Laos

Sa-ba-dee!!!
Our stay in Laos was short but sweet. After a comfortable sleeper train journey from Bangkok to the border town of Nong Khai we easily crossed over to "the land of a million elephants", obtaining a visa at the border.
Our first stop was Vientiane, the capital city. It is just a bit bigger than Colchester, with its 200,000 inhabitants, and it feels more like a large village... There is very little traffic, a few deserted avenues, the half dried up Mekong and many Wats (temple complexes) dotted around.
The atmosphere is very laid back, you don't get hassled by tuk-tuk drivers asking you 5 times if they can take you somewhere, if you say no once people don't insist (which is very pleasant!). Everyone is incredibly polite and friendly, and they greet you with a cheerful "sabadee" rather than the usual tourist-pleasing "hello". And even more astonishing : people will stop to let you cross the road!!
The influence from French colonialism is still very visible, everything is subtitled in French, they have a long lunch hour and it is not rare to spot people playing "petanque"!
Lao is very similar to Thai both in writing and sonority, and people from both countries are able to communicate with each other. In Thailand the currency is the Baht (1 pound = 58 B), in Laos you use Kip (1 pound = 18000 Kip).
Laos shares with Cambodia and Vietnam a recent history of misery and bloodshed. The country was part of French Indochina, then South Laos suffered from the nearby Vietnam war, and its own communist revolution was punished by America with carpet bombings, and many UXOs (unexploded ordnances) remain to this day.
Everything in North Laos is pretty traditional and rural, and most people seem to live in small villages of houses on stilts made from materials found in the surrounding forests.
From Vientiane we took a bus through some spectacular limestone peaks (more of those "karst" landscapes we saw in Yangshuo and Halong bay) to get to Luang Prabang, a charming town on the Mekong reminiscent of Hoi An in Vietnam, with its palm fringed riverfront, colonial buildings and many temples. The advantage of the Laos version is that it isn't spoilt by swarms of motorbikes racing in its narrow streets.
Then we decided to take the night bus to Luang Nam Tha, further North. The bus was 5 hours late on departure, and every time someone at the bus station asked us where we were going they let out a compassionate sigh, with their eyes to the ceiling, and a bemused "Ah! Nam Tha!..." We were starting to get worried. In the end it wasn't that bad, there was an engine strapped in the middle of the aisle and they squeezed 6 of us plus our luggage on the 5 back seats. There was a Lao lady sleeping on my shoulder and it was freezing cold because we had to leave the window open for a young couple who kept being sick... Apart from that we weren't any later when we arrived in Luang Nam Tha, so it was all good!
We arrived in the morning in this sleepy town which is mainly known for its ecotourist treks in the nearby National Park. This was the reason for our visit, and we spent two days walking in the jungle, visiting a few villages on the way. The scenery was spectacular, and we won't forget playing a game of petanque against two Belgian guys in the middle of the Northern Lao mountains!
We left the next day on a bus towards the border with Thailand at Huay Xai, in the Northwest. After a flat tire on the bus, a crossing of the Mekong on a raft and 4 hours on a minibus we reached Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand, where we have decided to take it easy after 10 days of intensive travelling!