Don Chan Palace Vientiane

... food or have some different stuff while it's avaliable. Today I checked out a few temples and Pha That Luang, Laos national monument which was ok but not overly impressive. I climbed another monument type thing which gave some views over the city. So far the sights have been really cheap costing less that a dollar so lets hope that's the same throughout not like the other countries where prices become 20x if your a foreigner here they are just 2x as much.

... I travelled here. One of them was a Thai girl from Bangkok, named Al, who now works in Vientiane temporarily. So we arranged to meet up. She has an Icelandic girlfriend, it would have been nice to meet her too but she's in Iceland at the moment. <br>I had brunch at Joma's Cafe (yes that one with the great coffee and nice decor) and met up with Al there. We walked around town a bit, she doesn't know it that well yet either ...

... we hit the border. Traffic levels are down by about 95%. A tuk-tuk driver half asleep in a hammock slung in the back of his truck will ask 'Tuk-tuk?' and when you say no thanks he takes your word for it and goes back to sleep, rather than chasing you down the street a la Vietnam offering you everything under the sun (some of these drivers are very well connected!) same goes for markets - 'no' means 'no' here and it's wonderful.

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... i.e. churches, don't have a bit more bling or mythical creatures. I'm pretty sure attendence would sky-rocket if they were as jazzy and beautiful as the temples out here. (please do not burn me at the stake, I'm just speculating!) Tomorrow we are having a pool day simply because we are roasting from today and I'm pretty sure Dave will wither up to a prune type object if he sweats anymore. So onto Cambodia the next day, and will have hit 3 out of the 4 countries!

... cars along side the road. I wasn't going to push it if she didn't. She never did and I was content with running along side her across the finish line.<br><br>I believe some people ran that hash just to partake in the events that followed. After everyone had about thirty minutes to catch our breath, or in my case clean up a wound. They called us into a circle. This is when the camaraderie really began. Through the sense of humor that I spoke of earlier, they get everyone to chug beer by ...

... signs starting with &#8220;rue&#8221; tell you the silver lining of Vientiane is still semi-european. As I walked I realized that by the time I leave these little family run stands may disappear and the entire bank could be nothing but dirt. It is amazing how things are replaced in the name of modernity or motivated for tourism. I don&#8217;t know if a European park as a riverbank will create a surge in tourism, but I am positive that the money would be better served ...

... decent French cuisine for less than $5 here along with pastries and desserts and some of the best coffee in the world. They even have their own Arc De Triomphe replica. Also, the roads are paved, there are stone sidewalks, and a lot more people drive cars, which definitely makes things less hectic, although I noticed I actually have to wait to cross a street. I think I'm going to spend a couple more days here just eating and relaxing before taking off again. <br><br>

... able to go into in any depth - and I'm not even going to try. It is very instructive and depressing to read up on this era in history.<br><br>One of the main legacies of this war in Laos is the sheer number of unexploded bombs (called UXO or unexploded ordinance) left lying around. It is thought that 130 Lao civilians are killed each year by UXO, mostly in the eastern provinces. Forty percent of these people are children, who find the bombs and play with them, but a larger ...