Vientiane (+Photos)
Posted on August 4, 2007
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Vientiane is the capital of Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Laos is pronounced with a silent S and rhyme with bow (as in take a bow) or ka-pow. Like most countries with ‘Democratic’ in their name it’s not. It’s a communist state, and one of the least free in the world.
We spent 3 nights in Vientiane. It’s a pleasant enough town, though pretty grimy in spots. We had various errands to take care of, laundry, buying a new camera cable (I left it in Vang Vieng,) and buying the new Harry Potter book.
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More Luang Prabang Photos
Posted on July 31, 2007
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We had a few photos left on the camera from Luang Prabang that we didn’t get uploaded while we were there. They are after the jump.
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Rollin on a River
Posted on July 30, 2007
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So the main reason we finally decided to go to Vang Vieng was that we’d heard from absolutely every source that one of life’s great pleasures is riding an innertube down the Nam Song river on a lazy afternoon. Being experts on water sports that involve being transported to a spot upstream and then drifting downstream on some kind of craft while drinking copious amounts of beer (Trinity River tubing, Russian River canoeing), we wanted to try out the Laos version and see how it compared.
Retiring the Tevas
Posted on July 30, 2007
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My Teva flip-flops are coming to the end of their useful life. These have been, by far, the most comfortable pieces of footwear I have ever owned. They came into my possession in August 2004, in Portland, Oregon, after the wedding of Ali and Ryan Wing, who gave them as a groomsmen gift, to change in to after the ceremony. It was a great call on their part, the reception was much more pleasant from the vantage point of a pair of comfy tevas than the hard leather shoes that came with the rented tuxedo.
The One Where We Went to Vang Vieng (+Photos)
Posted on July 30, 2007
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Vang Vieng, Laos is apparently one of those places that divides travelers pretty evenly between those who love it and those who hate it. Known as Laos’s ‘chill-out town’, its main attractions seem to be abundant weed/shrooms & cheap pizza or breathtaking natural beauty & outdoor activity depending entirely on who you talk to or what guidebook you read. Lonely Planet’s scathing denouncement of the place dwells on the fact that every restaurant in town seems to have burned a pirated “Friends” DVD and has the same 6 episodes in constant rotation (Mark Elliot’s Graphic Traveler’s Guide to SE Asia also mentions the Friends phenomenon). The Rough Guide is a little kinder and stresses that despite the Friends thing, the scenery surrounding VV is some of the most gorgeous in all of SE Asia. So we were really in a quandary as to whether or not we should go. We changed our minds something like 4 times about it! But ultimately, since it was on the way to Vientiane (Laos’s capital city and somewhere we definitely had to go to get me more passport pages at the American embassy), we had to kill some weekend days, and because we’d heard they had really rad tubing down the river there, we decided to go.
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We Heart Luang Prabang! (+Photos)
Posted on July 26, 2007
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We arrived in Luang Prabang with great excitement. We’d heard it was a cosmopolitan city - we’d heard tell of french colonial buildings and baguettes with ham and cheese - everyone loved it and said they’d extended their stay. Even the Lonely Planet guide wasn’t jaded and world weary when it came to LP. But would it live up to expectations? Could two people who’d just spent 8 years in one of the world’s most beautiful cities realllllly be impressed???
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Down the Mekong (+Photos)
Posted on July 26, 2007
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When we were planning our trip all of the guide books listed as a highlight the slow boat down the Mekong from the Thai border crossing of Chiang Khong, and the Laos border town of Houai Xai, via Pakbeng to Luang Prabang. So we should have expected the throngs of ‘falangs’ that greeted us in Houai Xai early on Saturday morning.
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Geckos Chirp
Posted on July 24, 2007
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I did not know that until about 2 minutes ago when I googled it after hearing a very loud chirp from the corner of our room. It’s 11:45pm and I’m working on some photos on my loptop. Scared the crap out of me.
Shame I didn’t count the chirps, because 7 is very very lucky apparently.