Leaving Laos...

---

Hello all from Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

Since our last blog we have seen some of the highlights of sleepy Laos and really enjoyed the laid back feel of the place and the very friendly people.

We left Thailand with a true Thai sight - a man with an enormous cart full of live crickets jumping and crawling around and people happily buying bags of them to throw in their stir fry that evening - they seemed to find it very funny that we were intrigued by them doing so!

After crossing from Thailand into Laos by a tiny long boat ferry across the Mekong river we went for a little bit of luxury on a two day cruise down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. The scenery was beautiful as we chugged genteelly along the river stopping at a couple of villages along the way and sipping English tea under the verandah. We met some real characters and, given the cost of the cruise, they were definitely not your typical backpackers! There was a great older couple from Hammersmith who were (in their minds) slumming it on the luxury boat, some English honeymooners and most entertaingly, a 73 year old South African (complete with the "endearing" racism that South Africans seem to so proudly possess) who had left his wife behind as she complained too much about his snoring! Great company for a couple of days and a very civilised evening in a lodge en route with views over the Mekong river.

After a brief stop at a cave full of hundreds of old Buddha images we arrived at Luang Prabang, which is a very attractive little place with some great wats, a lovely palace and a lot of tourists. We also saw a fantastic procession of easily 100+ monks at 6am one day - they walk down the main street collecting food gifts from the faithful every day. Worth the early start to see it!

What really made Luang Prabang for us though was the Laos new year water fight! The Laos people go absolutely crazy for 3 days over their new year. Everyone is in the streets for the whole of daylight hours, firing water pistols and throwing whole buckets of water over people's heads! Tourists do not escape the treatment so every time we left our guest house we had to be prepared to be absolutely drenched! It really is a bizarre sight as a smiling Laotian runs up to you with a bucket of water shouting happy new year as they pour it over your head! We had a great view of the spectacle from our balcony in our guest house and watched the reveleries below us - by that time hundreds of open trucks were processing through the streets with up to 20 Laos people in the back of each throwing water at those on the road side and being drenched themselves! We enjoyed the show so much we managed to get locked out of our room!!

We left the madness of Luang Prabang behind for a brief stop in Vang Vieng - a bizarre little town with some impressive caves nearby and some extreme sport options (which, given the accompanying extreme heat of nearly 40 degrees we decided might not be a good idea...). The town sadly seems to have lost its soul a bit as tourists have flocked in and the main street has a string of cafes which show Friends, Family Guy or the Simpsons on constant loop. They are filled with reclining seats and the backpackers all lie back and watch their preferred American show to avoid the heat! Very odd (although of course we had to have a go just to check what it was like....).

We have just spent a few days in the capital, Vientiane, which we have really enjoyed. It's very French given its colonial past with wide sweeping boulevards, baguettes and even their version of the arc de triomphe! Again, some impressive wats and also a very interesting history of Laos in their national museum. We now understand the Laos prejudice against the French and Amercians a little more - the only subjects which seem to wake them from their otherwise peaceful demeanour. It has been pretty hot here (upper 30s every day) so we have been getting up fairly early to do most of our wandering around before the heat of the day (in fact, our alarm has been set for earlier than it used to be to get us up for work - sympathy please!).

We've had some great food here as well including nemneung (pork sausages which you wrap in a lettuce leaf with green mango and chilli sauce - delicious!) and an excellent French meal on the main square last night which cost a fraction of the price back home.

Other highlights of Vientiane have been the Buddha Park (a field about an hour's bumpy bus ride from here which contains hundreds of statues of Buddha and Hindhu Gods and various combinations of them), 10 pin bowling with locals (including meeting an amicable German chap called Chris Hoffman - bowling name obviously "The Hoff" - who holds the local record score of 299, 11 strikes in a row then a 9), seeing a 2m long lizard sun bathing on the street and (for Louise at least!) going to the gym!

We are a little sad to say goodbye to Laos which given us a very chilled out week or two but can't wait to get to Hanoi this afternoon to explore Vietnam...

---