On our way to Laos


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Asia » Laos » West » Vientiane
June 23rd 2006
Published: July 10th 2006
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Dusk settling over LaosDusk settling over LaosDusk settling over Laos

View from Mut Mee Guesthouse in Thailand looking over the Mekong to Laos
We left Nong Khai and headed off for the border crossing to Laos over the Friendship Bridge, a bridge that was first proposed in the 1950's and didn't get built till 1994 due to war in Indochina and financed to the tune of Us$30mn from Australia, to help boost the Ozzies reputation in Asia.

As soon as you reach Laos you immidiately notice that the roads deteriorate, the taxi's are a hell of a lot worse (infact they're a pile junk with 4 wheels), and straight away you get the feeling that your getting ripped off by the taxi drivers. There are signs everywhere stating the cost of the journey to Vientiane 250 bhts (about $5, which is a hell of alot over here). However we soon realised that this would be about right not realizing that it was a 20km journey into the city.

After being driven around the city for about 1/2 an hour by a very confused taxi driver we eventually found our hostel, which was recomended in the travel book, only to find that since the book was printed it has been completely run down and is now a complete dump, so we checked in
That LuangThat LuangThat Luang

Vientiane
next door.

Vientiane definatley seems like it's getting a lot of investment as building work is happening just about everywhere, and not just on the palaces, Wats and buddah statues.

There is a heavy French influence with lots of cafes, french restraunts, bakeries and a good bottle of plonk is easy to come across although at a heafty cost, and as being we're at the end of the trip and the bank manager is getting ready to start breathing down our necks, this is one luxury we didn't endulge in.

First thing we needed to do once we arrived was to get a rough plan where and what we we're doing so we could apply for our Vietnam visas. Unlike Loas, Vietnam make it very difficult for independant travellers, Loas issue a visa that has a time scale of 2 months of which you can spend 1 month in the country, where as Vietnam make you state a date and if you don't make it in on that date it eats into your time in Vietnam. So after a quick trip to the Vietnamese embassy and getting ripped off by the tuk-tuk driver again, it was off to see the sights of the city.

First stop was That Luang, That Luang is the holiest site in the country, apparently built in the third century and contains a relic of the Budda (his breast bone). It was built in it's present form in 1566 by King Stthaathirat, of whom there is a statue of outside. The temple itself looks very impressive from the road leading upto it, with it's large gold coloured spire standing out on top of the hill visible from just about everywhere in the city. But upclose its rather delapidated and in need of some serious maintence. Inside there are the usual figures of Buddah and a pretty impressive collection of art by a local artist that nearly covers the full outer wall of the building.

A short walk across a large concrete area that passed the national assembly led us to the Revolutionary Monument, also known as the the unknown Soldiers Memorial, which was built in memory to those who died during the revolution in 1975. Across the road was the Pathet Lao Museum which we told was only open to VIP visitors, but there was a collection of weapons (tanks, planes and other milatary vehicles). While walking round, Sue decided to test her luck and asked if it was possible to have a look in, which the member of staff (who looked a the gardener) nodded and led us to someone else who took 10,000 kip off us and pointed us inside. Once inside we we're hit by the aircon, it must have been touching 40 degrees outside so on this alone it was 10 grand well spent.

The museum has a good collection of miliatry vechiles inside (mainly of Soviet & Chinese Origin), and tells the story of Loas at War. The museum covers the period from the Japanese Coup who at the end of the second world war outsed the French in 1945. When the Japanese surrendered in August it declared independance, only for the British to hand France back it's colony.

The next main movement was Indepenance, a quick giude to this is that France was put under pressure to give Loas more self government, this allowed a Communist party to be formed by Issara's milatary wing led by Souphanovong, only to be ousted by half brothers a coulpe of month later and joined the Viet Minh where he is said to be the driving force behing the declaration of the Democratic Republic of Loas by the Lao national assembly. This was to fail quite quickly and the Royal Lao Government took over.
Loas then came under threat from the communist Viet Minh and Pathet Lao, after the French went to confront them they suffered a heavey defeat (suprise, suprise) which led them to withdraw from Indochina. With Ho Chi Minhs government gaining teritory the US decided not to be a bystander and got themselves involved in the war that mirrored the famous war with Vietnam. The US found themselves paying and supplying the royalist forces and the CIA started meddling in Lao politics. The US baked Royal government of independant Loas ruled between 1951 to 1954, with only the Communist Pathet Lao sponsered by North Vietnam's Lao Dong party as strong opposition. Loas and Vietnam's ties went deeper than ideology, the prime minister was 1/2 Vietnamese and two princes married Vietanamese women. Patets troops supported by thr Communist Viet minh forces made several incursions into central Loas and civil war irrupted three ways between the communist the rightist an the neutralist. Loas had little peace
Local TransportLocal TransportLocal Transport

The Tractor
all the way upto 1970 although the orgins were different from those that fuelled the Vietnam War with America the two wars effecively merged. With that war with the rightists in Thailand carried on till the late 1970's. The museum although quite interesting is very one sided and tells the story how the current government want it told.

We then headed to Monument Anousavari (also known as Anou Savali or Pratuxai or Victory Gate, in Loas they seem to like having multiple names for things as some of there citys have 5 or 6 different spellings), this is described as the orients answer to the Arc de Triomphe and is Vientiane's best known land mark. It was built by the former regime in memory of those who died in the wars before the communist takeover, but whilst in construction they ran out of cement, but determination was high to get this monument finished so they diverted hundreds of tonnes of a US aid package which was meant to help with the construction of runways at Vientianes Wattary Airport to the monument. The monument now looks like it once was quite a spectacluar sight but has been left without much
Les Jardins De Van ViengLes Jardins De Van ViengLes Jardins De Van Vieng

The place we stayed in Van Vieng
care, inside there a few stalls selling all the tourist goods that you'd expect on the market stalls over the city, however the views you get of the city are pretty good and worth the 3,000 kips entry fee.

The next day we headed down to the Local bus station as we decided we'd travel with the locals to Van Vieng rather than the touist bus. Van Vieng is a small town surrounded by some picturesque countryside and mountains shooting straight out of the ground, which reminded us of Roraima in Venezuela. The town it's self is very toursty the main street is full of bars that show back to back series of Friends and a few other crappy Americain comedy shows.

With the weather as hot as it is, we strugggled to leave the comfort of the shade which just happened be in a bar. When we actually made it out we decided to use the main form of transport in Van Vieng, a small two wheel tractor with a trailer (as the roads of the town are still mainly unsurfaced it's probably the best way) and head off to expolre a cave near by which had
CavesCavesCaves

Inside Pouknam Cave
a small lagoon to swim in. The journey took us though the main village and paddy fields. The walk to the cave was steep and quite strenuous (well in this heat anyway). The cave went back about a kilometer into the mountain and had all the usual rock formations you would expect such as stalactites and stalacmites and being in South East Asia a relcining Buddah just in case you hadn't seen one for a while. After the best part of an hour walking around the cave we headed back down the mountain for a cool off in the swimming hole. After about half an hour the heavens opened and we jumped back on the tractor to head back to the saftey and comfort of the Bar.

The main reason people visit Van Vieng is to go tubing, a 7.5km stretch of river you just cruise down on a large inner tube stopping every now and again at bars built out of bamboo at the side with huge jumps and swings into the river. We'll add more photo's at a later date as the internet we're using at the moment is pretty crap.



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Just about everywhere shows the world cupJust about everywhere shows the world cup
Just about everywhere shows the world cup

Even the most unlikely of buildings have sky dishes and a TV
TubingTubing
Tubing

One of the bars on the tubing route with swings and jumping platforms
The mighty MekongThe mighty Mekong
The mighty Mekong

Luang Prabang


12th July 2006

Fantastic pics
Hi You two thanks for the update on Loas - the history lesson was pretty heavy for me as I have had a large glass of Califonian red at lunch time so i may need to read it all agin at a later date to take it in but the pictures were great - its really nice to see where you were when i last spoke to you. The Jardin place looks a lovely place to stay and relax and the scenery around the river looks stunning. we are currently using the emil curteousey of gareth wallis and we are sat in his lab at the University of Claifornia. He bunked off with us today and we gad intended to go to Alcatraz - but when we got to the ferry terminal she said it was booked until Thurs! Not a help as we fly tomorrow - wed - to the Cook Islands. gareth has just checked the weather there though and its peeing it down! Instead today we got the ferry across the bay to a place called Sausilito - quite pretty and it gave us a good view of Golden Gate and san Fran - plus we saw Pelicans and Sea Lions. We also had to spend some of the day shopping for a dress for me as we are invited to a ball on the first Friday we are there and the theme is dress to impress. I found loads to fit me which is a miricle. Found a lovely long black one which typically had a pull in it and was the on;y one - so we continued the search and I have a 3/4 one that is really unusual. Like a pale beige colour witha black meh over the top thats quite heavily beaded (reading that it doesnt sound so good - Ill send you a pic of us dressed up and you can decide!) Well we are off for a meal soon and are staying at Gareths place again tonight before heading off tomorrow evening. we fly at 6 ish to LA then an 11 hours stint to Raratonga - lets hope the weather improves there! we also have to stop off in town to pick up a suit that I bought which they are shortening for me in town. gareth also got a new suit - he looks really smart but all I can say is that its a good job we sold the house - it wasnt cheap and we also got new shoes each as well! we just checked our bank acc to ensure the house money was in there and I said to gareth that hed better take a look at our account balance as it will never be that fat again in our lives I think - but its all miss leading as of course it is all committed for currency, house and car etc. Although we were joking that we should just buy a small yatch and sail until the cash runs out! well Ill talk to you soon, once we get to the quest building where we will be for 6 weeks i will email you a number to call us on and then we can ring you back. Have a great time - enjoy every minute of the last stint. Miss you both. lots of Love from both of us xxx

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