We're in Laos now...

April 3rd Days left: 27
Today we woke up at 5:30 in the morning so we could catch a flight from Vietnam to Laos. My first impression of Laos was that it was very sunny and very hot. We went to look for a hotel. After two hotels we decided that we would probably want to have breakfast so we did. Then Matthew, Papa and I watched over our bags while Mama went room finding. Mama found a room so we went and got settled. My second impression of Laos was rainy. It started to rain hard. All of a sudden the torrential downpour began leading into our room! Then it stopped. Before it stopped we could look outside and see little waterfalls coming off the corrugated metal roofs.
The visitor does not have ESP.

April 4th Days left: 26
Today we saw lots of stuff. For breakfast I had an egg sandwich with ham and cheese. Then we went to Wat Mixay which had neat dragon bannisters. Then we went to Wat Ong Tem Mahawihan. Right beside it was a big tree with lots of vines and two Buddha statues underneath it. Then we walked across the street to another temple called Wat Hai Sok. Inside it were ..... cats! It has been a long time since we have seen cats so close. There were many painted scenes on the ceiling.
Then we went a little further and came to Wat In Paeng. They were doing a lot of work on one of the gates. I think that maybe they were actually building it, not just fixing it. They had a lot of moulds and were making decorations out of cement. Then we walked to a restaurant and had fruit shakes. We sat there for a while and then walked on but everything was now closed for lunch. While we were waiting we had lunch. I had the egg sandwich again. Then we went and saw more temples.
Wat Si Saket was interesting in that it had ten thousand seven hundred something Buddha statues. Most of them (8000)were about two and a half inches tall, but some of them (120) were life sized and one of them was HUGE! there were some others of varying sizes in between.
Then we went to Haw Pha Kaew where there were a lot of religious objects. All of the Buddha statues were holding money. Then, as we were leaving, disaster struck! Froggy's sting broke! We left with saddened hearts.
Then we went to the bus station to check the bus schedules and prices. Then we walked back, stopping on the way to look at That Dam (a Buddhist stupa). It was quite big. Then we went back to the hotel and Matthew and I made Froggy's string even longer than before!

April 6th Days left: 24
Yesterday we arrived in Vang Vieng by bus and lazed around. Today we took four inner tubes and floated down the Nam Song River. After 20 metres we pulled into shore at one of the giant swings. These swings are very, very tall and the thing you swing on is shaped like an upside down 'T'. You grab onto the arms of this T, leave all rational thought behind and swing from a platform 45 feet above the water until you reach the height of your swing on the other side, then you turn and go a foot or two back and then you let go and fall. Mama did it three times, I did it twice and Matthew and Papa did it not at all. Then we got back in our tubes, floated another 20 metres, and stopped at a zip line (flying fox, flying gibbon). For this one you zip down the line and let go just before you hit the spring at the end. Matthew and I did this numerous times, Mama once and Papa not at all. We had two fruit shakes there and then floated away, this time, Papa said, for more than 20 metres. Famous last words. We stopped 20 minutes later for lunch and then set off again. Three hours later, we began to wonder why there weren't any more restaurants Then my inner tube began to leak. I kind of stopped it and we quickly paddled down stream. We decided enough was enough soon after and we paddled to shore. Papa was tired of it he said, and it was five hours since we started so we stopped.


Jonas