Louang Prabang is a nice little village situated on a peninsular at the confluence of the Mekong and some other river. A world heritage city apparently. The french must have hated giving the place up. No scummy alleyways here. Just quaint little paved lanes and tidy villas. Except the villas are now inhabited by Lao families and have ducks n chickens n stuff in the yard. The locals race their dragon boats up and down the Mekong. They get a good speed up too considering the impressive flow of one of the worlds great rivers. The Lao people don't seem to work a lot, I dunno if its a holiday or whether they always sit around drinking beers and playing that game with steel balls that you thow in the sand. The game the 'Whare' tried to sell to the nation. Phousie mountain is cool. Its a small hill with temples on right in town. Nice little rocky out crops and little shrines. They've got a buddha footprint. Seems to be a fixation over here. Every country must have their own buddha foot print! Except the Buddha would have to be about 30 feet tall to make such a print.
Vang Vieng was pleasing enough that I stayed for almost a week. I checked out one of the caves and got a dire warning from some german girls walking out. "You should take a guide or you'll die!" Pah, We Kiwis don't need no damn guide. The caves were ok, a cave is a cave. I had a bit of a look around. The problem with caves is they're so quiet I realise how bad my ears ring. Makes the outdoors all that much better though. There was a nice little out crop in front of the cave, partway up the mountain so I did some really excellent Qigong while admiring the scenery. One could procure themself poppy tea and and other organic substances, direct from the bar. If one was so inclined. We tried to watch the rugby... saw 5 mins of the second half before it got scrambled. Neil at the guesthouse reckoned it does this all the time. Lao TV company probably didnt pay the bill.
The trip to Louang Prabang took about 6 hours and wound itself through some impressive scenery. Enough to rival NZ actually. Massive mountains enshrouded in clouds. Huge cliffs. There was one I really wanted to climb. It had 'climb me' written all over it. Some fulla crashed his hilux off the road and we all stood around looking, as you do. Could see an indicator and a bumper a bit further down. The vehicle was probably a hundred meters down in the jungle.
We stopped in a small village for refreshments. There was a dude casually wandering around with an AK slung over his shoulder. Didn't look army either. I wanted to take his photo but figured if I asked he'd probably just take my camera and if I took a photo surreptitious like, he'd shoot me. It took all the restraint I could muster not to ask though. Two tourists got killed on that road back in 2003 apparently, got robbed. tried to run... Saw an army check point along a bit further with a machine gun pointing up the road.
Laos is choice. I could write lots about it but can't be bothered. Too busy enjoying the place. Got a 2 day slow boat ride up the Mekong starting tomorrow to get to the Thai border. The great race is on, must get to Singapore before the 30th!
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