Blogs from Laos, Asia - page 533

The following day I went back to the police station, where they informed me I would need to head to Vientiane to get a new passport. They told me passports get 'lost' in Laos quite often (which was proven by the fact an English man was also in the police station reporting an identical theft). Once they had handed me an official police report of the incident (costing 10,000 kip - $1), they attempted to explain why I should wait a few days before going to the capital. I'm still not quite sure, but I took their advice and decided to stay in town for a few more days. On my way back to my guesthouse I saw Ed again (yep, you guessed it, drinking tea at the bakery). I joined him and after a few ... read more

First a bit of history... Xieng Khouang Province lies East of Luang Phabang towards Vietnam. It's a pretty isolated place, whose population is mostly made up of minority ethnic groups such as Hmong, rather than Lao. Apart from some noteworthy and fascinatingly mysterious archaeology (see later) there wouldn't be much reason to know of the place were it not for a shocking historical fact. Xieng Khouang Province holds the unfortunate distinction of being one of the most heavily bombed places on our Planet. In the 10 years from 1965 to 1975, courtesy of American B-52s, the countryside here was at the pointy end of over 6,000,000,000 lbs of bombs. That's six billion pounds. There are fewer than 250,000 inhabitants in the entire province. The maths doesn't even bear thinking about. The region's proximity to the theatre ... read more

Over to Laos. The morning after my last entry the group from the bus headed to the Thai-Laos border. Everything at the border went extremely smoothly - most likely due to the very efficient lady at our guest house who had arranged our visas the night before. Although we had woken up at around 7:00, to catch the '8:30' slowboat...we were still at the boat terminal at 11:30, waiting for the engines to start. The boat was full of 'pharang' - or white people (ignorant rich people, that is). Once the boat left the border town, the views around us were amazing. What an amazing part of the world I'm seeing. The slowboat trip is a great way to get from Thailand to Laos, but the keyword is definitely SLOW. The first day we spent about ... read more

It goes without saying that the first port of call after checking into a guesthouse in Vientiane after nearly 22 excruciatingly painful hours on the road was to relax for a while and have a short nap. This was only interupted briefly by the need to eat before retiring to bed for a much needed proper sleep. After recovering from my zombie-like state I managed to have a walk round and check out the city. The overwhelming impression was how quiet it was compared to Hanoi, and in fact compared to almost anywhere else I have been on my travels. There is very little traffic (crossing the road actually became safe and almost enjoyable) and it's much, much quieter thanks primarily to the absence of car/moto horns (thankyou Laos, thankyou). Even as the capital city it's ... read more

It's July 5th. I guess that means yesterday was the 4th. I just realized that, so happy fourth of july. There's not much of a celebration for it over here. After my last entry, I spent one more full day in Vang Vieng. I rented a 100 cc motorbike for 24 hours for 5 dollars. They just take your money and your passport and send you on your way without a word of instruction. I spent one afternoon sitting in some restaraunt laughing with the locals at the travelers almost crashing. There must be an exceedingly high injury rate on those things. First, I took mine about 50 km away from town on the only paved highway in the country. I ended up at a sign to a cave, so I paid the parking fee, the ... read more