Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Laos


Laos is quite a country to meet it seemed to be a combination of beauty, overwhelming heat, 3rd world, rugged and sort of grasping at the tourism straws that surrond it with its neigboring countries.

We spent 2 weeks here and covered Vietienne, Vang Vieng, Phonosavan and Luang Prabang. There is only 1 road in the country and getting between places is no joke. We sat through some very long and windy bus rides. The majority of the locals seem to get car sick, so they puke in a plastic bag and then chuck it out the bus window. 8 hours of this is really unbeliavalbe!!!




Tubing in Vang Vieng was FUN!




















This little swindler name is Lynn and is 5 years old. In perfect english she asked me my name, how old I am, where I am from...all the important stuff to use in demanding me to come to "her bar". Very sad...these little kids are put to work from the day they can walk. Her job was to pull tourists off the river and bring them to her familys bar. When we refused she then belted out a series of bad words at us. She is 5.




This was a day trip to float through some caves












Local Lao transportation. We opted for the local busses instead of the tourist busses because the windows open. Very important when everybody is getting sick.












From Vang Vieng we took a side trip (8 hours out of the way) to Phonosavan. This is a town that went through quite a bit during the Vietnam war and was severely bombed by the US. Interesting place to be an American....We spent the time here looking at these weird jars that nobody knows for sure how they got here.























































Luang Prabang, this was my favorite stop in Laos. We really enjoyed our time here swimming in waterfalls, shopping at the great night market and just enjoying not riding a bus for a few days.

This was also our first sighting of the Mekong River (I think it was...now, I dont remember if we saw it somewhere else).






us, not sure if the self timer was working. The waterfalls here were incredible, probably the best ones I have ever swum in. We spent 2 days here and it would be a reason to go back!




















Our final morning in Laos, we got up early (no easy feat) and fed the monks their daily food. They go around towns at 6:00 am to collect all the food they will eat during the day. We handed out sticky rice and bananas.

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