Restaurants in Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is cluttered with restaurants with similar menus, similar raised decks with Thai cushions to lounge upon, and back-to-back episodes of Friends playing.

Rice patty field, Vang Vieng

Emily rode through cow pie

If that's not the look of satisfaction...

Watch yer speed, buddy!

Me and my manly bike and the manly basket

We hired some bikes to get around the area in Vang Vieng. These bad boys cost $1 a day.

Breakfast baguette in Laos

Blue water from the spring

This is where the blue spring water mixed with the brown river to make a nice shade of...?

Swimming in a spring

A nice spring flowed from the karst at Tham Jang. We swam in the cool waters during the afternoon heat. The current was quite strong, but we could swim up into the cave quite far. Locals came here to bath, but the water remained clean from the swift current.

Rice patty and mountains

View from the cave at Tham Jang

We hiked up some stairs to get to this viewpoint. There was a large cave inside too.

Stairway to Tham Jang

This stairway went up the karst to the cave.

Busy corner at Vang Vieng

Rob having a fag. At this corner, you can hear and see four identical restaurants playing different seasons of "Friends".

First night in Vang Vieng

Rob, Emily, and me lounging at a restaurant.

Karst surrounding Vang Vieng

Wierd karst mountain

I saw this on the journey from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. This magical mountain was out someone's imagination and stood alone.

Beautiful day in Laos

The bus ride from Luang Prabang down Highway 13 goes through the mountains.

On the bus to Vang Vieng

Surprisingly, the buses in Laos were nice, but the roads were riddled with potholes, which made travel times long.

Wads of dough

The Lao currency is the kip. One US dollar is worth about 10,800 kip, making their largest bill (20,000 kip) worth about $2. In Laos, we saw people walking around small grocery bags filled with neat rubber-banded stacks of money.

Temple at the Royal Palace

Reclining Buddha

This was on a hill overlooking Luang Prabang.

Across the Mekong

From the same hill, looking across the Mekong.

Looking down the Mekong

There is a hill in the center of Luang Prabang where there is a temple and this great view.

Hill in Luang Prabang

This was taken from the front steps of the Royal Palace Museum in Luang Prabang.

Monks strolling in Luang Prabang

Monks can be seen strolling around Thailand and Laos perusing mobile phones in malls and sipping frappaccinos.

Dinner in Luang Prabang

Emily, Rob, and Roland dining on fabulous Lao salad, wild boar, noodle soup, pasta, and beef "laap" (minced meat) -- absolutely delicious. It was all washed down with some Beer Lao (the best in SE Asia) and Lao red wine.

Night market in Luang Prabang

There wasn't a lot of stuff for sale at the night market. There were some t-shirts, but a lot of handmade cushions and clothing.

Arrival in Luang Prabang

Emily, me, and Roland, a Dutch dude we met on the boat.

A temple nestled in a cave along the Mekong

Karsts along the Mekong

The views on the second day along the Mekong was very different from the first day. The sky cleared up, and limestone karsts rose from the earth.

Swimming kids along the Mekong

A bunch of naked village kids were screaming and laughing along the banks of the Mekong. As we floated past them, they all jumped in the water.

Small world

I noticed two familiar faces getting on the boat heading in the opposite direction in Pak Beng on our second day on the Mekong. Hanna and Caroline were a couple of British friends from Mae Sot. They had left Mae Sot over a month ago, travelling to the beaches of Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos.

Daytime view of Pak Beng

Looking out my bedroom window, this was the early morning in Pak Beng. The streets became lively and noisy at daybreak in this small village.

Candlepower in Pak Beng

This was the view across the street from the restaurant we ate at in Pak Beng. Electricity here was provided by noisy generators, so many places used candles for lighting. Power shut off before 10 pm at night in Pak Beng.

Our guesthouse in Pak Beng

Our room was less than $4.

Mist in the hills around Pak Beng

Arrival in Pak Beng

Seven hours from Huay Xai, we arrived in Pak Beng, a small town on the Mekong halfway to Luang Prabang. This town exists only for the boat traffic up and down the Mekong.

River commerce

Our boat pulled up along this barge (loaded with teak) to sell them a chicken. Our boat stopped along the way whenever someone signalled us over. Sometimes Laotians on our bought meat from the villagers; this time they sold meat to these barge people.

Big village along the Mekong

This was the largest village we noticed aside from Huay Xai, Pak Beng, and Luang Prabang.

Wall of backpacks

Laos is supposed to be in the infant stages of tourism, but this wall of backpacks on our boat indicates otherwise.

Travelling down the Mekong

Like a big slumber party this was.

Crowded boat down the Mekong

The foreigners were packed in the front half of the boat, and the locals travelled in the back. There were a limited number of benches, so we sat spread on the floormats. It was actually quite nice and relaxing, picnicking, and listening to tunes while floating down the Mekong on a nice overcast day.

On the ferry to Laos!

A seven-minute boat ride across the Mekong River took us from Chiang Khong (Thailand) to Huay Xai (Laos).

Leaving Thailand

This gate was at the ferry boat landing in Chiang Khong.

Tuk-tuk ride in Chiang Mai

On our way to the bus station.

Another night at Bubbles

Aryca, Emily, me, and Rob well-pickled at Bubbles.

Hey, I know you!

At Rasta Bar, I ran into Mel, a French dude working in Chiang Mai whom I had met in Mae Sot. He works with an organization that is helping to build the foundations for democracy in Myanmar.

Rasta bar, or Koon's II

We went to the Rasta bar in Chiang Mai to meet up with a friend, but ran into a whole slew of folks from Mae Sot. I felt like I was back at Koon's! Here's Lindsay, Rob, and Maria.

Matt, Zoe, and Katelin at Bubbles

These guys were staying at the guesthouse too. Matt just finished university in the UK. Zoe is British and Katelin is German.

Ben and Eduard

These were a couple lawyers from Paris whom we met at the guesthouse in Chiang Mai. I got obliterated this night and paid for it the next day.

Chinese food in Chiang Mai

On my last weekend in Chiang Mai, Emily and Val came up from Mae Sot. We went to get some great Chinese food.

Back in Mae Sot?! (Don't ask, don't ask.)

Vientiane, the capital of Laos, was closed when we got there. Just kidding. Actually, it had been closed for the week prior to arrival, opening back up the day we arrived. The ASEAN conference had been going on and all backpackers had been kicked out for security reasons. It was a short 3.5-hour bus trip to Vientiane from Vang Vieng. We arrived on a Sunday, so most of the stores and sights were closed, but we were able to stroll around their streets (some paved, some gravelled), the whole time thinking, "This is the CAPITAL?!" There were no skyscrapers in sight. We saw an old stupa, the main boulevard that runs between the Arc d'Triomphe-like Patuaxi (Victory Monument) archway and the Presidential Palace, and strolled along the Mekong River. It was nice to see the super-high wall and street blocked off around the US Embassy -- as close to "home" as I've gotten on this trip.
In Vientiane, we dined on some excellent French food. That's pretty much it.
The next day we got up early to start our trip back to Thailand. It took all day and three buses to get from the eastern side to the western side of Thailand. I have returned to the warm bosom of Mae Sot: cheap 20 BHT meals, 5 BHT samosas, and 15 BHT/hr internet. I'm waiting around getting some visas and visiting friends, some of whom appeared to be in the burnt out state that I found myself in a month ago. My, how a month out and about can change things.