Luang Prabang

I can'tremember the number of times I have been to L.P.but I havehad an assoiation with this place For the last 41 years. The first time I camehere with Danny was in 1975. It was very different then. Atthat timethere were very few Falangs here and those that were were mainly Americans with some sortof military or CIA connections. It was quite dangerous and Danny and I were nearly shot by Pathet Lao soldiers.

Luang Prabang today is so different. It has a very strong tourist presence and the whole town caters shamelessly to thier needs. Each night the main street is closed for all of the city length. The road is carpeted in stalls selling mainly textiles and artifacts. There are a few T Shirt stalls and some selling herbs and coffee to the falangs but mainly it is western clothing or textiles. Some of these are locally made, hand woven and hand sewn. The colours  come from local dyes and they look fantastic. There are some doona covers that look spectacularbut are too big for my bag (so sad). Everywherethere are tourist hotels and coffeeshops and sandwich stalls selling great sandwiches and fruit shakes. This is even different than 4 years ago when there were only 3 or 4 stalls selling sandwiches now there are dozens. They used to be the best sandwiches ever, now quality has lost out to quantity which is a shame.

Having been here so many times there isn't much that I have not already seen in terms of the "sights". I revisited the Kwang Si falls complete with the bear sanctary and spectacular waterfalls. The water colour is a stunning copper blue that is caused by calcium carbonate washed into the water flowing over limestone. I spent averypleasant morning there with a young English woman who I gave a lift to. Webacked itup with a lovely nightat the Utopia bar sitting over the river and me sipping cocktails. Layla was on a tight budget so she refrained from the cocktails going for an Oreo shake.

On my other dayshere I to ok myself offto the "Teac" centre which was an information centre concerning the many "ethnic minorities" in Laos:  Hmoung, Thai, Arka, Lisu, Kotu etc etc. There were exhibits of clothing, decorations artifacts and tools. The whole thing was very interesting and I got some helpful info about local textiles. I also went to the Lao UXO centre. It was a very small but very powerful demonstration of American monstrosity. Lots of statistics about munitions dropped and sorties made (1 every 8 minutes for 13 years, morningnoon and night). There were examples of the ordinance the Americans dropped on what was meant to be neutral Laos ; bsakets of"bombies" , lines of 500lb bombs likefence posts and then numbersof mortars, bombs and minesused by the fucking Americans. The more I visit these places the more I hate the foriegn and domestic policies of the evil American Empire. The Vietnamese and Lao may have moved on but I will never forget orforgive thesefucking arseholes and thier spawn for what they have done. Laotians are still dying today for thier policies. They do very little to remediate the probem by removing the UXO.

On my last days in Laos I was avery subdued  lad. A bit sad to be moving on, leaving the country that I have grown to love despiteall it'squirksand foibles which are many, varied and always frustrating. I did walking tours of the local temples, self directed and self managed (the normal way for falangsinLao). After the 6th temple the "Sim", the main temple bit started to look very much the same with subtle differences due to the time in which they were built. It got to the point where "youv'e seen one Sim, you have seen them all!"     Time to leave, bye bye Lao hello Vietnam.

Vientianne, City of walls.

I have been in VIENTIANNE for 4 days now. In all previous occasions I havecome and gone as quickly as possible. My experiences of the place were not positive and I took the view that it was a shithole of a place and the best thing was to leave as soon as possible. This time however I decided to try and give the place a break and to find some positive aspects about what is the capital City of Laos. While here I had a job to do and that was to get a Vietnamese visa. This was achieved in quick order. Monday I applied and Tuesday I picked it up. I then consulted my Lonely Planet and began by visiting some of the thousands of Wats (temples) that cover the entire city. It sems you can' go more than 3 blocks without bumping into one. Most have schools attached. The first I visited was the oldest one in Vientianne ,Wat Sisket. It was very interesting, particularly the restoration work going on inside the main part of the temple.

A word about restoration.... the entire city seems to be in need of it. All the older buildings have this air of decay, paint peeling, rust showing and everything with a coat of dust. The whole place looks like the cleaners have been doing something other than cleaning. The older buildings all show a very strong connection with French colonial architecture with the obvious asian influence. But the whole effect is of decay and indifference to a broom. The other thing that I have found particular to this place is that every building is surrounded by walls! Of course all the government buildings are surrounded by high walls topped either with barbed wire or rather nasty looking spikes or broken glass. All the modern buildings have that air of stand alone naked but even this is rare. Most of everything else is also surrounded. If the building has a street front the sides and backs are embraced by walls. I am not sure if this is a Lao thing or a carryover from colonial days but it is definitely a feature.

So here I am my last night here. I am sitting in the "Highland Bar" on the banks of the Mekong watching the sunset which is muted by cloud and some very fine rain. I am planning to eat out here and then catch a tuk tuk to the Billabong bar back in town. From there I will go to this resteraunt next door to the Samlo night club (to be avoided as it is a sleaze spot). Ii ate tahere last night and noticed that they had these cute little bamboo containers with steamed dishes in them. It reminds me of an asian tapas and I plan to samples the tastes. Then tomorrow morning it is farewell to the city and off to Luang Prabang.