Laos is still celebrating our New Year. Last night our hotel were holding a New Year party for their staff. We lay in bed listening to some quite good karaoke and some really bad!
This morning we left behind the laid back islands of the south and boarded our long tail boat with guide La to find our driver Sac who had stayed on the mainland. A very easy 2hr drive to Pakse and with time to spare before going to the airport La took us for a coffee at the famed Sinouk coffee shop. You've heard of it surely. Seriously though the coffee was fantastic and the pastries can truly rival those of Cafe Valeris. The coffee is grown in the Bolaven Plateau on the Swan Sinouk plantation and as their lodge has a few rooms it should definitely go on our future trip list. Added to that should be the brand new Tree Top Explorer jungle hotel in Paksong. Zip-lining, trekking and staying overnight in a treetop hotel. Www.treetoplaos.com and www.laojunglefly.com
On the journey to Pakse it gave us time to chat to La a bit about Laos' history and of course some politics crept in. France governed from the late 1900's until 1943 then the Japanese came but only for 6 months as then the US dropped the bomb at Horishima and the Japanese hot footed out of there. Having read a bit more about the history covering the last 60 or so years it's so complicated that I shan't even start to comment here!
So we've arrived in Vientiane and our hotel the Green Park is gorgeous and has a greatlocate and Spamand located only 5 mins by Tuk Tuk into the centre.
We met Teng this evening, the Homeland Director of LEOT, the UK based charity helping us to help Funh our young monk in Luang Prabang. He seemed to think Funh is doing just fine, particularly now he's moved to a more centrally located temple. Whilst in Luang Prabang we'll be seeing Funh and Alan Shiel one of the directors of LEOT and it will give us a chance to discuss with Alan Funh's future.
Tomorrow morning we have a guide so will report on the Vientiane highlights once we've seen them!
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