Capitilism is Alive and Well in Laos

So we're finally in Laos, land of a million elephants (or something). The slow boat was very scenic, but no as pleasant as it could have been thanks to some extreemly drunk aussies and some fairly drunk poms (who proceeded to become extreemly drunk outside our guesthouse bedroom untill 2am). It was definately a worthwhile trip though, Pakbeng (where you stop for the night, to break up the 2 day journey) was a cute little town, and there is something romantic about floating down the river. Let me quickly dispell any notions of comfort though. The seats are little, narrow wooden bench seats that more suited to being some sadist ministers church pews. You have very little space (much of which is taken up by aforementioned drunk Englishmen). Luang Phabang came as a relief... Many Many thanks to B for suggesting we buy the cushions. Amen for those.

So thats where we are now, Luang Phabang - a beautiful city with lots of French Colonial charm, on the convergance of the Mekong, and the Nam Ou rivers.

Luang Phabang is a bit of an anomoly though. Prces here are fairly high, thanks to a huge influx of package tourists paying top dollar for everything. There are also some pretty well off Loatians - we've seen someone driving around in a Hummer H2! It doesn't help that the currency here is ridiculous, the smallest note is 500kip, but I haven't seen any of those, mostly everything is in multiples of 1000. Its terrifying to consider that our fairly basic guesthouse costs us 80000kip per night! They use 3 currencies actively here, just to confust things more! USD, Thai Baht and Kip are all accepted... Michelle and I spend half our time trying to work out what everything costs!

At the moment we're waiting untill 1.30 when we head off to Kueng Xi waterfalls for a dip to cool off in the heat of the afternoon. Tomorrow we're planning on going to the Pak Ou Caves where there are apparently several thousand buddha statues, then to the Whiskey Village. Alright. Although I've heard that Lao Lao (Laos Whiskey) tastes kinda like paint thinners.

After that, who knows... we've booked into a FLASH hotel to celebrate our wedding anniversary, then we'll head off to Vang Vieng for some tubing.

Jared, beer in Laos is amazingly, cheaper than Thailand. Even though it sounds expensive 8000kip is about 30baht, for a big bottle. Where are you man, I need a drinking buddy!

Thats it from me for now, will post again after we've had some more adventures.

Love to all.