Welcome to LAOS!!

We left Hue, had another cruisy border crossing at Lao Bao, and entered our first ever "L" country (at least I think so...). The 7-hour bus journey took us to Savannakhet in the Southern part of the country, but we decided with the time we've got (only get 15 day visas for Laos), there was a lot more to explore in the North...SO, we decided to get a night bus straight up to Vientiane (the capital) and start exploring from there.


It was nice cuz we were able to leave our bags at a hotel/tourist office, and spend a few hours around Savannakhet. There was an interesting festival going on at the stadium - probably over a thousand people linking hands in a big line around the outside, then weaving in and out of rows through the middle.




Reading the guide book, we reckon it's a festival marking the end of rainy season, and the people were representing Naga - a serpent-like river creature in Lao mythology. They are believed to leave the river during the rainy season and inhabit the flodded paddy fields. Boat races (held every year at this time) are supposed to lure the naga out of the fields and back to the rivers, so that ploughing may begin again.




We watched the sun going down over the river, and were able to have a refreshing cold shower at the tourist office before getting the 9pm bus, which arrived in Vientiane the next morning at 5:30am.