Hotel Khamvongsa Vientiane

... there was a nice light breeze blowing through languidly and pleasantly. Pierre was enjoying his Coke Light and I was enjoying my fourth Beer Lao draught, contemplating about what I'll return as in my next life, when a live band started playing music from inside the restaurant. These poor people can't sing for all the gold in Asia; we first thought it was karaoke but alas, it was not... I thought the insufferable singer was lousy, but ...

... on the other hand had a spa day &#8211; which was the most relaxing thing i&#8217;ve ever done!<br><br>We were hoping to enter Laos from up here but we would have had to do a stop over night in Kratie or Stung Treng which didn&#8217;t seem that appealing so we ended up going back to Phnom Penn and taking a direct 13 hour bus to 4000 islands (don det) in Laos.<br><br>The border crossing was fine and the journey tiring but we did eventually make it to Don Det. We befriended some ...

... anything, so we've been reading Lord of the Rings to each other lying in bed.<br><br>We leave tomorrow and head south, eventually heading East to Vietnam where we would like to find the coast. Its so hot!! I just want to swim!<br><br>Nothing else to say for this one...<br>

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... the local dish, although we were pretty sure it was pork! It was very minty. Eventually we retreated inside as we were getting attacked by insects. <br> <br> It's true that there aren&#8217;t huge amounts to see or do here, but we managed to keep ourselves occupied for three days. We headed to a cooking course which was very confusing, but the food tasted good. I don't know if I will ever work out what actually happened though ...

... kids meeting up in the empty lot next to Eric Wiggins' old house, behind what is now Sonic, for some football or baseball. Those were the days. Needless to say, I never got in on vball. At the end of the game one team forked over some money. I'm glad that I didn't get into a money match. The rain started just as we started walking home and really started falling once we got inside<br><br>That evening Wes and Savin told me about the Hash that was going to take place the following evening. It ...

Just got off the sleeper train - for the second night in a row. Dog tired and dang this place is the hottest and stickiest yet! Must be 50 degrees in the shade and the humidity is about 1,000,000%, no exaggeration. Lucky the beer is rated by many as Asia's finest.<br><br>So, I'd like to quote Robin Williams from Good Morning Vietnam:<br>"The weather out there today is hot and ****** with continued hot ...

... ist eine laengere sehr lustige Geschichte, auf jeden Fall hatten unsere Guides offensichtlich sehr grosse Angst vor Elefanten und wir haben natuerlich auch keine gesehen. Dafuer sind wir viel durch den Jungel gewandert (das war wirklich heiss) haben in Fluessen gebadet und ich habe viele Lao Geschichten erzaehlt bekommen. Elefantenspuren haben wir auch gesehen, es scheint also welche zu geben.<br><br>Danach bin ich dann weiter nach Vang Vieng ...

Pete and me (Ari had gone to Tad Lo) got our pick up from Sabadee Guesthouse at about half seven in the evening (after paying the extortionate 190,000 kip for a ticket) and got taken to the bus station. Bought some snacks for the journey including a Magnum (standard - on holiday), and then saw our bus. Our amazing bus. This double decker looked like it had been painted by a cross between some tie dye trousers and the cover designer for the Sgt Peppers album. I mean it was ...

... a neutral country in the Second Indochina War (what we would term the 'Vietnam' War) the ruling Pathet Lao were sympathetic to communist North Vietnam (the Vietcong) which incurred American fury. The Americans, frustrated by the rules of the Geneva Accord (1962) which stipulate that foreign troops may not deployed in a declared neutral country, acted to side-step this inconvenience. CIA agents were placed in Laos and, with the leadership of an individual called Vang Pao ...