Laos - the land of Lao Lao.

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Hopped into the mini-bus that would drive us the five hours to the Laos border north west of Chiang Mai and get chatting to two red-haired Irish lads, one of whom has his head stuck out the side of the bus from a dodgy pizza the night before - better off sticking to the street stalls and none of that western muck! They be the brothers Colin and Derek Henison, hailing from Millpark, just outside Roscrea in the good auld Co. Tipperary - my home town, amazingly enough! It's a small world, but seeing as they are a good 10 years younger than I am the only person we know in commom is my uncle Dan, the town plumber. Their Dad was on the munster side that beat the All-blacks all those moons ago, so I should have known about him. Anyway our journey is uneventful, except for the hundreds of kids with buckets who line the roadside hoping that we would be foolish enough to open a chink of a window in our waterproof vehicle. We reach the Laos border and the famous Mekhong river is all that seperates us from the town of Huay Xai where we will spend our first night in Laos. We've already been scammed into paying 1650 baht (48$ instead of 35$) for our Laos visa by the travel agents, so it's no surprise that the 2 minute boat ride across is another 30 baht and then the immigration officier on the Laos side requires another 20 baht each "overtime fee" because it's after 4 p.m. Not a great start to the Laos experience - feels like China again.
We secure a basic 7$ room for the night (cheapest available it seems) and head for some eats at the Riverview restaurant up the street. The weather seems much cooler than in Chiang Mai and as the a stiff breeze picks up we realise that a storms-a-comin. We arrange tickets for the boat to Luang Prabang with the shrewd Laos mama who runs the B.A.P. GH, who assures us that we did the right thing coming to her because the official ticket office would only give us a ticket halfway to Pak Beng and then who knows where we might end up? She charges us a paltry 100 baht for this excellent service and essential local wisdom. Before the sky darkens too much we discover the loudest and only bar on the street that is not playing karaoke. Run by the pretty local Nok and helped/encouraged by her dutch girlfriend Marian, it's the one cool place in a town that certainly ain't. Before we can finish our malaria preventing G&Ts and make it back to our OK, but no great shakes-drippy shower GH there is a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder that unleashes a torrential downpour and we're most unfortunately detained for yet another drink which we barely squeeze in before the 11:30 closing time. The air cools even more and crazy foreigners soak themselves through dancing in the street.

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Photos

Pick-up truck
This is the vehicle of choice in SEA and has been known to carry up to 20 people at a time. Not ideal for the New Year roadside soakings unless you have your own barrel on board ...

Lao beer
Cools you down in rain, hail or shine - only 10,000 kip ($1) a half litre!