Hello from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic!

We caught the bus from Chiang Mai to a Thai border town called Nong Khai a couple of weeks ago. We’d been told that the main attraction for Westerners in Nong Khai was the opportunity to visit other Westerners in prison there for drug offences, but actually it turned out to be quite a funny place, so we stayed for a while.

After many months of planning this was also our first sight of the Mekong River, and Laos on the other side. It looked much sunnier than Thailand, and the beer looked colder. This was also our first introduction to what the locals like to call “bicycles”.

Actually these bikes were OK, but built for midgets (i.e. shorter than 6′4”). So we went cycling around to see the sights, weirdest of which was the sculpture park at Wat Khaek. All the massive Buddhist/Hindu concrete sculptures were made in the 70s by a Lao half-man-half-animal yogi called Bunleua and his followers. The one in this photo must be 30m high.

Eventually we crossed the Friendship Bridge to Laos. It is sunnier and the beer (there only is one - called “Beer Lao”) is in fact colder. We’ve found a ramshackle old French colonial style villa to stay in, and have settled down to the pace of life in Vientiane. It’s a very strange capital: dirt roads, open sewers and few streetlights but the occasional piece of monumental communist architecture and several really excellent French restaurants. It’s completely dead after 10 at night, and we get woken at 7 by patriotic -sounding music broadcast from the National Stadium nearby. However, despite being ruled by a communist regime the people openly and actively practice Buddhism, and the religious festivals are massive.

We caught the That Luang festival where Lao from all over the country come to parade wax castles strung with banknotes around the huge golden Stupa, and thousands of monks come in from local temples to receive alms. The monks can’t own much or touch money, so every day they eat whatever they collect in their bowls - and on this day they collected serious sackloads of snacks and sticky rice! We did our bit…

So: we’re seeing a few of the sights (old temples, communist museums etc), having more herbal saunas in the woods, Tim shaved his beard (Eppu very upset), Eppu’s looking for work and has joined the WIG (Women’s International Group - a bunch of Ambassadors’ wives doing lunch and holding bring-and-buy sales), we have new bikes with square wheels and we’re considering learning a bit of the language.

One thing they do really well is the food. The French don’t seem to have left their colony with much in the way of roads or railways but they did leave baguettes and fine cuisine. Not only is there a wide variety of great restaurants, but they’re really cheap.

Thanks to all of you who’ve been in touch by email or left us comments - keep them coming! And we hope you’re all enjoying all the photos in the gallery. Eppu and Polly want to say Happy Birthday to James (oh my haven’t you grown), and lots of love to Helen and Philippe.