3rd of August - Vientianne

We wake up by 8am to visit all there is to see in vientiane. because they have wierd schedules we got to wake u early. By 4pm evrething will be closed..our first stop is breakfas. As always it takes a while to get it prepared . second stop is the morning market . We all end up buying some thing, be it a t shirt, bracelets or decoration object. we then head to wat tat luang. its the most important religious monument of Laos. it is there that the most important buddhist monk of laos lives. The place is beautiful and uncrowded. Although we encounter some tourists its as if we are in a forgotten land. only a few of us are rumbling around after taking a million pictures we head to another temple the wat chan and end up in a western restuarant for lunch. Turns out we find the restaurant was also mentioned in our guide. we quickly engulf our food and drink our milkshakes and then head to the national museum which talks about lao culture,revolution etc..Its an old but intresting museum full of propagand. 1 hour left before all the places close so we go to the most sacred temle of laos. wat simuang. This place is beautiful and once again qute empty. after observing a monk during 20 minutes anna miquel and i get "venerated" (hmm however that is called..)by the monk. He talks in Lao and puts a bracelent in each ot our arms and throws holly water in our head. Didac doesnt do it and its a really bad idea. When dinner time comes we all get delicious food. Instead, didac who had until now always had the best food gets the worst!! hahah After that visit we pick up our passsports with the visa for cambodia. And at some time during the day we also end up at wat sisaket. This temple is full of buddhas of all sizes. We hadnt been able to go there the day before cuz it was 4.30 and it was closed.The walls ohave little caves each of which hold two budhas. really nice. the night ends in vientiane having dinner at a little cafre by the main road by the mekong. Then we head for dessert to a french restarant. ITs hard to belive this is the capital of a country. Its so quiet and tranquil country. Tuck Tucks here are for 6 ppl more o ror less so we can always travel together. The country seems so save and the people frindly. there arent too many lights in the streets. Many places are oriented for backpackers and its hard to imagine how this would be with out them. round 800,000visitors come to Laos every year. A lot less than neighbouring Thailand. The landscape is beagufil with the mekong river, limestone ountains and very green jungles,waterfalls,lakes a dn caves. This palce has 14,000km of roads of which 80% are unpaved. Making it very unhandy in the rainy season...NOW!

August 2

Im very frustrated as my previous entries all got deleted so i had to rewrite them. in addittion the entire bloger page is in Lao and so its getting complicated..

By 8am this morning we are ll awake. anna calls bac asleep shortly as didac miqnd and i follow the trins path in our thailand-laos-cambodia map. Eager to arrive we eatch town after town after town but our station never seems to arrive. Finally we arrive at Nong-Khati...with about 3 horus delay...take a tuck tuck that takes us to a place where they say they will arrange visa,bus etc...Bullshit we dont want that...Tuck tuck takes us to the border and we leave officially thailand. With a bus we cross the fridnship bridge and arrive at the lao border. We order our visas which in 10minutes are ready. We then cue and get our stamps...We then take a taxi to our guest house. Lao seems different, poorrer and relaxed. But without poor people begging. It seems laid back. As we are driving moonson rains hit again,but by the time we reach the guest house the rain has finished. Everything is upside down in the taxi. The gears are the otherway around,the stearing wheel is the other way aroudn...freaking wierd! The luggage fits all in the trunk! Amazing!So we are paying 4 dollars per night per room..looks like a good deal! We head for lunch...hmm lunch we are starving...we order stuff and after 30 minutes they come to tell us they dont have some of it. Fine change orders...after an 1 we get our food! Finally...We then head to the bank and change money. Oh lao money is nuts! 1 dollars is 10,000 kips..so imagine how many millions we have now! Its honestly hard to put it in your wallet!! Well..we visit some temples or attempt to but they all close at 4pm...So we arrange our visas for cambodia where we will be in a couple of weeks...We will have to cross through the river so its better to have the visas by then. We then just head to the mekong to take a few pictures and play card games and drink Lao Beer...thats what everybody seems to be doing just chillin..this is what this country seems about chillin...Nobody here comes running behind you asking for money or wanting to bargain..They are all smiling. The capital of the country only has 120,000 ppl..it looks like a town! And the adds you see everywhere are about Lao Beer! Hilarious!Tommorrow will be the day to see the market and the temples, they open at 8am...The traffic is not condense,but the the law of the biggest rules, the biger you are the priority you have...Crossing the streets can also be an adventure, but so far we are alive..And now, time for dinner!

2nd august

We wake up late. 9am and get some breakfast. The four of us are here so we start making plans for the day as daidac goes and gets more dumplings. Priority one is to buy tickets tto go to the tahi border with laos. Remembering yhow hard it was to get a ticfket in delhi I start to think of the long and painfull day ahead of us. We grab a tuck tuck which after 2 streets stops and makes us jump off. Tsk… he sais he wants more money. Idiot! We get another taxi. The station is quite and very clean, we get a bunch of ppl coming towards us. They are all official station helpers . in 5m inutes we obtain the tickets!! Wow! In 8 hours we will be leaving to the lao border. We go see the golden budha and on our way there we get lost in china town. Alter we take the metro to the center. The metro has AC , lovely! The humidity in Bangkok is really killing us. We walk,walk and walk and pass a bunch of street shops and markets selling full copyies of t shirts, pants coatsw bags etc…we visit the famous four face budha but before we go to sit in some couches in an empty super luxurious shoping mall.a fter some relaxing we search for some restaurant. We end up eating at some award wining restaurant for 6 dollars. Nobody orders drink but me which comes in handy when I chew and swallow a spciiyy red peper…yuck!!

We then look for some food for the 12 hours train ride that awaits us. We take a train and head to the unglourious victory monument. Moonsoon rain hits and odesnt want to stop. The only option out is to go by taxi back to the hotel. Anna and I go and get a 1 hour tahi massage for 6 dollars. Wse wait 1 hour more at the hotol and finally get our lguggage and take a taxi to the station . traffic is condence and we ares tufck in a trffic jam for long time. We get to the sation 30 minutes before the train is meant to leave but the train doesn’t show up. We wait wait wait we realize we left our water bottle sin the taxi..the criver has made us leav e running not to get a fine..so we go buy more water. Finally with 1.30hours delay the train arrives and we leave Bangkok. We get 4 policeman that come and check our tickets. They look very scary and strict they even got guns…the guy from the train isn’t happy that we aren’t buying his dinner nor American breakfast for the next morning. After few mind gaes we go to bed…we arealize that after1.5 hours in the train we arer still in one of the multiple train station in Bangkok…time for bed.

Specially the cadburry hot chocolate I great . they turn the ligts off and I try to sleep.but that isn’t really happening. 4 hours have passé im about to start my 3rd French movie but I just cant take the French anymore. In the meanwhile the dude infront of me continues to talk outloud afor ages . By now he is quite drunk and soon after starts making out with the girl sitting next to him who he doesnt even know!!!!. Well I try to do a search in the plane to see if there is any perfet sleeping position. But my research aattains the conclusion that ones whoa re actually sleeping have either just a lot off work or have taken pills. More tv shows and when im about to fall asleep they turn to cabin lighs on for yet another rmeal. 9:15 horus of light and we arrive to Bangkok. Its really late and tingt . the airport is new and huge. Pass police, exchange money, get luggage get taxi drive 60km and reach the hotel. Checkin takes ages. Finally get the room and rush to rromm 1142 wher didac and anna and their lugae are waitifng for us…time for bed.

Leaving sydney alwya sleaves pepol a bit paralyzed. The international terminal is always so empty in comparison with other terminal slike in London or Frankfurt or schipol. Leaving Sydney dinvovles traveling at lesast 3 hours that is probably the closests and its to Auckland. After being told that I could not get into the lounge. I still got in and got bto bring one guest..my brother! We enjoyed the free food and aonce stuffed up we stold two magazines and a newspaper too update ourself on all the gossip. I then realizewd that I truly don’t knowshtit about fashion and modeling. Im bearly able to recognize half the people who appear on the magazine.

Im happy im the second person to board the plane. The 747 looks immense. My brother appears 10 minutes after. Sseems like the plane aint that full at all, got a free seat by me and have to seat there as my tv keeps turning off. I always loved qantast entertainment. You can watch a bunch of videos to,tv shows etc all at your own pace, stop,rewint play. Food arrives and im a bit stuffee but anything is welcomed.