- You can usually see orange-robed monks everywhere: in the early morning they walk barefoot and single file along the houses in the neighbourhood of their Wat (temple or monastery) so that the residents can give them alms (cooked rice and other food stuffs); but also riding buses, walking through town (mostly in small groups), sending e-mail, etc.
- Actually most Lao men spend from a few weeks to a few years in a Wat some time during or after high school and it is a great honour for families to have a son studying Buddhism.
- Buddha statues in Wats or caves were mostly seen standing or lying down, instead of sitting in lotus position.
- We enjoyed the tasty exotic fruits that could be found in the markets (pineapple, mango, longan, etc.), but mostly had them in shakes. Another drink my parents liked was 'Beer Lao', much tastier than the Chinese brands.
- Papa went crazy on bamboo rice: sticky, black rice cooked with coconut milk in a piece of bamboo that you just peel open. They were often sold by the numerous vendors that would always stream to the bus when we stopped along the road. These vendors also sold roasted chicken, eggs, green mango, cold drinks, etc. etc. either through the windows or by just entering the bus in hordes. Needless to say it was quite a noisy spectacle!
- The geography of the country can be summed up in the lowlands of the Mekong Valley, i.e. the whole western part, and the highlands of the hills and mountains in the rest of the country. In the lowlands you find people of the more affluent Lao ethnic groups, whereas the highlands are more sparsely populated by the various minority hill tribes.
- The country's official name is the Lao People's Democratic Republic, therefore you could say it has a communist regime. However this is not as apparent as in China, not in the architecture in the towns, or in the mind of the people, who seem to be embracing capitalism with a big C (we had no dealings with any government agency though!).
