We arrived at the Tibetian Cafe at 8.30am, we were asked if we “check-out” the girl looked confused when I said no we “check-in”. We were lucky enough to get a room at 9am and sleep off our fatigue. On investigation we were in Zhongdian the last stop before Tibet. We spent the day walking around the old town (getting sun burnt) and staring at the locals (in their traditional gear) as they stared back at us :) We worked out the bus system and got up to an old Tibetian monastery, that felt a little like the lost city tucked away in the hills. Though those monks have learnt about about capitalism, 30 yuan entry fee (AU$5). It was beautiful! Mainly looking at the huge hills around us. And against all early expectations, I got sunburnt that day.

As we were only able to secure one nights accommodation, we boarded an 8.30am bus to Lijuang (making our way south again). It took 5 hours to make to 160km trip across the mountains. And as always there were a few moments that made our hair stand on end. The trip was one of the most beautiful that I have ever done, through Tibetian rural towns, along the Yanzi river as it decends from the hills and twisting our way through enourmous mountain passes! But we were exhausted when we finally got to our destination, and not for the first time this trip, we did wonder where the hell we were, as our bus pulled in, we heard an announcement for a bus leaving for Lijuang, “isn’t that where we’ve come too?”. We found some other foriegners and confirmed that we were infact in Lijuang. We found a taxi (after passing the touts trying to sell us their services) and he took us around the corner and said he didn’t know where the nominated hotel from the Lonely Planet was. After signing that he could ring the hotel for directions, we went for another 10minute journey (which I think was just a big block) to pull up at another hotel and he told us to wait. We realised that the hotel was in a part of town that was restricted to traffic so the concierge from the hotel met us with a trolley. We were exhausted and thinking this hotel better be okay because we have expended so much effort trying to find it. We treated ourselves to the suite (two TVs), ate quickly and slept fo the next 5 hours.

That evening we went and explored the old town, to find that it must be China’s number one tourist destination (for the Chinese). With flag waving tourist guides everywhere. That evening we went to a moving performance of the Naxi Orchestra, not really our style of music, but so moving knowing the history of this country and the fact that the conductor had spent 21years in jail during the cultural revolution, due to his Western Sympathies (for playing Schubert). 50% of the orchestra was over 80years old, having hid their instruments during the cultural revolution, the other half of the orchestra were our age, it seems that traditional music here has missed an entire generation.

This country is one of contradictions, a communist country that does not allow freedom of religion yet photos of the Dali Lama were everywhere in the Tibetan Monastry we visited, a country that is closed and censors the press yet 80% of the audiance at the orchestras performance were Chinese, coming to see the conductor as they had heard of his story throught magazines and TV (about his time in prison from 28years old to 48years old).

Last night we also saw some Chinese night life, which seems really fun. Groups of people chanting songs at each other across the river and lots of dancing (to new and old music). We hope to get into it a little more tonight as it is apparently the biggest festival in the Lijuang calender.

Customs was efficent, thought the health questionairre a little personal, “Have you experienced any symptoms of HIV? or pyschosis?”. A the airport we discoverd that there was no currancy exchange or ATM which we were banking on, as we were unable to buy Chinese Yuan in Thailand. This left us in a bit of an awkward postition, with 30+ taxi drivers trying to secure our business, rain+++ and no money (only USD). We finally negotiated (with no English) a trip in a private vehicle to a hotel of our choice for USD4. We got caught in peak hour traffic, in what we were expecting to be a country town (3 million people), whe

The food facilities consisted of a grass hut 10 metres from the terminal building, where the locals were hitting the Laos home made whisky early. So as the hours passed and our 8.25am plane had not arrived at the airfield, the locals got even drunker. At 10.30am an offical made an announcement (in person) in Lao, it was roughly translated to us that the plane would be there at 12noon. This brought us relief as we had a nice hotel booked and paid for in Vientiane which we thought that we wouldn’t see and connecting flights to Kumning tomorrow at 5am. So we sat and ate noodle soup with the locals, and consumed the last bottle of drinking water that the store had, when the offical came out to the grass hut and the locals exploded in laughter (4 hours of drinking whisky by now), a tuk-tuk driver keen to secure our business translated the message for us, the plane had been can celled for today and would run tomorrow. ANOTHER DAY IN HAUI XAI!!!!

Matt went to the terminal building to retrieve our baggage as I made a quick phone call to Laos airlines, we needed a refund on our tickets!! We were going to miss the plane to Kumning and the next one isn’t scheduled until Saturday from Vientiane and as much as we love Laos, our visas would not extend that far and we wanted some new scenery. Matt and I made the quickest decision of our trip….we were going to Thailand!

I finally got across the information to the women on the ticketing line that we needed a refund for our tickets, she was quite obliging and said this was fine and we could collect the money when we returned to Vientiane, it took a little longer for me to explain to her that we were not returning to Vientiane. Again Laos hospitality coming through, she provided me the local Laos Airlines office details and said that we could obtain a refund via them.

Meanwhile, Matt had been doing some explaining to the baggage handling people, he was able to retrieve our bags after he convinced them that we were not returning for the flight tomorrow and was also able to obtain the original voucher that had been removed from our ticket so we could obtain a refund. He had also found the man that we had to talk to about getting our refund!

So the cheepest tuk-tuk ride our entire time in Laos, along with 5 other locals and their luggage, took us to the Laos Airlines Hauy Xai office . After another 60 minutes of waiting and listening to phone call in Lao to all sorts of offical people, the man behind the desk announced that he had organised our refund and we had to make our way to the bank. At the bank he gave us crisp new USD and we felt grateful that the system had work. we quickly changed our kip to baht and the Laos airline official dropped us at the immigration office.

It was here that Matt made his first “land” border crossing, which involve climbing into thin speed boats and being taken across the Mekong. It was raining and the banks were muddy and we were filthy by the end of it, but we were in Thailand and it felt like we were moving again. As the they are famous for a Thai tuk-tuk had sorted us out within 10 minutes, we were at the bus station and on a bus to Chang Rai. In Chang Rai we had our first meal for the day at 4.30pm as we waited for our 6.30pm bus to Chang Mai.

At the moment we are sitting in a hot internet cafe, talking to our parents on skype (isn’t the internet great) and listening to live Laos music at an open air college graduation ceremony. At the moment we are in Luang Prabang in the North of Laos in the mountains. It is very beautiful here, hence touristy. It is were the Mekong meets the Nam Khan river. So much to say, mix of local politics and the way of life here…but not sure that I wanna be sitting on the internet for hours typing it all out or that you will want to read all of our rants and take on the local situation. In brief the Chinese seems to have their eyes on Laos for Hydro electricity schemes and there is also pressure to start mining exploration here…the promise of big $$$ seems to be more aluring than the small amount of money they can make from keeping the environment beautiful with ecotourism and local industry that relies strongly on the environment.

So more about us, we have turned a little soft. We are staying in a beautiful hotel with air conditioning and hot water on the river front. Tomorrow we board a 5 star boat and travel along the Mekong river towards the Thai border to a place called Huay Xai which is a two day slow boat trip away. So we off set our guilt by visiting and supporting some local NGOs by buying local produce, yes we have had to expand our packs, and maybe have to buy a second bag :) We visited an NGO yesterday called Big Brother Mouse, that produces fun books in Lao to encourage children to enjoy reading. We have also bought up big in local textiles and visited the Laos versions of Friends which is a restaraunt that trains street kids in hospitality skills.

Any how we will bore you with more stories and photos in the coming weeks. Off to see the beautiful sunset.

So we’ve been to the Paris end of Vientiane (as Matt described yesterday), today we headed to the more typical southeast asian site of the Pha That Luang. Matt and I were not really expecting much, and did the obligitary visit as it is the number one tourist site. But it actually was something quite impressive and has been restored to what I imagine was its former glory. There are still works going on around the place, but is a national monument that the Lao people should be proud of. This is were I was gonna put a photo of a link to the impressive spire and surrounding temples until Matt can upload the photos, but he tells me this is illegal…this is what I will be telling him next season of 24 he downloads!

We went to a local place for dinner last night, thought that we would give the locals something to laugh at. No menu in english, infact no menu and only one man with a few english words to work with. I even left the guide book at home! So with our three Lao words (Hello/Goodbye, Thankyou and Delicous) and this mans five English words (no Menu, noodle salad, Beerlao [which I think is technically a Lao word]), we got a delicous you guessed it noodle salad with Beerlao (actually Pepsi) all for 12000kip, I know they really took us for a ride. That is USD1.20 for both of us.

Anyhow, better run and have some more fun.