Will attempt to rewrite all I have just written before it was rudely wiped by a power cut brought on by the third monsoon thunderstorm we have had in 24 hours. At last it looks like the rainy season has begun after what was apparently a freakishly hot May even by Lao standards and given the drop in temperature I have never been so grateful to see rain!
After we dragged ourselves away from Luang Prabang we headed south to Vang Vieng via amazing mountain road (although not so amazing for the travel sick lao people who don't seem used to their roads). Not so impressed by the costa-del-sol-but-with-more-drunks feel of Vang Vieng (although surrounding scenery of misty mountains and jagged limestone formations was beautiful). So we left after one night via pick-up truck / bus with a monk, a sunglasses sporting old couple who had very bizarre taste in snacks (at one point the old lady wipped out a leaf dipped it in a pot of what looked like face cream and started munching away) and a woman with bags of fish which she sold along the way getting the bus driver to stop each time she'd attracted an interested buyers attention.
Arrived in Vientianne, the capital of Laos. Definitely not as charming as Luang Prabang and it had a bit of a seedy feel to it but lots of good restaurants and we were true sight see-ers visiting temples, their museum and their asian version of the arch de Triomphe (it's own information sign described it as a monster of concerete but we quite liked it). Also went to a meditation session at a temple which was interesting although thinking about nothing was difficult in the company of red ants, flies and mosquitoes.
From there we took a night bus to Paksey in the south. Very bizarre design - there were layered rows of beds along each side of the bus that were single bed sized but were supposed to be shared by two peope whether or not they happened to know each other, I was very grateful my ticket put me next to Jess! Wasn't so grateful about the man above me who had two mobiles each with very loud and constantly going off ring tones into which he had constant angry and very loud conversations for the first few hours of the trip, never before was I so grateful to the technology of mp3 players.
When we arrived at Paksey at half 6 in the morning the transport hub feel of the place wasn't so appealing so we went by bus to a small town called Champasak to see the ruins of Angkor Watt's predeccessor - Wat Phu. Unfortunatey this wasn't as simple as it sounds and after two monsoon thunderstorms we didn't make it to the actual temple till this morning. Worth the wait though as there were almost no tourists there and wandering through the rubble in the mist felt like we were the first people to discover it.
Very glad it was worth a visit because our journey back to civilisation took one minibus, a raft across the Mekong (by raft I mean planks of wood over two canoes one which had a motor and the second which the 'driver' spent the 5 minute crossing scooping water out of), a pickup truck, a bus and then a tuk tuk. Now we are back in Paksey and have had pizza for lunch I am seeing it with new and far more appreciative eyes!
