Goodbye Laos, Good Morning Vietnam!

We have spent a week in beautiful Laos.  We arrived from Thailand having experienced little difficulty crossing the border and managed to get our visas pretty fast.  We spent the following two days cruising down the Mekong River passing little villages and fisherman along the way.  The boat was what they call a long boat which is basically a long wooden creeking boat.  The scenery was stunning to say the least.  The river valley was surrounded by very lush forests on each side with huge bamboo trees.  Every 20 mins or so we passed by beautiful little villages where the people were busy tying up their fishing nets or busy doing their laundry.  This was the most peaceful part of our trip - a prelude to the Laos culture.
We arrived in Luang Prabang on xmas eve.  This little city is beautiful surrounded by rivers on each side of the peninsula.  The buildings were french colonial complete with plants on every "porch" and shuttered windows adding a little "je ne sais quois"  (Sorry Anna if we can't spell this one). 
We visited wats, little villages that specialize in silk textiles, crossed bamboo bridges to get a better view of the city and of course ate lots of amazing street food.  One favourite street food was the fresh Loation spring rolls - so fresh with vegetables and accompanied with great dipping sauce.  This city was a gastronomical heaven.  Fresh papaya salad is made on the street using a motar and pestle to grind the papaya and spices (lots of chilies - food here is quite spicey).  We spent xmas eve cooking dinner for ourselves.  We took a cooking class where we learned all the Laos secrets (ok, maybe two or three secrets).  We can't wait to make our friends Chicken and Pork Lap.
We left Luang Prabang and headed to Vang Vieng.  Boy, this minivan ride was like the old Flyer at the CNE!  At one point on a turn, Jon's seat lifted right out of it's frame!  The drive went through hill tribe villages, switchbacking up and down the mountains like a curved snake.  This long, 5hr drive was dizzying to say the least.  We did arrive safely however.  Vang Vieng is a bit of a hedonist hangout.  There is tubing down the river, with frequent stops and I mean frequent, at bars.  We chose to skip that and rented bicycles and spent the day in the countryside riding to find a cave.  Eventually we did after passing signs, maybe 10 or so of them, all of them claiming to be the cave that we were wanting to visit.  We found the cave - boy was it beautiful there.  Up 200 steps we entered the cave mouth.  Staglatites, staglamites metres long decorated the entrance.  Walking/climbing deeper into the cave led to huge caverns, that Jon claims are as big as 747 hangers!  ... and all in pitch black!
After spalunking we were treated to a cool swim in a blue lagoon at the foot of the cave.  Lunch and a beer made the day perfect.  Our room was in a "hut" type building surrounded by lush gardens.  It was the cheapest accommodation thus far and our favourite.  Covered with a mosquito net, we slept like babies.
Here in Vietiane, also french influenced, we have spent our days cycling around town and eating local fare on the streets.  We even managed to get to a free outdoor beer garden that had live entertainment in the leadup to New Year's eve.  Last night, we tuk-tuked our way down to the far western part of the river bank to watch the sunset.  The photo above (sorry, somehow it is upside down) is what we witnessed as we chatted with other travellers.  A few hours later we headed back to the old part of town and had Indian food!  Yes, there is indian food everywhere in Laos. 
We are just now getting ready to leave Laos, flying to Vietnam this afternoon.  So while you are freezing cold getting ready for New Year's Eve, we will be thinking of you and raising a glass from Hanoi - Happy New Year to all of you!