We hopped on another overnight train and headed out of Bangkok and onward to Laos. I don't know what Canada did to piss off Laos, but visas for Canadians were more expensive than any other country, including the US. We arrived in the city of Vientiane early in the afternoon and had a bit of time to explore. We walked along the river and then went to the Victory Gate, Laos' version of the Arc de Triumphe. Later in the afternoon we went for another massage, this time a Laotian herbal, which has been the best we have had so far. That evening we went to another restaurant that helps underprivileged children by teaching them to cook.
The next day we moved on to the party town of Vang Vieng. The town is famous for going tubing down the river, which is lined with bar after bar with giant rope swings, ziplines and slides into the river. When we arrived we rented bikes an had a wonderful ride through the countryside to a swimming hole called the blue lagoon. After the bike ride it was quite refreshing to go for a swim in the cool turquoise water. When we got back to town there were countless half dressed drunks that obviously had a "good" time tubing. We went out for supper that night, because it was Australia Day, the place was packed with Aussies who also had a long day of tubing. The next day we decided to rent some tubes and give the river a go. Because it is dry season, the water levels were fairly low and we floated at a nice leisurely pace. There were a few places with some rapids and you had to lift your butt up to avoid the rocks and on a couple of occasions, it was easier to walk. We could see how you could get so drunk as every bar we passed tried their best to get you to stop and have a shot or drink a bucket (like a hi-ball pony pitcher). We ended up stopping at one bar for a drink, but being older and mature, we behaved ourselves. Had we stopped at more of the bars we probably wouldn't have made it back in time to return our tubes and get our deposit back. There are also a lot of injuries on the river due to the party atmosphere. Vang Vieng is kind of quirky because a lot of the restaurants have TV's that play re-runs of Friends and Family Guy. There is also an alternative menu where opium, marijuana and mushrooms are offered. While we were in the town it was reported that there were 2 drug related deaths. It is sad that tourists have ruined this lovely little town as the people in Lao are very conservative.
Our final stop in Laos was the town of Luang Prabang. The town has a lot of wats (Buddhist temples) and monasteries, so there is a big monk population. Every morning at sunrise, throngs of monks come out for the alms giving ceremony. This is where they collect donations of cooked rice and fruit, what they collect is the only food that they can eat for the day. Unfortunately, this tradition is being ruined by inconsiderate tourists that have their in-your-face attitude and flashing cameras. Later that morning we headed to some beautiful waterfalls a little ways out of town. There was a sanctuary there for asiatic black bears. They are similar to our black bears just a little bigger. We hiked to the top of the waterfalls which was a lot of effort with very little payoff (the view wasn't that good). That afternoon we went to the Red Cross and Jen attempted to give blood again, except it was closed. They offered massages as well and the proceeds go to the Red Cross so we both had another wonderful massage. We are going to have to ween ourselves of this habit because I don't think we'll be able to find $5 massages back home and it could get pretty expensive otherwise. We went to the temple at the top of the hill in the middle of town to watch the sunset...another experience ruined by all the tourists. That night we had a wonderful Lao meal where you cook your own soup and meat (chicken, pork, and buffalo) over hot coals...kind of like a fondu.
This was our last stop in Laos and we feel that we have just scratched the surface of this wonderful country...definitely a place to come back to and explore further.