On our way to Cambodia

Beautiful Laos

Another update from the other side of the world!
First of all, I/We wish everybody a healthy, happy and inspiring 2007.
Our year kicked off great, we had a nice party with loads of other tourists in vang vieng.
The place were you don’t want to go to be honest. Basically one street full off bars and restaurants full of people watching TV???
The scenery around the village was worth it on the other hand. So if you guys ever make it this far, I guess you could say, drop by for a day or two!
The tubing ( SEE THE PICTURES) down the river is quiet nice with beautiful scenery along the way. And lots of Lao people trying to entertain the tourists with beer lao and massive swings above the water,. The biggest one, a meter off 8 above the water. With all the people watching and partying in the mean time!!! This is what we did on New Year ’s Day!! With only soda this time since we’re both getting old. And can not drink two days in a row.

Tomorrow we’re off to Cambodia, we fly at 8 in the morning from Pakse to Siem reap.
This is close to Ankor wat, one of the major tourist spots in Cambodia. We both have high expectations from this massive empire. This dated back a long time.

So yes we’re leaving Laos, a country with beautiful people which all seam relatively happy even if they have nothing. And where especially the kids seem so open and happy and always scream and wave if you pass by.
The big markets, the hard working community, the way they respect their culture. The way they have a party, everything seems so uncomplicated.
Which make me even more think that we’re living in a mad world?
A country where the mass tourism didn’t arrive yet!!!!!!!
This sometimes has its downsides (I mean Language barrier), but most of the time is super. I guess if you come here in ten years it’s a second Thailand.
So if anyone would ask me for a good holiday destination I would say Laos. The quicker, the better.

There are so many things to tell about this trip that I never know where to start????

But again I will try my best to let you come in to our world at the moment.

At the moment we are in Pakse a small town in the south of Laos. This town is known for it’s coffee. Around here the bolaven plateau is based. A platform we’re the people harvest coffee beans, bananas and tobacco. This platform was first used to grow coffee back in the days when the French colonnaded Laos. So this is one of the good things they have done here!
We rented a motorcycle in this town and drove around the whole platform. This loop is about 230 km in total. Very nice scenery again, we visited a coffee plantation, stopped by various waterfalls. Overnight we stayed in a small town called Tad Lo. Known for it’s beautiful waterfall platforms. We stayed in a small bungalow on the river with view on the waterfall. This, for the ludicrous amount of 2.5 dollars. Less than 2 euros with today’s rate in mind!!!!
Unfortunately Desire didn’t feel to good so we drove back at once the second day.(Our initial planning was to stay another night.)

Since we mainly try to use public transport first of all for the experience! Second of all for the safety since the minivans are more expensive and the drivers drive like maniacs.

So on our way over to Pakse Desire started a conversation with a woman on the bus! She turned out to be a doctor and so we found ourselves in the local hospital in Savanaketh two days later!!!
She invited us to come over and have a look at the X ray department.
We made an appointment for Monday. Because we first wanted top visit a place called Tha Kaek But since the guesthouse in the town was full we decided to head straight for Savanaketh!

We visited the doctor and she invited us for their annual new years party, a great experience with loads of food dance and music. I even had to sing a song so I picked the famous Kedang edang van Guus Meewus. A hilarious moment. The only song I could think of since I was flabbergasted with a mic. in my hand. All went well and we even captured the moment on video. This material will be visible for the person with the best bid, start bidding from now on our forum the deadline is next Sunday!
Since we had to be in the hospital early days we decided to call it the day at around 5 o’clock. This was late enough! Not every Sunday afternoon we’re drinking Johnny Walker and all sorts of other alcoholic beverages

The next day ( early days), we went to the hospital
Desire thought that this visit was over in about an hour or so, but it turned out that she had to advise the entire staff (including a meeting with the director of the hospital).Since not everybody spoke English the radiologist called her husband as translator. He host English class in the hospital every Monday so, he bombarded me to the interim teacher off the week. (see pictures)
At night the doctor dropped us at the bus station.
We were happy to be on the bus again after a very tiring but never forgettable 2 days

There are many more stories and experiences to tell you guys but for now this is about it.
Happy bidding guys and hope to see some nice reactions!!
We also updated the photo’s
All the best and take care
Love Desire and Vincent