Lovely, lovely Laos (15th Jan - 1st Feb)

After the chaos of Vietnam, Laos came as a wonderful break. We arrived first in Savannakhet which was a sleepy town in Southern Laos and were surprised and pleased by the lack of falange's (white people). We then headed straight to Vientiane, the capital, which we found to be quiet, clean, really friendly and wealthy - we even saw a brand new Aston Martin! We met up with some friends and spent the days enjoying the sunshine and walking around without being hassled constantly.

We then moved onto Vang Vieng, otherwise known as the party town of Laos, and we could see why. Surrounded by amazing limestone rock formations, beautiful countryside and deep, dark caves were the tubing bars. We didn't actually go tubing, which consists of sitting in a tractor tyre and floating down the river stopping at the river bars and getting more and more drunk and seemingly wearing less and less clothes. We did however sample the buckets at the bars.......

The beautiful limestone rock formations in Vang Vieng

The tubing bars

The famous bucket

Whilst in Vang Vieng we also hired bikes, and I finally learnt to ride a moped courtesy of Marc's excellent (and very patient) instruction. We also had an electrical fire in our room which was pretty frightening, thankfully we were there at the time so didn't loose the few belongings we have.


On to Luang Phabang next which is really pretty and has an excellent evening market and good local outdoor food.

Then onto Louang Namtha where we went on an eco-trek through the jungle and stayed in a 'homestay' which consisted of a very rustic wooden shack with grubby blankets. It was a fantastic trek, passing through hilltribe villages and seeing how the real mountain people lived; they were very poor but always had smiles on their faces. I was terrified of the leeches but was spared from the blood suckers on this occassion, unfortunately Marc wasn't so lucky and still has five little puncture marks on his ankle to prove it.

A rustic lunch whilst trekking

This old lady was weaving a bag, smoking a pipe and looking after her grandson (who was attached to her back), needless to say her teeth were black and rotten from the nicotine.

We left Laos with very happy hearts; such a stunning and peaceful place, so very friendly, and so untainted by tourism, somewhere I think we will definitely return.