sendeuros

Lucky the Lao people are pretty trustworthy as they could do a real number on us with the number of currencies they use here and the mental arithmatic that you have to do to work out which is the best deal. We did get quoted over USD2000 for a belt yesterday, I think that girl got her currencies mixed up or thought that we were really gullible.

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.

What an exciting day… After three prompts to get out of bed by Philippa, we were nearly too late for breakfast (Scrambled or “Sunny”); We than headed to the Laos version of the Arc de Triomphe, described as a “…big lump of concrete” (on it’s official plaque!!) – it was a little better than that, with great views from the top!

The most exciting part however was the discovery of a Swedish Pizza Shop for lunch! For those who haven’t tried one,… well,… let me put it this way – it’s almost worth flying to Sweden for! I will have to give you all a bite-by-bite account of the experiance some other time!

Off to the travel agent now, we are going to book some tix up north. Starting to miss some of you now! Oh, we managed to get a local SIM, however nobody has replied, so we don’t know if it works! Probably not!

After transisting in Bangkok, we have finally arrived in humid Laos (pronounced Lao, we confirmed it!!).

Unfortunately we don’t have a great deal to report, as we only arrived this morning (and spent most of today sleeping); Briefly though – the weather is great, the food is cheap (and we haven’t been sick yet) and the locals are SUPER friendly.

The hotel we ended up at is simple, but nice. We had trouble checking in though as we were told the “reception staff are up a tree”. Philippa tricked me however, this place doesn’t have a TV (let alone satellite TV which was my stipulation) !!

Better run, this is 300kip a minute, and we’re not sure how much that is in Aussie dollars – don’t miss any of you yet!