You’re sat in the office on a dull afternoon reading this immensely interesting blog and quietly wondering to yourself, how can he afford all this? This round the world trip has been a long term plan of mine ever since uni when Jon and I said we would travel once we graduated. Well that didn’t happen due to money and the fact that I was enjoying Spain too much when Jon did set off. For this trip Espe and I had been saving for about a year, helped out by a pay rise (and an unexpected bonus a month before…
I’m really not in a writing mood so you’ll have to wait a bit for more America bashing along with my latest experiences in Vietnam. Heading in the direction of Cambodia tomorrow up the Mekong delta. For the time being, as a follow on from my Secret War post, have a read over this Amnesty International article about Laos. Thanks to Jordi and Nuria for sending the link over.
Everyone has heard about the Vietnam war, but what do you know about the secret war waged by America in Laos? The 1954 Geneva Convention established Laos as neutral. This was recognised at the time by the USA, yet in 1955, the CIA created a special programs to replace French support of the Royal Laos Army against the communist Pathet Lao. The US kept their hands clean using CIA trained local Hmong tribesmen fighting against the Pathet Lao. This escalated and with the start of the Second Indochina war (The American Vietnam war ) America took the opportunity to run…
We were relaxing by the river in Vang Viang watching the sun set over the mountains. Espe is currently battling her way through Orwell’s Burmese Days (which is full of words that I’ve never seen before). She stopped to look up the word “shabby” in her Spanish – English dictionary. “Shabby – Desaliñado / Zarrapastroso” she read out loud. “Zarrapa que?” I responded. “Zarrapastroso” “Quien usa esta palabra” “Pues yo no” “Yo tampoco” came a response from the guy sitting on the riverside bamboo platform next to ours. And that was how we met Nuria and Jordi, a Spanish couple…
I’m not going to apologise for this post which is sure to be rather long. I’ve just got too much to say. We’ve been in Luang Phrabang for a week now. We’d only planed to stay two or three days, but for reasons that will become apparent shortly we’ve stayed longer in this quaint little city. French colonial architecture sitting along side many ornate Wats surrounded by saffron clad novices makes for a pleasant place to be. My first impressions were of how much slower the pace of life is here in Lao. Everyone is so friendly, novices (trainee monks)…
After 6 hours spent on two different buses in varying states of decay, we reached the Thai border town on Chiang Kong. From here it was a short hop across the border, and as it happens the river Mekong, into Laos via the slackest overland border crossing I’ve ever seen (EU doesn’t count). With the plan of taking the slow boat down the Mekong to Luang Phrabang, we were up early the next day with the intention of securing good seats. We’d been warned in Umphang by an American couple about the boat for the two day trip being absolutely…