As I mentioned at the conclusion of the last post, there are may obvious differences between Cambodia and Laos, those obvious ones were that Cambodia use the USD as their staple currency, has crazy traffic, rubbish lying about everywhere, uniformed guards on most businesses and many homes, no traffic rules that are obeyed, many beggars and people living on the edge and infrastructure that appears to be nearly non existent. Those all apply to Cambodia and it seems that Laos is a little well ahead on all counts. Although the People of Laos are a little reserved with the Cambodians being much more friendly. One thing I did read in the Cambodian newspapers was an article relating to the export of reeds to Vietnam, the main employee who checks and supervises the packing of the reeds earns USD$1.75 per 8 hour day. She needs to work two other jobs to survive, she has no time whatsoever for herself. In the same newspaper the President gloated about his anti corruption Police netting some big fish in one of his departments, the department looked after payments to retired public servants and youth affairs. It was found that they had tens of thousands of ghost's on the books, dead ex public servants that these guys were still drawing their pensions and keeping the loot themselves, an amount of 5.5 million USD ( a lot of money in Cambodia).
Anyway they were caught and the president decided on the punishment. They kept their jobs, they did not have to give the money back, they were not prosecuted. But their department was to receive 5.5 million USD less in their budget for the following year. So the people that they are serving will pay, not the thieves. The obvious difference between the people living a survival existence and those fat cats driving around in the black 4wd lexus is vast. The rich bastards in their big cars care little about the little man.
Now I am off of my soapbox and back to our travels in Laos.
Our arrival in Vientiane was very different to that of Phnom Penh, traffic was sparse, traffic lights obeyed and our airport taxi delivered us safely to the first actual hotel of the trip, the http://www.hotelkhamvongsa.com/. The others are all Guest houses. The hotel is in the centre of the city near the Mekong River, the building is an old colonial type building with large rooms all recently renovated leaving the thick wooden floors intact. It was a pleasant surpise, although the walk up the stairs to the third floor kept us in shape, an extra trip was made one evening when the hotels desk provided me with the wrong door key, something the receptionist was not allowed to forgot for the rest of our stay.
A street vendor making banana crepes, he was a real artist.
A short walk led us to the river markets which were interesting as were the footpath restaurants. Our first day was a walking day, there seemed to be a Wat (temple) on every corner, we were watted out after the first three. We walked to the markets which had a surprising twist, the regular type asian markets were honeycombed ( a maze) through the large structure and alongside stood a brand new shopping mall, although mostly empty of shops. We met a small group of monks who were out shopping, they approached us with some English practice questions, the one closest to Hilde had just bought an English Phrase book .
Our shy mong friends from Vientaine
Further up that same street was Laos's answer to the arc de Triumphe, 'the independance arch'. This was an outstanding feature of the city, great views from the top with many markets stalls of each level of the internal stairway.
Hilde with a Vietnamese tourist at the arc
Western tourists were in a minority compared to Cambodia, many Vietnamese, Chinese and the Lao themselves.
The view from the top of the arc de Truimphe
The river area was the prime spot in the evenings and we managed to catch the sunset on the river before tucking into a local restaurant for a traditional Lao dish, 'Laap'. I was asked if i wanted it very hot, hot or mild. I chose hot, I did finish it although I think I sweated a few litres. I needed an icecream to douse the fire.
Our last day saw us astride a motor scooter again and we ventured outside town towards the Thai border on an excellent road, busy but not that busy to not enjoy it. We rode past the friendship bridge, a large span across the Mekong River linking Laos and Thailand, this was built by Australia completed in the late 80's. It is nice to see that we look after the infrastructure of Countries such as these, I wish we would start putting a few of these bridges across some of the rivers in Australia.
Hilde's picture of the big round thing. Spot wally.
Not that far from the bridge was the Buddha Park, a nice park built in the mid fifties, not sure if it is an amusement type park, but we did enjoy the visit. The buddha's were numerous and in varying sizes and unuasual poses, their expressions also gave it a funny twist.
A view of the Budha park and Hilde from on top of the big round thing.
A happy rider, Buddha park
We headed back to the city and took the 25 kilomere freeway, it was surprising that this brand new three lane expressway was virtually unused except by us and the odd other scooter. There were plenty of landscapers planting grass on the roads edges and one part had massive light poles to light up that section for I don't know who.
The next morning we took the hotels shuttle to the airport for our flight to Luang Prabang, our flight was a domestic affair aboard a small commuter propellor aircraft. I ran into an Austrain guy who was departing on a helicopter to his copper mine, he was in company with a group of Asian mine workers for their two week site work. It was interesting to see them take off in two vintage Russian choppers, they actually ran down the runway to get some luft before they became airborn, scary.
The fight to Luang Prabang took 40 minutes, this was opposed to a 9 hour bus trip.
The view of Laung Prabang township as we came into land.
Out taxi took us to our guesthouse, but it appeared very different to the one that I had research, with the taxi now gone the guesthouse manager where we found ourselves corrected us and called a tuk tuk who delivered us to the correct place, http://www.villaxandria.com/ This one was as expected, direct uninterupted views of the Mekong River flowing by only 50 metres away.
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