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Published: October 15th 2006
Not much to say about the flight apart from the fact it was absolutely fine. Delayed for an hour but all good. It was Skips B'day the day we flew in, so once we arrived in LP we booked ourselves into Phousi Guest House II, which was again cheap as chips. $5 for ensuite room with a very laid back atmosphere exactly as described in the lonely planet. Went for a very nice lunch & a few beers. LP is alot more touristy than Vietianne with guest houses & tour operators everywhere.
On Thursday we got our own Tuk Tuk to the Tat Kuang Si waterfall (U$12) which is about an hour out of the city. It was lovely, also great to drive through villages & the country side. Absolutely stunning! Kids are all adorable & so independent at such a young age. Saw our first elephant here in one of the villages. There was also a Bear sanctuary & a tiger at the waterfall. The tiger (Phet) was very well looked after & I even got to feed her....at a price of 10000 kip which is $1 so jumped at the chance. She was stunning.
Walked up to the
temple Wat Pa Huak on the slopes of Phu Si (pron. pussy local joke here haha ...Skip). Great views of the Mekong & LP, even saw Buddha's footprint??? Must have been a giant, the size of it!?
Friday we went on a boat trip to Pak Ou cave which is the biggest tourist trap here & looks like a dumping ground for unwanted statues of Buddha. We were taken to Lao Lao village where they make the Lao Lao whiskey & a paper village where they make the paper for the lanterns etc all after your money. Best thing about that was seeing the village kids playing in the Mekong, the height of the trees they were jumping out of were crazy & they made climbing up vines look easy. It was good to have a boat trip on the Mekong anyway as the scenery again was stunning. Came back & had a Khmu massage, this is supposed to be gentler than a traditional loa massage??? Was hoping for an hours nap while being massaged.....not a chance! I was sure I was going to wake up the next morning black & blue. I was lying there wincing with pain. Great
experience but I think I'll be sticking to a foot massages from now on.
All in all our experience of LP was great, it was amusing to see the little camp bracelet sellers, boys of 10-12 so in touch with their feminine side trying to sell you their bracelets & pouting when you weren't interested. The little girls all had the knack of putting on their sad faces which made you want to buy something. All have the right vocabulary of "you look beautiful", "I will be lucky if you buy one" etc....(Dem bought 2...Skip)
We got the early bus 6 30am from LP to Vientiane we even got to see the monks getting the alms (daily food) from the locals. They collect it at 6 every morning.
The bus ride took 9hrs through the most amazing country side, half the journey was over huge mountains and the other half was thru rice fields,.
We are now back in Vientiane for 2 days before getting the night bus tomorrow night down to Savannakhet.....10 hour bus journey
MORE TO FOLLOW
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Kiers
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OHMYGOODNESS!!
RE: Picture NO FEAR: I don't believe it!! (In the voice of Victor Meldrew) How crazy - Are there not crocs in there?? Does his mum know he is out? (te he i'm not that daft!!) Love all the pics - there fab!! In fact i have the one of the waterfall as my screen saver - sado!! Hugz x x x