In all, I am really glad I visited Laos. It's like everything that's right about Cambodia with none of the onerous ridiculousness. The roads are paved, NGOs haven't ruined the capital city, no Western do-gooders keep blaming genocide that happened 40 years ago for every current problem, etc. (Sorry Cambodia. But these are areas to be improved.)
A word of advice is not to go during New Years. Travel is more difficult, more expensive, and you're likely to get wet if you try to walk (by all means go if you like water fights). Everyone's drunk and they drive drunk. They give you free beer, which most people would like, but a) I hate beer and b)when you're an inexperienced motorist trying to drive an inordinate number of kilometers before dark... And a lot of things are just shut down. Plenty of people report being invited out with locals, but things like this hardly ever happen to me. Hence my verdict.
My favorite part was The Loop, and I would never ever ever want to do it again. It would diminish its value. I would, however, go back to Vang Vieng. Hmm...
I'm also glad I visited the White Temple in Thailand. That's worth seeing.
This is a useless entry, but it's mainly here for my own future reference.
A word of advice is not to go during New Years. Travel is more difficult, more expensive, and you're likely to get wet if you try to walk (by all means go if you like water fights). Everyone's drunk and they drive drunk. They give you free beer, which most people would like, but a) I hate beer and b)when you're an inexperienced motorist trying to drive an inordinate number of kilometers before dark... And a lot of things are just shut down. Plenty of people report being invited out with locals, but things like this hardly ever happen to me. Hence my verdict.
My favorite part was The Loop, and I would never ever ever want to do it again. It would diminish its value. I would, however, go back to Vang Vieng. Hmm...
I'm also glad I visited the White Temple in Thailand. That's worth seeing.
This is a useless entry, but it's mainly here for my own future reference.
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