Lao-Lao and the Mighty Mekong

are some of the things that I think of when I think about Laos. So we took the night train from Bangkok to the border of Laos and it was a good trip although it was freezing in the morning. At the border of Laos we spent approximately three hours just to get through. We bought the Visa at the border and for some reason people for different countries had to pay different prices. For most of the European countries it was 35usd.

First we went to Vientiane (the capital). Our guesthouse was located next to the river of Mekong and it was lovely. So in the evening we sat next to Mekong and looked at the beautiful sunset. Definitively a moment to remember. We spent there only two days. On our second day we did rent bicycles and did some sightseeing. Vientiane was a quite relaxed. From Vientiane we took a night bus south to Pakse. I had heard that the buses can often break on the road, but we only had one flat tire. The people also had the attitude of Bob the builder and fixed the problem immediately.

From Pakse we continued to an Island called Don Det in the middle of Mekong. There we also stayed for two days and bicycled around the Island. It looked exactly as I had imagined it to look like, beautiful. The river was green and a lot of kids were swimming in it. We went to the Island with a small ferry and I was just a bit scared that it would flip over and that we would fall into the water, but everything went well. Our guesthouse there was quite basic, since there was no electricity and our "bathroom" was on the backyard behind the pigs and chickens. Still we had a shower, which I think was water that was carried up from Mekong.

One evening when we went to eat to a restaurant in Don Det the owner of the place told us that his menu was famuos in Finland. I don't know how he knew where we were from and I didn't even ask cause I just wondered what he ment with his famous menu. When he showed it I realised that the boys from Madventures had been there and created an interesting breakfast including valium etc. In the same restaurant you could also get a happy version of all meals, which basically ment that they had included marihuana in the food. But we were happy enough without the happy meals. The only thing that we tried there was Lao-Lao, the famous ricewhisky of Laos. I do not recommend it to anyone since it did not taste good and I actually read later that it is supposed to be illegal in Laos.. There was also a monkey in this place which probably was very thirsty since it jumped into my glass =)

After leaving the Island of Don Det we went to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. The border between Laos and Cambodia is not official and we expected it to be difficult to cross but it was actually quite easy. Only the road that leads to the border is small and very bumpy in the middle of the forrest, so it was an experience.