"Accept no substitute"


-- Jackie Brown


Luang Prabang proved to be a rather delightful place (and I apologise for using the word delightful, but I promise to swear later on to balance it out). It was by the Mekong river, lined with palm trees and mosquitos, populated by westerners either buying tat at the night markets or opium from taxi drivers. At night we would meet up with our new group of life-partners (Fred, Chris, Andrew and Will) at the sports bar which, to the delight of Vinny, Fred and Chris showed premiership football, and to the delight of us all served cheap beer Lao. (Beer Lao is the single greatest beer in the world. It has the ability to make you wish you were dead after only a few bottles - what other brand can make such a claim?)

After a good few days in Luang Prabang, looking at caves and waterfalls in equal measures, we headed down towards Vientiene, and started our debate about whether to go straight to Bangkok or onto southern Laos...

The bus to Vientiene was interesting for two reasons. Firstly, it broke down after about an hour, and the air conditioning system decided to stop working and instead leak into the luggage compartment soaking all our bags. And secondly, a man on the bus had an AK-47 assualt rifle under his jacket.

This put all of us rather ill at ease, but he smiled reassuringly and kept his weapon in the overhead shelf so it was all fine. Although at one point it did fall off and clatter noisily onto the floor pointing in our general direction - the kind of moment that gives you pause for thought.

We also started to hear about the trouble in Thailand. It was rather difficult to work out exactly what had happened, as Lao television is almost univerally Thai and the televisions had all gone off that morning. All we had to go on were a few text messages recieved by a couple of British girls we were talking to, from concerned friends and relatives. There was talk of a military coup, a state of emergency and that was about it.

When we arrived in Vientiene, we got onto that resource of resources, bbc.co.uk; one of the best news web sites in the world, and unfortunatly banned in China. And we went out for some dinner where they were showing BBC World, so we got the lowdown.

As I'm sure you all know, the military had ousted the prime minister and taken control of the city. The General in charge of this coup seemed like a nice, personable chap though, and I don't know about anyone else but I believed him when he said everything was going to be just fine. He had the look of the kind of guy who, when not toppling governments, would work on the garden, or perhaps go for country walks with his family.

We also, like good citizens, checked to see if the foriegn office were advising against travel to Thailand, but like real spoil sports they said it was fine. The Ozzies and the Kiwis however were advising their citizens to stay away.

So the debate continued. Straight to Bangkok, where there were tanks in the streets, gatherings of people were illegal and for the next few weeks at least they had a military dictator for a leader? Or down to the relaxing rivers of Southern Laos for some barely earned rest?

It was of course decided that we should get to Bangkok as soon as possible. After all, how often does one get the opportunity to 'mix it up' in an occupied city?

However, people were beggining to return to Vientiene from failed attempts to enter Thailand... the b******s had closed the borders!

That's just not cricket.

So, with some reluctance on my part, we opted to go down to Southern Laos, spend a few days there and then either enter Cambodia or cut back into Thailand.

So that's what we're going to do.....