Ventiane

Vendeur de ballon dans la capitale.


Plaque officielle de L'Arc de triomphe de Ventiane...


Couche de soleil au bord du mekong a Ventiane.

Champasak province

Ferry to cross the Mekong to Champassak.


Wat Phou, Pre-Angkorian temple in Champassak.

Laos: 4000 islands

Don Kon et Don Det, 2 des 4000 iles.


Risiere le long de Don Det.


Vous n'avez pas fume: une vache rose,
ou plutot albinos.


Fifi qui fait une petite sieste.

Mr. Lao lao!

Or the reason why I couldn't write anything about Laos so far.

Nearly a month in Laos and no post or pics about it. The reason is quiet simple: very slow pace + lots of home brewed Lao lao + laziness = no blog.

Laos is one of this strange country quiet difficult to understand. Total communist state which start very slowly to embrass the capitalism way of living, like some kind of Chinese lazy cousin, make it simple to travel around. I started 3 weeks ago in Don Det one of the 4000 island far south. After 4 days swinging in my riverside bungalow hammock, rafting, reading, drinking fruit shakes and listening to reggae music, I had to move further north or I would have ended as a pot head hippie. I moved to Champasak for a few days, beautiful province on the Mekong river far from the backpapers scene. One pre-angkorian temple, cycling trough the rice fields and talking shit with the locals and the few fellow tourists around a bottle of Lao lao is pretty much the only thing to do there.

My next stop was in Savannakhet. Badly rated by Lonelyplanet (as always), this small very quiet city on the mekong bank happended to be one of my niciest discovery. Incredibly friendly people, I met the designer of a local newspaper which get me to teach him a little bit of english and giving some flash encoding tips. Of course all that ended on the riverside bars drinking Beer Lao and eating chicken feet (which are revolting by the way.). The following day 3 israeliens and I left the city for a 2 day trek in the jungle and locals villages. Again we met lots of extremely nice peoples, playing cards, visiting and teaching a little in the village school, and of course sharing some lao lao.

1 week spent in Ventiane mainly to wait for my chinese visa. Not the best capital in the world, Ventiane need a lot of effort to be enjoyed. In the end, after swimming in some fancy hotel's swimming pool, partying with a bunch of expats, enjoying a contempory percussion gig, swinging some clubs at the driving range and playing golf, I must admit that I loved Ventiane.

Vangvien, just the crasiest place in southeast asia! Another week spent there between rough drinking session and chilled out movies watching afternoons. Beside its amazing surroundings, limestone peaks, lagoon and caves, the main reason to go to Vangvien is tubing. You stick or ass on a truck tire and let yourself floating down the river, stopping as many time as your liver let you, at bars flanked on the riverside. Rope swinging, flying fox, mud volleyball, all that in an extreme state of drunkness make tubing the funniest thing to do in Laos.

I arrived yesterday in Luang Prabang, Laos most beautiful city. Its pretty indeed, to pretty. Locals want only one thing from you: your cash.Tourist scams due to the high level of upper class tourists, very unfriendly staffs, make this city look more like disneyland than the real Laos. I'll try to leave this place as soon as possible. Next stop: Nongkiew...by boat.

More Cambodia's pics

After a heavy Happy hour in the FCC, we get

to drive his tuk tuk...messy.

Cambodian interior design; just niiiice.

Bored of having a dog or a cat as pet?

Try a tarentula! It will soon be your best friend!

A day spotting the irrawady dolphins.

Can't see them? me neither.

Our pick-up truck ride to Mondulkiri province.


Everybody smiles, we are on it for 4 hours...

My tree house in Mondulkiri.

Open air toilets; its always nice to see the stars

when your doing your business.