Cosmo Vientiane

... but by this point, after trying out every position physically possible without insulting anyone, I&#8217;d find a couple of ways to get comfortable-ish. Again we arrived dry and on time. So overall my experience on the slow boat really wasn&#8217;t too bad and as expected the scenery made it worth it&#8230;.won&#8217;t be doing it again in a hurry though, I&#8217;ve proved I can hack roughing it, right?<br><br>I spent 5 days in Luang Prabang but ...

... Lao massage. This involved sacks of herbs being heated in what seemed like a rice steamer pan. This time I got to wear not surf shorts, but a full length soft cotton suit, long legs and long sleeves. The masseuse was a small stocky lady with a friendly face of about 45 years old. She had an expert's touch and was very focussed and concentrated and seemed to enjoy her work. It started out with the usual pressure points and ...

... place to stay, quite near the river but pretty quiet too.<br>The next 2 days were spent going in and out of the crowds and soaking up the atmosphere. On Sunday night (full moon) 1000's of people sent banana leaf/flower boats down he river with candles and incense in them, to mark the end of Buddhist lent. It was really pretty to watch and children were earning a few kip to swim out in to the current to send the boat away successfully.<br>We walked ...

... s a capital city it has a population of 200,000 and a very laid back feel. There is a huge Thai influence and the streets are filled with French bakeries, orange clad Buddhist monks and beautiful temples. The best thing however is the friendly attitude of all the local people, there is no hassle, no shouting from across the street at you and if you tell someone no, they respect it. We did have one shock in Vientiane however, at the nights the ...

... und papierduennen Waenden und oftmals ohne eigenes Badezimmer...Ganz anders als in Thailand, Kambodscha und Vietnam, wo man fuer 10$ ein anstaendiges bis sehr gutes Zimmer bekommt. <br><br>An unserem ersten Tag in Vientiane haben wir einen richtigen Tempelparcours hingelegt. Vom Wat Ong Teu Mahawihan und dem Wat Mixai zum Wat Hai Sok und dem Wat In Paeng. Nach einem kurzen Besuch im Schwimmbad und der Bowlinghalle sind wir dann ...

... on a tray ice while they drink their beer. At one point during the after race chat, the Aussie asked Sir Cum Navigator to do the Kiwi Pufter dance, which unbeknownst to me, was the New Zealand Haka. He did with passion and energy. It was really impressive, really really impressive. Numb Nuts and Sir Cum Navigator traded blows all night, they both sung their country's songs that degrade the other. It was fun watching the Australian-Kiwi rivalry at it's best.<br><br>Dinner was served but I ...

We decided to cross into Laos from Vietnam over the Lao Boh border (right at the old DMZ in Vietnam at the North and South divide). We'd heard too many horror stories about the border crossings up North, so we opted for the shortest and least problematic crossing. Everything worked out great as is just so happened that friends that we had met back in Indonesia (in Sumatra) were in the first town we arrived at in Laos. Savanaket is the third largest city in ...

We started our trip in Laos from the capital, Vientiane, where we flew straight from Siam Reap in Cambodia. We were expecting something similar to Cambodia, big traffic, no rules, thousands of motorcycles everywhere and people trying to sell you all sort of things at every corner but we've quickly realised that Laos is quite different from Cambodia, particularly in the capital. First of all, people smile less, a lot less! Second of all, the town is very well looked after, with ...

... to help it to 'develop'. The net effect of this is to transform it from a self-sufficient nation to one that relies on imported consumer goods. Hard currency will be needed to pay for these goods and this can only be gained, according to the priciple of competitive advantage by selling what you are best placed to, which in the case of Laos will be cheap labour and strip-mined raw materials.<br><br>Unless you count the nationl brewery, Laos has no manufacturing base; something ...