Riverview Hotel Vientiane

... en collaboration avec les villages voisins du parc (employer des gens de la place puis donner au village une part des profits).
Rubrique What<s next ?

Je m<embarque dans un bus pour la capitale du Pays plus au sud, soit Vientiane (viang Chan). Un bus express qui doit durer 8 heure...mais qui finit en 11 heure de route interminable (plusieurs stops et une panne en chemin). Le panorama est superbe...mais en epingle. Le trajet pourrait facilement etre ...

... hammock.

So anyway. I'm here catching up on the journal (I'm in the process of filling in the blanks-which done retrospectively allows for better judgment but reduced memory recall) and a bit of admin. I have so much to do I made a list on a napkin at the bar last night. Its like I'm back at work. It was as follows:

1. Eat at place recommended by a friend. Turns out I already had as they are a chain but the bagel was once again very ...

... he's probably 65 or 70 years old. I may be able to find him on the Google machine. He sports mid-thigh length bright red shorts, a red shirt that boasts of his ability at running lots of hashes. I believe it was a 900th run at Perth. He had red socks on below his veiny, ripped up legs. He had this 1950's comb over that never moved the entire race with a big hook nose. He had the thickest Australian accent ever and stayed in character, I think, of what a GM of a hash should act like ...

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 ...

... room door lock didn't work!). Was a little unimpressed! Later that afternoon, we saw a foreign girl attempt to enter all rooms in the hostel that weren't locked. I don;t think they were ALL HER rooms. We quickly decided to move hostels for more security. For the next two days, things were fine and we went swimming in the local swimming pool and I taught the monks English in the afternoons. It was quite an adventure!!! We awaited VISA extensions too!

... no serious injuries. Better in a way than a some of the stories I heard about in San Jose, Costa Rica where the victims were robbed and beaten severely. Have to finish later, time is up on this computer adn I don't want to pay more Hallelujah! It seems someone found my wallet somewhere; just received an email from a contact someone gave me saying its in the possession of some building's security personnel. Shall continue this later after I check up on that.

... some reason the child was allowed to drag them around like a dog on a leash during lunch. Those poor things! Bill had taken some video on the way back and stopped in at Wat Xieng Nygean. People have buckets of water with flowers and are splashing the Buddha statues with them. One older couple poured some of their water on him while he was there. We walked up the riverfront to another Wat, Vieng Nheun. Many people have come to make donations ...

... 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.

Unless you count the nationl brewery, Laos has no manufacturing base; something ...