist scene: most tourists seemed to be posh-nosh europeans or the heavy-drinking young backpacker variety. You could tell the aussie lads: beer lao t-shirts and aussie board shorts. Not sure what the locals make of this new invasion - it seemed that if you were able to sleep off the hangover on the bus between the main stops, you could avoid any culture (Jen was on her own for this trip so had more time for reflection perhaps - back in her box). I did actually meet some pretty nice people and kept seeing the same faces pop up at each town along the way.

Apologies for the formatting issues - will try to avoid them by not including photo captions......

LUANG PROBANG

The Mekong River; french influences; many wats and alms processions; coconuts; river life

DAY TRIPS FROM L.P.
Beautiful Krung Si limestone waterfall, and Pak Ou cave (with 1000's of buddha shrines); bird-release sellers; whisky distilleries

VANG VIENG

This small town is surrounded by some beatiful limestone karst scenery. It has a huge number of pubs and you can watch "Friends" reruns and have pizza and beer in the many cinema-style restaurants. Very Byron Bay (or Pai in Northern Thailand) - like. I only spent 22 hours there, but managed to get a fair bit in: cycling out to some nearby caves (most of the way chatting with a cycling group from southern Thailand), getting a lift back to town after dark with some locals (preplanned!), and going on a half day tour to tube through a cave (which ended up being a personal motorbike tour). Fun! Left town before the aussie-organised cross dressing tube race hit the river......

VIENTIANE
The capital city was a quick stopover before my flight back. A pretty quiet city! Caught the sun setting over the Mekong river, experienced a Laos oil massage, and some live music.