Northern Laos

Having left Australia, we spent two nights in Singapore and then moved into Thailand. After 10 ten days in the northern part (blog to follow), we made our way into Laos. Our first stop was the country's capital, Vientiane. What first struck us was the French connection and as soon as we got off the bus there were people offering us baguettes. They were short of having a string of onions around their neck. Formerly under French control, Laos has plenty of Gallic flair and is a lot more laid back than the two previous south east Asian countries we had encountered. With croissants and coffee for breakfast, baguettes for lunch and an abundance of French restaurants to choose from for dinner, it was difficult to keep with with our tradition of avoiding Western food. With Vicki keen to practise her chopsticks skills and Conor's eagerness to always try something new we spent many's the evening dining at food stalls with the locals by the river. This may or may not be the cause of a number of incidents of a dicky tummies. Yet to be confirmed!

Vientiane was where we got out first taste of what's it's like to be millionaires. The Laos kip is worth next to nothing and the country itself is very cheap so we always managed to find a comfortable, air conditioned room with hot water and a satellite TV for under $10. Yes, that's right, ten US dollars! We spent some time enjoying Vientiane's cafe culture and making through the markets. After a few days here we headed up to Vang Vieng, a town famous among backpackers travelling around this neck of the woods

An uncomfortable bus ride took us immediately to a hotel outside the town's centre but it was very picturesque so we settled on one night here before moving somewhere better located. The hotel consisted of a few small huts perched on the edge of the river. The sunset view was something special. Under Vicki's sister, Sara's advice, we went looking for the secret bar across the magical bridge. Although these directions sounded like something from Lord of the Rings, true enough, there was a few bars across a bridge but we had our suspicions as to it's magical qualities. We went to the aptly named Bucket bar where, if you don a pair of sunglasses you get a bucket of whiskey for mere pennies

The following day we went tubing. This is nothing more sitting on a rubber tube as the current takes you down the river, stopping at the various bars along the way. Strange but true! The first bar we went to gave us an idea of what was in store. Music, drinking and water related activities. The locals had fashioned a huge swing from a nearby tree from which you could drop into the water. Let go too late and into the rocks with you so we thought it best to give this a crack early on in the day. Somehow Conor still managed to smack his throat off the water. Grim times! Before we left this bar some kids came running along the shore, armed with rocks, shouting and pointing to something in the water. All the tourist look to see a snake swimming down the river. With the aim and precision any sniper would be proud of one young buck hurls the stone directly at the snakes head, a good 50 feet away. The beast was banished and the village was saved! Many of the other bars were more of the same with a featured activity in many of them such as a mud pool and a tube slide. It was only after taking our turn on the slide, we heard that a year prior, one unfortunate tourist had died as he came off the slide into shallow water. It was a fun day but easy to see how things can go wrong when you mix drinking with the strong river current during the wet season

Vang Vieng is certainly a tourist town but some charm of its own. The centre of the town is lined with restaurants and bars with make-shift couch-beds and TVs all showing non stop episodes of The Simpsons, Family Guy and Friends. There were always plenty of backpackers passed out in these establishments and it wasn't until we found out about the "Special Menu" on offer. This menu contains pizzas and milkshakes with questionable hallucinogenic properties

We then moved onto Luang Phrabang on a poor, poor bus journey. We were on a packed mini bus and soon found out why the Asians are notoriously poor travellers. Motion sickness is not their friend! There were two local girls sitting up the front with the driver and before we departed they were munching on some fruit like it was going out of fashion. Half an hour down the road she whips out a small plastic bag and the noises were unpleasant. It wasn't long before her friend followed suit. Between them they probably disposed of about 8 bags via the window for the duration of the journey. Luang Phrabang is a lovely town situated on the Mekong river. We took a trip to the waterfalls an hour outside the town and swam in the rock pools before visiting a bear sanctuary, which was a lot more like a small encolsure than anything else. Another activity the town is famous for is the bowling alley. Most of the bars close around 11 and the only other watering hole available after that is Luang Phrabang's bowling alley so off we went. Full of backpackers and locals, it's quite a spectacle. Aside from us of course, there were many people falling over and the concept of the game was lost on many more. There was one guy who had clearly drank his fill. He couldn't string a sentence together but bowled strike after strike and won the game. There was also a Chilean lad who managed a total score of something like 5

One day we decided to go for a massage and opted for an aromatherapy session each. We came out of our respective rooms after the given hour and agreed on the glorified tickling that had taken place. We were sat on patted and karate chopped from head to toe. Vicki's alcohol induced bruises got a good prodding. Cheap but not worth the money!

Laos is a great country and we really enjoyed our time there. The main downside is that because it is a developing country and also partly due to the lay of the land the infrastructure is quite poor and it is very difficult to get around. This is why we didn't see more. Short distances eat up a lot of time which is why we chose to fly to Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, for the next part of our Asian encounter

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