BeerLao BeerLao!

---

Once upon a time, when I was planning my trip way back when, Laos wasn't even in the equation at all. Then, a little later, I thought it might be fun to take the train to Vietnam and was going to pass straight through Laos without really paying much attention. But once I got to Australia everyone I met that had visited Laos said it was the most amazing place they had ever been. So clearly I had to go. And it turns out that it was amazing.

Dad and I crossed the border in the evening, so there wasn't a whole lot to do before town shut down. We did, however, manage to find the cafe that one of his old old co-worker's had helped establish as part of a social development project. They made really good salad. The next morning we boarded a slow boat on the Mekong River that was bound for Luang Prabang. The trip takes 2 days and can be incredibly uncomfortable since the only seats are rickety wooden benches. You could pay $3 extra for comfy airplane-style seats, which we did, but the company overbooked (surprise surprise) and we ended up we a wooden bench with pillows. Oh well.

Scenery down the Mekong is beautiful. There isn't a lot to do on the boat - it's roughly 6 hours the first day and 8 hours the second day - so we brought books and iPods and just watched the world go by. We spent the night in a nowhere town named Pak Beng, where everyone is dependent on the tourists coming off the boat to make a living and electricity only lasts 4 hours a day, and good luck trying to find a hot shower. But we had a really good meal and the guest house owners were lovely, so we actually really liked it. The second morning the two boats that had left the border at the same time combined onto one larger boat, but it was still a little cramped. The nature on the banks of the Mekong is amazing. Little villages pop up just about everywhere, separated by dense jungle and staggering cliff faces. The jutting rock formations aren't as spectacular as those in southern Thailand (I'm told), but I was pretty impressed.

In Luang Prabang we found ourselves a guest house and then just wandered around town and had dinner, going to bed fairly early. It's amazing how tired it can make you doing nothing. The next day was going to be our only full day in Luang Prabang, so we did everything we could think of. First we visited Tad Se waterfall and splashed around a little. In the afternoon we visited some of the most famous Wats and had a Lao massage at the Red Cross, which was fantastic. After the sunset we went to watch some traditional dancing at the Palace. We went to bed early because dad had bought bus tickets for the next day to Vang Vieng that meant we had to leave the guest house at 5am. I wasn't all that impressed, but oh well.

Vang Vieng was my idea. It's claim to fame is an extraordinarily calm river that tourists ride down on rubber inner tubes. Its a backpacker town mostly, lots of young people, but I desperately wanted to go tubing and dad obliged. I had the most fantastic time - you rent a tube and a tuk tuk drops you off about 5 km upriver and then you jump in and off you go. There are 7 bars along the banks that will pull you in if you want to get a drink; we stopped at 2. There are also slides and rope swings, which dad was brave enough to try and I was not. By the time we exited the river in town we had been floating for 6 hours. The town itself is a strange sight. The tables at every restaurant are set up so that patrons can face the TV's that are playing a constant loop of either 'Friends' or 'The Simpsons'. Once the sun goes down the loud music starts pumping and backpackers fill up the various bars along the river until well after midnight.

We took a bus to Vientiane after two wonderful nights in Vang Vieng. We wished we could have stayed longer, but there are too many other things to see. We're only staying one night in Vientiane because its kind of boring, so after we arrived around lunch time we visited the Buddha Park, which was highly unusual, and some more wats. The most interesting part of our visit was finding legitimate semlar at the Scandinavian cafe. It tasted fantastic.

Vientiane is our last stop in Laos. We booked a flight from Vientiane to Phnom Pehn in Cambodia because thats the fastest way to get there and time is not on our side. It makes me sad to leave because I liked the country so much more than I thought I would. I can't wait to come back one day.

---

Photos

Backgammon
playing a game on the slow boat with Jake, an American I met.