Vientiane is the sleepy laid back capital of Laos. It's a tiny town not really worth the moniker of "city" but quite easy going and full of travellers. It is certainly part of what the Lonely Planet guidebooks calls the "Banana Pancake Trail". I walked everywhere as usual, and ended up walking around 15 km in total to see the usual sights such as Vientiane 's imitation of the Parisian Arc-de-Triumph fused to an Asian style ... they call it the Patuxai, Pha That Luang, which is a golden coloured Wat featured on all official Lao memorabilia including the Royal Seal, stamps, Postcards, etc., and walked along the Mekong River watching the locals and the monks. The sky was cloudy and rained now and again ... but, that's the price of travelling in the "off-season" eh. ... read more

On the road... read more

I think you'll figure out why I called this entry trash talk. The talk part is a T-shirt slogan I read on the street, but wasn't quick enough to snap a shot of it. The T-shirt said, "Art is what the artist can get away with." The pictures are of various trash bin disguises and the occasional road sign.... read more

The pictures don't do it justice. You have to see it for yourself. Besides that, though the sky was cloudy, it was neither too hot nor too cold and in many ways the overcast sky made the two days in Halong Bay quite enjoyable. Slept on the boat after swimming (and jumping off the boat) around sunset. Woke up early the next morning for the sunrise, but alas, due to the clouds, we didn't get to see the actual sunrise. We went kayaking too. There is an island called monkey island, because monkeys are supposed to live on it, though we did not see any. There's a giant cave on that island with stalactites and stalagmites that were spectacular, especially considering the hundreds of people who were traipsing through. ... read more

Ho Chi Minh and the French agreed to a DMZ, first along the 17th parallel and later changed to 10 km each side of the Ben Hai river that flows close enough to the 17th parallel. After all, it's much easier to see the river than some imaginary line on a map. Since the French didn't hold elections in the South as they promised, presumably because Uncle Ho most likely would have won, the DMZ only stayed a DMZ for a couple of years. The Ben Hai river did become the frontier between the North and South, but it was not De-Militarized. After the French left the South, the US "military advisers" who followed chose various high points along this area to set up combat operations and firebases. The US Marines first set up at what ... read more