28th December 2014 - Luang Prabang LAOS

28th December 2014 - Luang Prabang  LAOS

So on to Laos or to give it its correct name - the Democratic Republic of Laos and when we see the words Democratic republic, we know know it means that officials have very nice lives and the poor are extremely poor and no middle class the speak of.

Landlocked by Burma, Vietnam, China and Cambodia and controlled by its Marxist and Communist government as seen on its national flag.  The official language is Laos but in reality there are 54 languages as there are many hilltribes accounting for 40% of the population.

The "hmong" tribes here, which are the same race as seen on north Vietnam, were recruited by the CIA to provide in internal disruption strategy and the "Hmong" problem is in part resulting in the country being ranked a miserable 158th on the human rights index.

It also suffered significant US bombing as the Ho Chi Minh trail passed through the country.

Like all the countries we visited, this was yet another one governed by seemingly unnecessarily rules and regulations and the battle through the airport was interesting to say the least. Most interesting is the stunning beauty of the country and the "Trueman Show" like tourist development of the city.

After some pretty hard sights in Vietnam and Cambodia, Laos provides an unrealistic view of indochina but for many tourists, its near enough and without the tricky conditions.

The party bus - well kind of...everybody had to be home by 10.30 by law

The scenery that you could see on the 1 1/2 flight from Hanoi into Luang Prabang was stunning and the harsh arid scenery of Vietnam was replaced with lush green forests and hills.

You could be fooled  onto think that many gold temples are originals.  The temples are but many have been painted in gold paint to add to the tourist draw.

The communist flag flying pretty well everywhere here.

The scenery facing east from a  high spot overlooking the town.  There is no denying the beauty of the area.

Another Buddhist temple - We would like to say they looked different bit we cant and as the people of this part of the world affectionately say..."same same but different".

Janette and her new found "Hmong" tribal hat ...looking like a "Hmong"

Tuk Tuks are in use here but they are bigger to carry larger groups of tourists

Luang Prabang International Airport.  Probably only about 8 planes a day but it took us well over an hour to get through with visa payments, unexpected forms and queues. on the other side, a car park with only a few cars in it built at least everyone was employed.

Our hotel was a small tuk tuk ride from town and we will explore it further tomorrow but as we had only landed at about 2.00pm, we had more exploring to do.

LP has a soft curfew at 10.30 so everyone has to to be home and nothing happens after that which is why the Tuk Tuks make a frantic scramble at that time because they know that there is no more business.

After Thai Bart, Cambodian Reils, Vientnam Dongs and Laos Kips Steve was really struggling with the various currencies and handed his wallet over the Janette. When he thought he had enough for a new car it turned out to be barely enough for a plate of chips