Blogs from Laos, Asia - page 8

One airstrip, two stupas, three caves and more prosthetic limbs than we wanted to count This summer we spent five weeks in Southeast Asia. We travelled in four countries and we will here on the blog begin our story where we began the journey, in Laos. July and August aren't the best months of the year to travel in Southeast Asia. The time of the year we Europeans call "summer" they in Laos, Vietnam and Thailand call "the wet season". In Myanmar the same time of the year could with justification be described as "the monsoon period" and that explains why we never went there. Well, although it was the wet season we have to say that we were lucky with the weather. It rained a few days but since we were away for five weeks ... read more

For anyone who has not been, Vang Vieng in Laos is a must go to especially if you love action packed activities, nature activities, and great street food. This was my second stop in Laos. From Vientiane, I hopped onto a minivan which I booked the night before at my hostel and took that to Vang Vieng. The drive itself was more just long than anything else. When I arrived in Vang Vieng I spent a good amount of time walking back and forth trying to find my little bungalow which was of my favourite places to stay while I was travelling. I really enjoyed having my own little oasis where I could relax and unwind after such a busy time in my life in China and constantly being among hustle and bustle. This Riverside Garden ... read more

Woolly says – We seem to have walked a lot in Vientiane, so I thought I would be kind to the women and let them take a tuk tuk to our first stop of the day. Without a cloud in the sky it was a lovely breezy ride, it was easy to see the large gold structure from a mile away, as we pulled into the carpark I jumped out eager to take a closer look at Pha That Luang. Very much a case of the ‘royal we’ as I haven’t noticed the mammoth’s paws doing much in the way of walking! Woolly says – Originally built as a Hindu temple in the 1st century, Pha That Luang became a Buddhist temple after missionaries from the Mauryan Empire arrived in the 3rd century with ... read more

Woolly says – We’d had a slightly later start to the day, our huge breakfast needed to be walked off and feeling that we had got to grips with Vientiane I set off with confidence. Passing many of the places that we had seen yesterday it didn’t take long to arrive at the Cope Visitor centre, not maybe your usual touristy type of thing but one that we had all wanted to go to. Set up in 1996, COPE’s work has helped thousands of people with mobility related disabilities, including UXO survivors which now have access to prosthetic and orthotic services, allowing them to regain mobility and dignity. A very nice young lady greeted us at the door and told us to ask anything we wanted to before directing us into the cinema room. The video ... read more

The world is full of strange and wondrous things. Mud flaps don’t usually make the list, but the ones on the tuk tuks in Luang Prabang, Laos are adorned with the unmistakable image of Rambo. This may not be wondrous, but it is definitely strange. Rambo is a classic American hero archetype -- a self-reliant, super-individualistic, gratuitously violent, gunslinger outlaw. In the movie (First Blood part 2), Rambo is sent back to Vietnam on a top secret recon mission. In an orgy of carnage, Rambo wipes away the humiliation of defeat in Vietnam, vanquishes hordes of VC and some villainous Russian commies, and reasserts America’s Cold War awesomeness. It is morning in Reagan’s America, and Rambo is the great anti-communist avenging angel. America loves it. It’s less clear what the Laotians find desirable. Lao’s People’s Democratic ... read more