A quick whizz around muddy Laos ! I am sure it would make for a wonderful country in the sunshine, yet I was unfortunate and it rained incessantly. Travelling in uncomfortable pick ups, along dodgy roads would have been hard enough, yet this time they were turned to clay. The vans slipped down hills through pouring rain, and the landscape was hidden by low cloud.
Laos is well within the Golden Triangle, and a visit to the Chinese border town of Muang Xing confirmed this - many addicts, and a sinister feel. The numerous hill tribes are now accustomed to the many tourists that visit this incredibly poor country, and demand money for photos. This further disheartened me, and all the wonderful things I had heard about this relaxing country were not ringing true. In some places frog and sticky rice was the only choice of food, so the prospect of losing weight was quite apparent...
Many travellers hang out in the riverside town of Vang Vien, where you can hire inflatables for trips down the Mekong, visit blue lagoons and caves, and generally chill out in beautiful surroundings. The sun finally came out whilst I was in Vang Vien, yet too many travellers (mainly bloody English) had created a pub atmosphere and I left pretty quickly. Don't want to sound too negative, but after the amazing experience of Burma, Laos was somewhat of a disappointment.
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