The Adventures of Jim & Rhonda

Here is the link to Cambodia pics. Hopfully Vietnam will be up next week.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimandrhondartw/sets/72157603595548160/

Cheers, Jim & Rhonda

Happy New year 2008!!!!

We arrived in Laos on 30Dec and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Vientiane, the capital, is only around 200,000 people. The airport is small, the entry visa process simple, and immigration almost non-existant. We had made a hotel reservation since we’d be arriving over New Years eve and the first 3 hotels we tried were not available we thought we’d best just get something confirmed.

The driver from the Lao Orchid hotel picked us up and it was a short 15minute ride to the hotel. And I do mean hotel!!!! We were not sure what the quality would be but rather than a guesthouse this is, in fact, an actual hotel. For $35/night we have a huge, comfy bed, a bathroom with an actual seperate shower WITH A DOOR so we won’t flood the entire room when we shower, a balcony with a partial view over the Mekong river and mini-bar and cable tv, etc. The check in was a complete change as well. All hotels in Vietnam are required by the government to hold your passports while you’re staying at their place, here they just asked our name, didn’t even ask how long we were staying, and promptly showed us to our room. A great experience!

Vientiane is very clean and understandably less polluted than the larger cities in Vietnam. This is particularly helpful for Jim’s allergies which were starting to give him real problems towards the end in Hanoi. As we drove to the hotel we’d noticed rows and rows of restaurants and bars lining the riverfront. Now, by restaurants I don’t mean actual structures but bamboo mats on simple wooden forms..most with cushions to sit on at low tables and a few with actual tables to sit at. So, after check-in we headed out for dinner and our first taste of Beerlao. The beer lived up to it’s title of “best beer in SE Asia” and for $1 for a big bottle is a great deal. We had some great pad thai and a big vegie salad for dinner and took a short walk. There are fewer people but also more people seem to have cars here so very few scooters which is fantastic…traffic actually drives IN LANES in a more orderly fashion and the few scooters that are here will stop before running into you. We were thrilled to have arrived!

New Years eve we first headed right out to the Indian Embassy to see how quickly we could get a visa. We had only recently checked and were shocked to find it takes anywhere from 5-10 days and costs $76 each!!! We didn’t want to be forced to spend that long in Bangkok and heard it was pretty easy from Vientiane. We hired a tuk tuk to take us there and first were told we’d need 2 visa photos each and we only had one, the tuktuk guy took us back downtown, we quickly had some photos done, and back to fill out the forms. Unfortunately, we were told they won’t be ready until 7 or 8 Jan!!! That certainly changed our travel plans since we were planning on being out of Vientiane and heading north by then. But, they have to be done so we are going to take a 3 night trip to Vang Vieng to do our trekking/caving/ kayaking trips we wanted to take and then come back here early next week to pick up our passports and visas and then fly north to Luang Prabang.

We booked our trip to Vang Vieng through Green Discovery Tours, a well known eco-tour company. We’re spending 2 nights (one at beginning and one at end) at a great resort called Ban Sabai in town and 1 day doing a trek out to an eco-lodge in the jungle and kayaking / caving our way back the next day. Overall, it’s quite reasonable…about $250 total cost for 2 for transportation roundtrip, 3 nights lodging, meals and 2 days of touring with a private guide.

New Years eve we had sundowner beers on the Mekong and ended up just having dinner and more drinks and in bed by 10:30pm!!! We’re just not very good new years people unless we’re at a party with friends!

Today, 1 January, we had a leisurely breakfast and went to call some friends at home on their New years eve, took a long walk around town, and are now doing the never-ending task of downloading photos onto Flickr. It takes, literally, hours to do the pictures and we always end up only doing a small portion of the photos we’ve actually taken. But, we’ve asked around and no one has found a better solution so here we sit! At least it gives me plenty of time to do blog entries!

We’ll spend the next couple of days casually exploring the wats, stupas, and side streets of Vientiane and enjoying the uncrowded streets, fresh air, and friendly people.

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful 2008! Jim & Rhonda

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