Vietienne

Laos

August 2005
3 days

Gavin wrote:
Vietienne was really cool, a very chilled out city - nothing like any other SE Asian city so far. We were there for 3 days i think, in which time we found beer Laos jugs (2.5 pints) for US$1 a jug! We also went sightseeing to a few temples and stuff and also to the Garden Temple where we had a herbal sauna and traditional laos massage (very nice and relaxing).

Lorraine wrote:
bit of a horrible journey. It was a 3hour journey in a tightly packed van to the next town. There were some live chickens all stuffed into bags - probably about 20 per bag. It was horrible - you could hear the distress of them - I vowed not to eat chicken in Laos again (lasted 2 days). Also some woman had live fish in a bag and one jumped out and slithered doen my leg. I squealed quite a lot. The poor little fish managed to jump out of the back of the van.

Got to the next town called Paxse. Discovered it wasnt v. good so caught the night bus to Vietiene. So next morning we were in Northern Laos. It was much more pleasant and the people were much friendlier than their miserable counterparts in the south! Spent about 3 days there - saw some of the sights and went to a retreat with herbal sauna and massage - v. nice and relaxing. Also, beer was so cheap - a litre of beer was about 50p. The food was also v. good - lots of french restaurants and italians and bakerys. Also spent the day by a pool in a nice hotel - although it was a bit cold.