Green Park Boutique Vientiane

... it being able to do the same trip in only 6 hours as apposed to 2 days, after hearing even worse reports than the slow boat - the fact that they give you life jackets and crash helmets really isn’t a good sign! So we crossed the Mekong river in a little boat, passed through Immigration surprisingly quickly, jumped on a tuk tuk which was waiting to take us to a little restaurant which did very nice pancakes and then subsequently found we were the ...

... I wanted to leave. So those guys of Al's office had driven out for nothing, basically and I felt a bit embarassed. <br><br> That afternoon Al went back to work and I wandered around town a bit but it's not a very welcoming, pleasant city, just widespread and smelly (at first sight at least). It's crawling with expats: foreigners working and living here. Lots of white people in suits, with laptops. <br>Also a few dubious ...

... hours, our bags were hurled up on to the roof and we hopped in.<br>We were pleased to have our Thai cushions with us, to soften the benches, and prayed the whole way that it would not rain as our bags would get soaked!!<br>Surrounded by people- as many as could squeeze in, and trying to look away as they were throwing up left right and centre (although very quietly/discreetly!!) we were glad to finally arrive in Vientiane. Glad to arrive without a drop of ...

... stalls and Buddhist wots dotted about. We spent a few days here, exploring the city and hiring bicycles to see the surrounding countryside. There's a curfew in Laos, where all residents have to be in their homes by 12, so everything closes at 12, however we managed to find the one place open later than that...the bowling alley!<br><br>Next was on to Vang Vieng, a town famous for its tubing... We had so much fun doing this, I ...

... the middle of a huge thunder storm. We had to wade from the bus with our bags to the bus terminal through ankle deep water. When we got there we were immediately pounced upon by a tuk tuk driver asking if we wanted a ride into the centre. We said no as we hadn&#8217;t booked a hostel and didn&#8217;t fancy searching for one in the rain at 3am. Something amazing happened, the driver not only accepted our answer, he also helpfully pointed out the ...

... of water but fooled him because the lid was still on. But then smudge did exactly the same but with the lid off which left Dom soaked. After a couple of attempts Dom eventually managed to get his revenge on smudge but smudge rather liked the cool refreshing water and wished Dom poured it on his red hot bald head!!<br><br>The group then split in two to have a gander for lunch. The group ...

... or a fork in a trail, sometimes it split into 2 ways, sometimes 3 or more. I had no problem running forward to see if the trail continued that way or if there were an X. If there were an X, that means that the trail does not go that way and you have to turn around and run back while notifying the group that it was the incorrect way by way of making an X with you arms. Sign language is used because sometimes you run further than your voice can carry before you realize that you've gone ...

we took the overnight train from bangkok and arrived at the thai - laos boarder early we made it to vientiane in record time and settled in our hotel went for some lunch and then visted the budda park outside of town which has a collection of wierd budda statues, we then went to the verticle runway a replica of the arc de triumph which they built with money given to them by the french to build an airport. in the evening ...

... capital Vientianne, I went south to the little town of Savannakhet. This is not a great or exciting town. It does not have beautiful sights or anything of particular interest, but it is here I had one of the most memorable times on my trip. I was fortunate to get to know some locals and from here I shared breakfast with the monks of the temple, had dinner by the river with the locals, explored the countryside, met rural families and even ended up ...

... these 'products' were being tested in Laos for later use in Afghanistan, Cambodia and more recently Iraq and Serbia.<br><br>http://www.itvs.org/bomb ies/bombs.html<br><br>(beware - the above link contains disturbing pictures)<br><br>This UXO has put large sections of land off limits to peasants returning to their land after the war. Laos has a small population (four and a half million, growing at 3.5%) so the pressures on land have not been too great - until now. Since the fall of ...