08.18 Today I can say that the sky is gray. We are on our way to get us some breakfast. We are about to try breakfast in Laos, breakfast in Savannakhet and at Hoong Thip Hotel. The flags outside are dry again and back on their place.

10.39 We had a great buffet breakfast. Now we are at the small tourist information in the city. We are being informed about bus times and ticket prices and also where tickets and postcards are sold. They also offer us a little to drink here.

Christer standing in front of the mighty Mekong river.

10.57 Once again we´re looking over the mighty Mekong but it is Thailand on the other side this time. What yesterday felt like a long journey, a mighty leap, is in fact not that much of a trip. We can almost see our previous hotel from our new one. It is just some trees and buildings in the way. We were at the post office and arranged with postcards and stamps before we got here.

A buddhist monastery and a tuk-tuk, things you can see everywhere in Laos and Thailand.

Peter waiting for this photo to be taken, not noticing the monks approaching him.

11.13 It is time for a cup of coffee at Café de Paris. Here we might take some time to write our postcards. Outside of here is the main square of the city. There are low buildings along the sides of it and at the further end there is a church (cathedral). It is more gravel and mud than asphalt and concrete. It feels like a street in the Wild West.

12.24 There where three different currencies on the coffee bill. Now we are surfing the internet on some computers in the proximity of the cafe. I’ve tried to book a plane ticket between Vientiane and Luang Prabang. The flights are at 09.00 or 11.50 on the 21st. The sad part is the fact that it must be booked at least three days ahead. I’ve missed it with about half an hour. Tomorrow we will be on a nine hour bus ride so it would be great to avoid another eleven hours bus ride on top of that. That is why we’ve checked the flight. The name of this place is in fact Dao Savanh Restaurant. We have to take back what we said about Café de Paris. We’ve also talked to a middle-aged American who sat by the computer next to me. We’ve informed him about our travel journal page and about the website geocities where you can put up free websites like this one.

13.00 It is time for lunch. We’ve ordered chicken and pork with rice and vegetables. Three persons have been here to confirm our orders. We are at Sensa Bai.

13.37 A man with a bacpack who turned out to be Swedish was just here by our table and asked about a hotel here in Savannakhet. We directed him and his English speaking lady friend to our hotel.

One of many beautiful buddhist buildings in Savannakhet.

13.47 We’ve made a stop during our walk back home. We’ve bought fruit and it is raining. I am pleased to be under a roof. To squat as I´m writing this makes my knees hurt.

14.45 The rain took a break and we went to an ATM. We withdraw half a million each. Now the torsos and clothes will be soaked and washed. We’ve met plenty of young children who practise their English by saying "Hello!".

15.31 We are watching a movie/TV-series which seems to be from the 1970´s. The origin of it is unknown to us. Now it is a commercial. Lao revolutionaries in black and white mixed with nature sceneries in colour.

Mosquitos being killed to prevent malaria and dengue fever.

16.29 A man on the street below our window walks around with a device which looks like a chainsaw with a huge pipe. Smoke comes out of the pipe. He walks from house to house blowing out the smoke. The smoke smells like diesel. Could it be against mosquitoes or other bugs?

18.52 Curiosity, mailbox hunt or perhaps hunger drove us from the hotel. Now we´re sitting down at Café Chez Boune. Here we will have pizza and try the local dark brew.

20.44 Pizza and beer was just great. After that we went through the dark streets and to the post office to put our postcards in the mailbox there. We bought a little to eat for tomorrow’s bus trip. Rain was pouring down as we got out of the store. We found shelter under a roof. I’ve just visited a massage place to get rid of an aching feeling. I needed to visit a toilet. Now that fluid is gone but the rain is still here. Someone just sneezed.

21.04 The rain slowed down and we were able to get back home. It is once again time to figure out what shall be packed where in the backpack. The rain has made my hair wet and a shower will not make it drier.

The first raindrops are falling on Savannakhet town. Later it was heavy rain for hours.

Saturday 19th of July

07.10 A dog is sleeping on the road below our window. There will be a lot of road and some sleeping today. Within an hour we will begin our 9 hour journey to the nation’s capital, Vientiane. We will eat a lot at the buffet breakfast and also try to sneak down some bread to bring on the bus ride. It isn't because we are cheap. We just haven’t found any decent bread to buy in this town, just crisps and some giant bags of toast bread.

08.01 Forget buffet, forget bread collecting. We will get one in advance prepared breakfast. We could choose between egg and sausage, egg and pâté and some Chinese eggdish. That is tough for people who don’t like eggs (Christer).

08.55 We split the few pieces of bread that we got. Half of it now and half as travel snacks. Soon we will head for the bus terminal. CNN is showing Larry King Live and a debate about UFO´s, aliens and conspiracies.

09.05 Once again we´re sitting in front of a reception waiting for a tuk-tuk. The girl in the reception has called for one. A fly is walking around on one of my legs. It is annoying to say the least.

This bus is waiting to leave Savannakhet. We are waiting as well.

09.34 The tuk-tuk driver took us to the bus terminal here in Savannakhet and asked for 10 000 each. We bought tickets for 65 000. Now we are seated on the bus and wait for the time to be 10.30. It is when our bus will leave from here. Next to us is the bus from Mukdahan. It is the one going across the border, the one we should have arrived with the other day if the visa guys hadn’t been too slow. With the tickets comes insurance. They will pay 35 millions in case of our death or disability, 2, 1 millions for medical treatment and 160 000 for hospital. Just a pity the currency is in laotian kip.

10.02 We will not leave at 10.30, at least not from Savannakhet. We are already on our way.

10.11 To fill up the tank here in Cambodia cost 11,670 kip/liter. You can choose between regular and diesel. How can I know this? Well we are at a petrol station.

10.42 We are making a new bus station stop. There are several food women outside of the bus. They sell chicken, egg on stick and something green that looks like a showerhead on a stick. They also offer ice cool beverages and toilet paper. All I want is for the bus to get going.

Women selling a lot of things we don´t want to eat.

11.04 Not much has happened since the last note. Well, the driver has eaten at the little diner here at the bus station and now he is playing with a straw. The green showerheads aren’t on a stick. It is more of a stem or stalk.

11.15 The bus driver has been lying on a mat under the bus with some tools next to him. There is nothing wrong with the bus. Just a routine check I guess. We’ve got a timetable to follow. That is why we have been standing here in Xeno.

11.37 We are on the move again. But we are currently standing still. More passengers are boarding the bus.

13.23 We’ve been to the toilet and walked around to stretch our bodies. We are now in Tha Kaek. There are plenty of ants on the floor of the bus. A thing that we’ve noticed here is how good the knowledge of foreign languages is here in Laos. The teenage girls we paid to get into the toilets here at the bus station are better in English than the hotel staff in some cities in Thailand. The reason might be the fact that Laos has been a European (French) colony and Thailand hasn’t.

Taking a break in Tha Kaek.

14.42 Our journey to the north continues through a green forest. We’ve seen cows, water buffalos, dogs and goats along the road.

15.46 We will soon carry on after having yet another break in a small village with a huge mast. Some of the passengers has brought with them cages with birds and others are sitting on plastic chairs in the bus alley.

We can see beautiful views from our bus window.

A stop in a village somewhere......in Laos.

16.31 We are passing over the river Nam Ka Ding not far from the city Pak Kading. We´ve got about three more hours left. We just heard a crashing sound at the back of the bus and we’ve stopped. Is something broken? No, we carry on again, sweet! Look, a distance sign, it is 180 kilometres left to Vientiane.

19.24 We’ve just got 20 kilometres left. It is dark outside and our pace is slow. We’ve seen some amazing things through the bus window. In a small, inconsiderable, poor village some of the passengers got out and were greeted by friends and relatives. An elderly woman sat in some kind of mobility scooter of supreme kind. It looked shiningly new and seemed to be of the latest model. How has she gotten hold of it? We also saw some young boys playing a kind of football over a volleyball net. Considering their skills and agility they would fit in the elite of some kind of ballgame. One of them jumped, kicked and smashed the ball two metres above the ground.

19.33 There are street lights along the road, a road that is getting wider. I want to have a shower. I want to eat!

19.45 We’ve finally reached the bus station in Vientiane. We thought that we had booked us some seats on a tuk-tuk but here we are sitting on the back of a "jumbo". It is a bigger version of the classic sãwngthãew. Next to me is a bush cutter. We’ve asked to be taken to the hotel Mali Namphu that we’ve read about in the guidebook and on the internet.

20.13 Mali Namphu turned out to be full. Now we have to find another place to stay. On top of this it is rain in the air. It seems like half of Vientiane is willing to offer us a ride with their tuk-tuks. We hear shouts and offers from everywhere.

One of the rooms in the junior suite at Lane Xang Hotel.

20.32 We ended up at Lane Xang Hotel and room 321 which is a junior suite. We’ve got two rooms with balcony, large bathroom and TV´s. The room cost us 50 US-dollar a night for both of us. The reason for this luxury is the fact that all the other rooms are occupied. Now we will get things together and get out for some dinner.

21.16 We’ve jumped around avoiding the puddles with our umbrellas in our hands. We ended up at the French restaurant Le Provencal near the Nam Phu square and here we will be having Spaghetti Bolognese. Our umbrellas await us behind the counter.

22.47 I am just out of the shower dressed in a bathrobe and I´m sitting in one of our armchairs. My clothes are drying out on the balcony. We can see Mekong from our balcony. We have no bath towels so I had to settle with an ordinary towel.

Sunday 20th of July

08.18 I am once more out from the shower, once again in a bathrobe. The sleep was good and ever so needed. Today we will get to know yet another capital. We will check out things for the future, buy more stuff, take pictures and eat.

09.49 We had plenty to choose from for breakfast but still not a large variety. They offered different noodle dishes (none with meat), two kinds of juice, fruit, bread and warm beverage. Now we just have to fix the final things here before this day chores begin.

Our hotel balcony has a view towards the river Mekong and Thailand.

10.45 We’ve thought back and forth if we will go by plane or bus tomorrow. We’ve decided for plane. I wonder when it leaves.

10.52 We are about to be booked on the morning flight to Luang Prabang. We are in a travel agency just close to our hotel. Sure, it would have been nice to go by bus through a beautiful landscape but I am afraid it would have tarred us down. The bus ride up to Luang Prabang can take everything between 9 and 13 hours depending on which bus you go with. After all we´ll fly again on the day after tomorrow.

Peter standing in the tourist street Pangkham Road.

A happy monk walking through Vientiane this beautiful Sunday.

12.39 We’ve bought postcards at Monument Books, a store with a stench of paint. After that we’ve sat down for muffins and coffee at Joma Bakery Café. Postcards have been written and the stench of the paint remains in my nostrils. One card remains to be addressed and then we are off! It is Sunday and the pace in the streets is slow, it is almost just tourists in the streets. Some of them are riding bikes.

13.45 After a trip out on the internet where we booked us a home in the next city and sent a request if we are allowed into Bahrain although we’ve been to Israel, we´re seated at Sabaidee Restaurant. It is the third restaurant with the same name that we’ve been to this year. We are about to try some Lao dishes.

14.20 I got a dish that I suspect isn't the one I ordered. I think Christer got what I asked for. They brought his dish later. How can things go so wrong? There are hardly any other guests here. It should not be possible to mix things up. What will we pay for, what we had or what we ordered?

That Dam (the black stupa) in Vientiane.

14.47 What started so great today has taken a turn for the worse. We didn’t get what we ordered at lunch, I have most likely paid more than the dish cost, the gentleman who sold us soft drinks down by riverside charged us too much, our room isn’t cleaned and we´ve still got no bath towels.

15.10 We told the reception about the unclean room without towels. The lady in the reception didn’t look very pleased. She promised us to talk to the ”cleaning woman”.

15.55 Here I am under yet another Triumphal Arch. Last year it was Paris and this year Vientiane. It is built from American concrete in 1969. The concrete was originally sent here to be used to build an airport but they used it for this arch instead. Here as in Paris an avenue stretches from the arch. It is not the same amount of traffic here though. During our walk here things happened, both good and less good. We found a little shop which sold local Lao coffee. That was good, can be used as a gift (the coffee that is not the store). The not so good thing was a nagging woman who kept asking if we understood her and why we didn’t buy her food.

Patuxai, the Triumphal Arch in Vientiane.

A street scene in Vientiane. Tourists leaving in a tuk-tuk. The local woman doing her work.

Christer looks confused, wondering if he is in Paris?

17.22 We finally managed to buy some stamps. Now we are down by the Mekong again. Behind me music is played and skateboards are ridden. We’ve also bought beer. Christer bought his from Trai Nee.

17.37 The room is cleaned and we´ve got bath towels. Now I will drink some of my expensive soda before I wash up today’s clothes. It is possible that I might need some time to put on the stamps on the postcards as well.

19.57 We are as of now looking at a Lao TV channel. It seems to be a commercial now. Before this it was a quick documentary about Vietnam’s wars against France and the United States. The hostess is a strict lady in a uniform. In the upper left corner of the screen is the flag of Laos and also a flag with the hammer and the sickle.

Lao National TV has very strict presenters from time to time.

20.38 We’ve sat down at Ali Restaurant. It is an Indian restaurant on the street next to the hotel. I am looking forward to see what they will serve us. Might it be what we ordered?

21.42 We were served and ate just what we had asked for. After that we mailed our postcards and went home. One of our air conditioners is stubborn and refuses to cooperate. Out in the street we saw a dog having some problems with a cockroach. The dog sniffed on the cockroach which started to run, the dog put his paw on it and finally the dog started to bark quite nervously. This didn’t help much; the pest still didn’t want to do as the dog wanted!

22.51 It is time here at Lane-Xang Hotel to have a Lane Xang beer. We’ve had balcony- and evening beer. The beer is quite good. I would buy it if we had it home. The stay here in Vientiane has been pleasant but I will choose another hotel the next time.

Lane Xang Hotel in Vientiane, capital of Laos.

Monday 21st of July

05.56 A sound from a cat just woke me up. It came from Christer´s cellphone. The next thing I heard was a dripping sound. It came from the air conditioner that leaked. Christer stopped the cat signal and I placed a towel in the puddle. Our airport transport leaves in an hour. We are going to Luang Prabang, our final destination in Laos.

06.31 We are waiting to be let in to the breakfast room. Breakfast is served from 06.30 according to a sign here. I don’t know what they offer today. I do know that we will be on our way away from here in half an hour.

07.04 The breakfast is eaten. There was a slight lack of forks. We ate the pieces of melon with toothpicks. Our transport is here. It will be a mini bus today. It is time to board it. Airport transfer is included in the room price. Great!

Christer spending some time among the yellow chairs at the domestic terminal at Wattay International Airport.

07.19 Yet another airport, Wattay International Airport, is reached. I’ve seen bigger ones. Soon we will check in our luggage. We are in the waiting hall of the domestic terminal.

07.47 Our backpacks have been X-rayed, weighed, etiquetted and placed on the back of a pick-up. We have checked in!!

08.17 We had to show our passports and tickets to a gentleman by a counter. He searched for us in his list. He didn’t find us there and wrote us in by hand. The reason why we weren’t on the list might be the fact that we bought the ticket so late yesterday. All went smoothly at security and the boarding card check. Now all that is left is to wait. There is a plane outside of the window. Is it ours?

08.34 A helicopter just landed. We will not go by that one or? Some of the people here have that white band around their wrists that I mentioned earlier.

08.53 The plane that was outside of the window has started its engines and taxed out. We are not on it. I don’t mind that because we are not going to Luang Nam Tha.

Laos is beautiful from the air as well.

09.22 We just took of with Lao Airlines flying towards Luang Prabang.

10.03 Onboard we were served water, pastries and fruit. Now we are waiting for our backpacks. We’ve already landed. Through the plane window we´ve seen the hills and valleys we otherwise would have seen from the bus.

10.25 The minibus we travelled with from the airport has taken us to Vilay Guest House in Luang Prabang. We are waiting for them to fix the room we booked through internet yesterday. Around this time one year ago we were on Trinidad and wondered what we would be doing one year later. Now we know for sure.

11.06 It´s peace and quiet here. We are sitting in a sofa and wait. We’ve checked our website with the help of a guest computer standing here. There is still no news about the room. We can also hear a rooster crying out. Something is wrong with the tailpiece, he is kind of spluttering.

11.14 We are in room 404 but I don’t think we are where we have booked. We went across the street and into Tanoy Guest House. They wanted us to leave our shoes in the lobby/hall. I almost crash down on my rear end as I tried to remove the shoes with the backpack still on. What will the room cost and who shall we pay to?

Peter at Joma Bakery Café. Wonderful coffee and muffins here!

11.45 We’ve just paid 45 000 kip each. We are staying at Tanay under the supervision of Vilay’s. We’ve arranged with airport transport at 15.00 tomorrow. We are currently at Joma Bakery Café. It is in the same chain as the one yesterday. We’ve made similar orders. Here is mine, coffee and muffins.

12.41 We are once again looking out over good old Mekong. This river has become a travel companion. It has been with us five days in a row already and we hope to see more of it in Vietnam later this summer. Some house boats are lying side by side below of me. We are about to walk around in our new home town. The sky is blue and it is hot today.

Mekong River

The Laos flag on a boat in the Mekong river.

Christer at a monument about the 12 years of cooperation between France and Laos
to save and protect the world heritage town of Luang Prabang.

Nam Khan River.

We watched a Lao Airlines flight leave Luang Prabang.

13.34 We are looking at a new river. This time it is Nam Khan we can see. It pours out in Mekong not far from here. Luang Prabang is situated where the two rivers join together. We are starting to notice the heat but no hunger. We’ve also passed some beautiful buddhist buildings and among other things seen monks talking to some tourists.

14.25 The hunger just caught up on us. We have to deal with this fact. We went to LpB Restaurant. Just close to here is the Mekong. We’ve seen different parts of the town. It is so peaceful here although the place is crowded with tourists.

Peter writing in his journal at LpB Restaurant.

16.02 We are back in the room. Here we’ve done our best to cool down. Before we got here Christer was standing drinking a soft drink. A man came up to him and told him he should drink Beer Lao instead. But he couldn’t offer Christer any beer. All he sold was ice cream. Now we will try to check out what else this town has to offer. No, the time has come to hang my towel out to dry on our balcony.

18.07 We are still in the room, so lazy. Now we have to get things going.

Luang Prabang, considered by many to be the best destination in Southeast Asia. We agree!

Monks learning English. Tourists learning about buddhism.

19.37 We’ve passed countless of market stands with myriads of things, among which we bought some t-shirts. We are currently at Phousi Garden Restaurant. It is actually the restaurant of Phousi Hotel. Here we will be having Lao food. I am going to try water buffalo sausage. A large part of Luang Prabang becomes market stands come night time. Where it used to be streets there is now only market stands.

21.00 Well that’s it, I just had water buffalo. I liked it. We’ve sat down at an internet café and my computer is ever so slow. Our shoes are waiting for us outside. They are not allowed inside.

21.51 I didn’t manage to speed up my computer so I went out to the shoes. We walked around together until Christer was done. We bought something to drink and went home in the dark. Out in the same dark an old man is playing a Lao? string instrument.

22.21 The old man plays on. It is nice with some evening music. It sounds like a mix of a snake charmers flute and a violin. He is accompanied by some crickets.

23.54 The rain started to fall just as we were about to go to sleep. Rain blows in through the mosquito net and down on the table, our belongings, the floor and our beds. I reached out my hand and closed the shutters.

Evening market in Luang Prabang.