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Expedition Diary Laos The Lao borer proved to be the easiest crossing yet! It took approximately 20 mins to be signed and stamped through. Amazing. We spent the night in Sepon, not far from the border, camping in the agricultural school grounds. It was only the next day as we drove for the first time in daylight, we appreciated the primitive beauty of Laos. All the houses are made of wood and are on stilts. The Laoatians are smiling friendly people who live simply in a tribal way dressed in their coloured outfits. On reaching Savannakhet,, we were surprised but happy to find this 'city' was in fact more like a medium sized village. Situated on the Mekong River, it has a lively market and many Wats (Buddhist temples) and a splendid view of Thailand across the water. Having lost time in Vietnam, we had to push on to the capital Vientiane, also situated on the banks of the Mekong river and also wonderfully underdeveloped, although there was a smattering of smart hotels and restaurants. We toured around the city on mopeds, visiting the Wats and the Golden Chedi representing the growth of the symbolic Buddhist lotus flower. Having explored the city we tried the local specialty a banana salad consisting of green banana and their skins, egg plant peas, limes and amazingly fish sauce! In fact the result was a very pleasant, strong and unique taste. After lunch we headed south to Buddha Park where Hinduism and Buddhism are brought together and expressed in a meadow crammed full of statues of gods of both religions varying in size, some life size and some enormous. Thailand was beckoning and the next morning we set out for the Australian built Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge and crossed into our 18th country without too much ado. The change was instantaneous, the roads were wide and good, the buildings big and concrete , 7 elevens are plentiful as are shell tiger marts and most of all we had lunch at KFC! We are back to 'civilisation'. From now on the roads should be highway all the way and the going should be good, let's hope so. Today we reached Bangkok, such a dirty, hectic but fun city. We shall all go our separate ways for a few days before meeting up with two of our favorite sponsors, Sandra and Ian of Mantec, to firstly celebrate Anna's Birthday and then travel down through Malaysia to Singapore. More soon. |