Tales from Lao-Lao Land

Lao-Lao is the local rice whiskey, its similar to the Thai whiskey - Mekong, or Saamsong, but with more of a Turpintine flavour, but more on that later...

So we've moved south from Luang Phabang. Michelle and I both came to really enjoy that city. It has a lot of charm, and the Kueng Xi waterfalls were completely amazing (and brilliant for swimming...as per the video which has hopefully attached)



We spent our last night in a beautiful hotel, to celebrate our Wedding Anniversary... fantastic!

Then it was on to Vangvieng - a 5 hour minivan ride along a windy, potholed road. I don't know what we were expecting from Vangvieng, but the reality was something completely out of the ordinary. Packed with bars that pump untill curfew (yep, theres an 11pm curfew here) - it seems that every falang (forigner) in the country comes here to party - and party they do! The main attraction in the town seems to be tubing - sitting on the Nam Song River on a tractor tyre innertube, and floating from bar to bar getting very wasted on Lao-Lao Buckets and various "special" items! When you sit at the bar they slip a little menu in front of you with "additional" things to try...

We were put off this on the first day we arrived, as very intoxicated (and sopping wet) people filled the town up, stumbling around. Not pretty. We decided to do some caving, and kayaking instead, which was a brilliant experience.

The town is also filled with bars playing "Friends" re-runs. Probably more than half a dozen bars, where you sit on pillows and cushions and relax in front of some TV - something which Michelle and I did on our last day there, as we were both feeling a bit under the weather.

Currently we're in the capital, Vientaine (pronounced Vienchang) for one night before heading south to Pakxe on the 14 hour overnight bus. Exciting.

Hmmm... I can't seem to link to images, Firefox is in Thai on this computer! You'll just have to check back again soon, or have a look on our facebook pages.