Le Parasol Blanc Vientiane

... incredibly laid back almost to the point where you&#8217;re having to chase them for their business. Don&#8217;t be surprised when they answer their mobile phone in the middle of taking your order at a restaurant or you have to get the tuk tuk driver out of his hammock to take you somewhere. Well I&#8217;ve got my Vietnam visa sorted so next stop is Hanoi in North Vietnam. The only hitch is I&#8217;ve got a 24 hour bus journey to get me there. Valium is at the ready!<br>

... Laos. Met a couple of guys(Simon-England, Fransisco-Spain) at our hotel who invited us out for drinks. Ended the night with them and a group of others watching a really good Laos band.<br><br>Oct 20- Just got word that Chris is coming to Laos now as well! The plan was that he was going to stay in Vietnam for a job that will start in December. He's decided now to try to stretch his money to travel until that time.<br><br>Oct 21 ...

... massive. You could walk around the inside of it and get onto the roof of it. The centre of the spherically structure contained little rooms with more statues. Weird place to say the least. We then headed back to the city and got a puncture on the way. Was fixed within a couple of minutes as there are puncture repair shops all over the place.. and so there should be with the amount of motorbikes here. <br>

... to any other market where we've been shouted at "You buy from Me !!". In Cambodia the only cars we saw were Toyota Camrys - there were thousands of them, here we've seen all sorts, Lamborghini's to beetles.<br><br>The enduring symbols of Laos for us will be yummy sticky rice, served in bamboo dishes and Beerlao. Everywhere sells beerlao, we drove passed the Beerlao brewery and saw walls of crates ready for dispatch. Perhaps that's why everyone's asleep ?!<br> <br>

... happened, and it gives me a good excuse to go back to Chiang Mai. Wes and Savin have really rolled out the red carpet for me and couldn't be more hospitable. They make me feel like family, hell we pretty much are. He's known my family for more than 20 years. It's good to be in good hands and they've done an amazing job of introducing me to the Lao culture which I completely love. A culture that enjoys spicy foods, meat, beer, and relaxing is a culture that I can get used to.<br><br>Oh ...

... north to Vang Vieng. Here, we found where all of the &#8216;falang&#8217; (tourists) had been hiding out. Under normal circumstances this might not have been our cup of tea, but we really hadn&#8217;t seen too many tourist infested towns in a while, so we ate it up. The big draw in Vang Vieng is the river tubing. They have set-up numerous bars along the banks of the river with all kinds of insane rope-swings, zip lines, slides, etc., for drunk tourist ...

Saturday 16th of May and we sadly left our favourite baguette and shake lady in Vang Vieng (who had a baby who did a crazy scary face). We grabbed a last quick breakfast from her and jumped on a tuk tuk to the bus station but we came across the bus bound for Vientiane on the way to jumped on it there. It was a local bus and once again the aisles were loaded ...

... 8230;<br><br>Dân Luangprabang v&#7899;i dân Viêng Ch&#259;n &#273;ôi khi không hi&#7875;u nhau, và c&#361;ng sinh ra nhi&#7873;u chuy&#7879;n c&#432;&#7901;i do gi&#7885;ng nói khác nhau. Thí d&#7909;, ng&#432;&#7901;i Luangprabang h&#7887;i &#273;i &#273;âu là pay xay, thì ng&#432;&#7901;i Viêng Ch&#259;n l&#7841;i nói là: pay x&#417;&#417;y. Ng&#432;&#7901;i Luang t&#7921; nh&#7853;n mình ti&#7871;ng nói m&#7841;nh m&#7869; h&#417;n, còn ng&#432 ...

... and Ollie decided he didn't want to leave there and then.......we were both a bit merry and we snuck past the bouncers into the hotel area and Ollie tried to unlock several soors with his diving card! We were suddenly in the fitness and pool area and came across a room with mats on the floor where we took a look out of the window at the view of the city then sat down on the mats for a rest...........suddenly it was 6am ...

... the lack of free press, they are likely to remain so.<br><br>Many of the backpackers we had met on our travels in Asia had urged us to go to Laos 'Before it's too late', whatever that means. Now I know. They mean go now while it still has a distinctive culture. Go now while the forests are still intact and the air isn't choked by fumes. Go before they've heard of air-conditioning and laptop computers. Go now while the people still regard you with respect and not just the latest coloniser.<br>