Paris, Laos

---

Sorry to all of you reading this thinking what the bejesus is going on about these dates, but I am new to this online travel journey malarchy, and have not really worked it out as yet. Anyway, here is the next installment dating from the 22nd November (Happy Birthday Joel!) but written on the 5th December.

Tuesday 22nd November - Saturday 26th November
Vientiane - Si Phan Don ("The Four Thousand Islands")

In Vientiane, after a blissful nights sleep in clean sheeted beds, we wander to the morning market to see what all the brouhaha is about. It is huge. That just about covers it. It is huge and is split into various sections according to what the various shops specialise in. For instance there is a jewellry section, split into sub-divisions of bling gold and antiquey silver, where Amy bought herself a bangle and a little elephant charm to go on her charm bracelet that sits patiently in a drawer at home. Then there is the clothing section, but as it is a market predominantly for locals, doesn't satisfy our hunger for tacky souvenir clothing and Beer Lao tshirts. Finally, of interest to us, is the electronics section: and I, through clever walking away mid-bartering and showing interest in another shop, manage to secure a 512mb memory card for the camera for $45 (wasn't sure whether this was a good deal until we got to Vietnam and saw them for no cheaper than $50). We carried on up the Lao version of the Champs Elysees until the Lao version of the Arc de Triomphe (Patuxai), which, it has to be said, although impressive, is uuuuuuugly. However, we decided to climb up it, and, dodging the market stalls that have set themselves up half way up the stairs selling those tacky souvenirs that we all love, we got to the top and managed to get a good perspective of the city. At first when we arrived it didn't look much like a capital city, with open drains and distinct lack of bustling traffic, but gazing upon the wide and green avenue and the office blocks that flanked it, and the concrete monstrosity of a centre-piece that we were standing on, we decided it would pass as a city. Lao-style. We met up with Sanj and Antje to go and see That Luang, the emblem of Laos - featured on the majority of its currency. The gold stupa, surrounded by 30 mini stupas, shimmered in the dusk light, and you could see how this culture, that prides itself so valiantly on ancestor worship, could take such an overblown, bling yet beautiful, memorial to one of its former rulers as its national symbol. That evening we went out for a meal on Amy's parents. They had very kindly offered to buy us a meal in every country - partly so that we could experience good local food, but more, I think, so they knew we would be eating properly at least once every few weeks. We decided on a French run Creperie called Ty-Nan (figuring that Laos was kind of French, so French food was kind of a local speciality) - and gormandised on three delicious courses, topped of with a carafe of house, French, wine. The bill came to a little under 18 pound, so I don't think that Hilary and Martin will think that we took their kind offer seriously! Afterwards we met up with Sanj and Antje for a farewell drink in Sticky Fingers, a European run bar just round the corner from our guest house.
After meeting up with the crew for breakfast, we headed out to what the RG called Laos' quirkiest attraction - The Buddha park. It basically consisted of hundreds of ferro-concrete sculptures of gods and deities from the Buddhist and Hindu Pantheons (mmm, I did Latin and Greek at Uni, so I guess the plural should be something else), constructed and collected in a peaceful garden in a riverside location. It was quite serene, and necessarily peaceful after the tuk-tuk ride out there. On the way back we could spot the Friendship Bridge - a Thai-Australian collaboration that connects Laos to Thailand. On the way back we got dropped off at Wat Sisaket, the only temple to avoid the Siamese sacking in the late 19th century, which was, I'm sorry to say, the same as just about every other temple just not as restored. We had our final sunset drink overlooking the Mekong, and managed to fit in another game of cards before getting the overnight bus to Pakxe. We decided, once again, to go for the slightly cheaper option, and unfortunately, compared to the more expensive versions, which were parked gloatingly, beside us, we got a bit of a bum deal. Oh well, the funny old Laotian next to me was sure to keep me amused/drive me insane over the next 12 or so hours.
The latter was the case. 12 hours later, with a little over 53 minutes of sleep thanks to the old Laotian dying voluminously in my right ear, we arrived in the dawn light into Pakxe. We, or maybe I should say I, had decided that an overnight stop here was necessary in order to plan our overland crossing into Vietnam for a few days later, and also to recover from the overnight journey. However, after looking at a few guest houses in Pakxe, and deciding that there was absolutely nothing worth staying for, we decided that another four hours on a bus to get to our final planned destination would not kill us. The lack of help and knowledge afforded to us by the "travel agencies" in Pakxe might have done though. They had no idea whether we could get a bus to Dong Khong in the "4000 islands" or not, and they certainly didn't comprehend our query as to whether we could get a bus back from there in a few days time and catch a connecting bus to Savannakhet (from where we were due to get a bus across to Vietnam). Finally, after convincing ourselves that where we were dropped off by the tuk-tuk man was actually a bus station, and convincing the bus boy that we were only going to pay the published price of 30,000 Kip, not $5 for our ticket, we settled in for a relaxing local bus experience. I know that you think that now I am going to say "but, oh no!, it was not so relaxing", but we had plenty of room, a couple of seats to ourselves, and after the initial worry over the safety of our bags, had no problems with that either. We crossed the Mekong to get onto Don Khong using a very interesting method. The bus drove onto a floating pontoon of sorts, and then a little tug boat struggled to push us across the fairly fast-flowing river. It had a few moments of difficulty, and the whole pontoon lurched as we drove off on the other side, but we had arrived safe and sound. After deciding on a GH (called, imaginatively, Don Khong GH), we settled in nicely and went for another Lap.
Over the next couple of days we did exactly what we had gone all the way down there to do: relax. The GH was very comfortable, with a nice covered patio seating area, and friendly staff. Also the restaurant we frequented most, called Pon's, was friendly and served delicious food onto a balcony perching over the river. After catching up on the 16 days of diary entries I had missed out on, we had chance to read, recuperate and kill red-ants. Everyones idea of fun. Moments of note were: We decided the island specialities of Lao-Lao cocktail and fish steamed in a banana leaf for 2 hours until it, according to RG, had the consistency of custard. The former was OK, but I'm not too keen on whisky, even when it is blended with honey and ice, but the latter was a lot tastier than expected, tasting a bit like green thai curry fish, and not really like a fishy custard at all. Also on the second day we decided to rent bikes and go on the 20km bike ride round the southern part of the island. We got a little lost and didn't really enjoy our stop at the port on the other side of the island, but the scenery was pretty spectacular: buffalos and paddy fields on one side, palm trees and muddy water on the other, and it was extremely enjoyable to feel the wind through our hair and the blood pumping through our legs. Needless to say we were knackered afterwards, and I couldn't sit down comfortabley for days. We toyed with the idea of going on a boat trip down to a few more of the other 4000 islands, and to go freshwater dolphin (Irrawady dolphin) spotting, but with the mixed reports received, and the lethargic mood we had got ourselves into, decided that the balcony was far more appealing.

---