Vientiane

We are about to venture deep into the jungle (by minibus, because this is the 21st century) so thought we would update the blog before we left.

Luang Prabang was a very nice place. We spent a lot of time interacting with the locals.



We got up before dawn and ventured into town to watch the monks take their alms, which is a daily procession where locals line up to donate rice and vegetables to lines of monks.




As this photo shows, time has stood still in Laos since the revolution. Hot tip – as Laos develops it will be in dire need of paint. Buy shares in paint manufacturers or start one yourself and enter into supply contracts with the Laotian government.


These shots are from our hotel. We had a cooking class a couple of days ago where we learned to make authentic spring rolls, yellow curry and lapp pork.





We then did a handicraft tour and visited the field centre for the local UXO (unexploded ordinance) office. Laos is littered with hundreds of thousands of unexploded bombs from the Vietnam war. They are still being discovered daily so the UXO organisation (two major sponsors are the Australian Government and a US mercenary firm) educates locals and removes or detonates bombs as they are found. Sadly for many Laotians the bombs explode during ploughing or hunting. There is also a very lucrative scrap metal trade, so children are encouraged to search for bomb casings. This has resulted in many locals sustaining horrific injuries, including loss of limbs, sight or worse.



This is one for the work colleagues – Matt at 5:15pm on a weekday. There is a bag of chocolate just out of camera.



We have spent the last 24 hours or so in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It is a very laid-back place. The cops stationed just outside the UN compound were asleep in hammocks at 12pm, for example. Lots of single middle-aged men (unkempt grey nomads) hang around in the westerner corner of town. There are rows of bars and sandy cafes on the river bank – the sort where you choose your live fish from a bucket and it is then grilled for you. Or a BBQ toad or snail. We spent the afternoon drinking wine coolers on the banks of the Mekong while we waited for our bags to arrive.



There is even a local AFL team.



These shots are of the “vertical runway”. In 1962 the USA donated a load of concrete to Laos for the purpose of building a new runway. Instead, the locals used it to build a monument in the style of the Arc de Triomph. It is now a monument to Laotians killed by Americans. The internal spaces are filled with souvenir shops.



Matt now has a man bag and is going out of his way to look like a hippy tourist. Dreadlocks are unfortunately no longer an option, but he otherwise looks the part.



Penny’s new hobby is stalking monks and taking photos of them doing interesting things, like buying fake Buddha statues from souvenir shops or visiting internet cafes.



We are now off to a homestay in the mountains so we will be out of range for a few days, and should resurface in Vietnam soon (subject to the convenience of the very large local mosquito population).