Laos

Preparations
South America
North America
Asia
Africa
Europe
Returning home

Pictures
Route
1 China to Udomxai
2 Bus to Luang Prabang
3 Luang Prabang
4 Temples and ballet
5 Down time
6 Vientiane
7 Vientiane
8 To Phonsavan
9 Plain of Jars
10 Hmong Village

Our route is shown in red (click for a more detailed version)

•	Border crossing from Mohan (China) to Boten (Laos)
•	Udomxai
•	Luang Prabang
•	Vientiane
•	Phonsavan (Plain of Jars)
•	Vientiane
•	Flight to Hanoi, Vietnam

Laos

Laos? Not a place we had heard much, or in fact anything, of until we started to look at the map of Southeast Asia again to replan, having abandoned Indonesia. It has its own Lonely Planet guidebook so it's clearly not a total backwater (shame, we had rather hoped for another "Uruguay").

A laid-back land of temples and green hills, with a lingering atmosphere of Indochine, crumbling colonial villas, morning croissants and paté baguettes by the Mekong, combined with orange-robed monks doing their morning round with their copper rice bowls to receive alms before attending to their studies in the many Wats. Unusually for a southeast Asian country, Laos has a low population and traffic "potters" along. In the countryside the living standard is still very basic, with small settlements of wooden huts on stilts (livestock and kids occupy the space below the house during the day), and with livelihoods based on subsistence farming, and slash-and-burn agriculture.

Diary

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Jan	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Jan
Jan	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	Jan

Books, Films, Music, Links, etc.

For more references, check the links section.

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