All went according to plan and in the afternoon of the 29^th we crossed the ""Friendship Bridge" from Nong Khai (Thailand) to Laos, near Vientiane.

31 March - 02 April '04

By bus we arrived in Vang Vieng, Cornelia a little green due to the wild drive through the mountains. The lack of traffic saved our lives because it is common practice here to race over the mountain roads regardless of the side of the road you're driving on.

Vang Vieng is situated in a lovely setting of (again) karstic mountains comparable to Yangshuo in China. Say karst and think of blue water and caves. We ended the first day in the "Blue Lagoon", a natural swimming pool below to a cave. You can climb up a tree and dive in the cold water like Tarzan, Jane and Cheetah (after all, there were three of us!)

The next day we set out for a hike along several caves ending again in our favourite swimming pool to cool down. When walking back at dusk we were caught in the middle of a dramatic thunderstorm. On the small road in the fields between the steep rocky mountains we felt like the Fellowship of the Ring, expecting the Black Riders to show up at every lightning.... And then it rained, for the rest of the evening and for Cornelia & Fabrice, for the first time in months.

02-04 April '04

And through the mountains the bus rode. A bag with fruit on the roof split open, so at every sharp turn we left a trail of fruit on the road, like in the fairy tale. Fabrice was sweating because the guy in front of him had a Kalashnikov between his knees. Probably he was just a security gunman; not all roads in Laos are free of rebels...

Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because the colonial city has been largely preserved. Besides, it is the old capital with the Royal Palace and every evening there is the loveliest sunset over the Mekong River.

We mainly strolled through the old city and visited the Royal Palace. The palace was inhabited until 1975 and for a change, we could see modern art on the walls. The king's bedroom, last decorated in the end of the fifties, reminded Cornelia strongly of her grandparents....

It was in Luang Prabang that Alain started to develop his Gecko Clock. These small lizards have a peculiar call that grows softer like a deflating balloon: "GEKKO GEKKO GEKko gekko gek..." Bedsides, they call out at their own specific hour, according to Alain's theory: "Ah, that's my quarter-to-ten-gecko" has become an expression.

04-09 April '04

NANG KIO

Unlike this title suggests, we took a bus to go to a village called Nang Kio, some hnudred kilometres North of Luang Prabang, along the famous river Nam Ou.

And here we are, in the Lao mountains, where mass tourism has not arrived yet. From our guesthouse on the riverside we explored the surroundings. In the three caves that were used as a shelter during some of the successive wars in the last century, an entire village lived for years. The caves included a hospital, telex-room and marketplace but the best was the office of the Louangphrabang Bank, only accessible via a narrow winding corridor penetrating the mountain, like a real "Harry-Potter-Bank" (Fabrice notes our references are getting more and more intellectual!).

Laos has during the war in Vietnam broken all world-records ever of received bombs per inhabitant and Vietnam only being fifty kilometres away, this area has been badly hit. Deep craters are still visible near the caves and teams of sappers are still active to clean the mess that included bombs, grenades and landmines. But the local inhabitants make the best of it, using the shells for flowerpots, decoration and even foundation for their stilted houses!

MUANG NGOY

About twenty kilometres upriver lies Muang Ngoy, only reached by boat or by foot over unmapped trails. We took a speedboat to get there and it was worth the experience: we never went so fast over the water, over rapids and slaloming in between the boulders and rocks.

The village itself is, to our surprise, a hard-core backpack centre including hippies and the best pizza in town. We visited more caves and then incidentally ran into a guide who had been recommended to us by some people we had met in Xi'An, China. We made a deal with him that he would bring us through the jungle and small villages to Bahn Sopvanh, where we could take a boat back to Nang Kio.

JUNGLE TREK - DAY 1

So we left for our jungle trek, that was to become an absolutely unforgettable adventure! Kong Keo, our guide, had insisted we would take flip-flops (slippers) because it would be better for walking through the rivers. And off we went, flip-flopping through rice-paddies, small trails and rivers, hiking shoes strapped on our backs. It was very warm but a large part we went upstream through a stream, which was a cooling delight. The last part we were allowed to do with our shoes on, was over hills covered with thick forest. In the late afternoon we arrived, exhausted, in a remote village, named Mokdou.

MOKDOU

This Village is a Khamu-settlement; a minority related to the Khmer. Our arrival was a big event in the village since they had not seen a foreigner since a very long time. One little boy even cried out in terror when spotting these big white monsters!

The village consists of wooden stilted houses; streets, running water or electricity is of course absent. Sanitary stops are to be made wherever one thinks it is discreet and we washed off our sweat in the river with a large audience.

We stayed in the house of the second chief of the hamlet, in the living room. Our host was very kind and offered us home-made Lao-Loah (rice-spirit) before, during and after dinner and clearly had had a few too many himself!

When Cornelia asked if she could go in the bedroom to change clothes, the answer was negative: "you can go in the street". The bedroom was not to be desecrated by strangers upon the penalty of having to slaughter a pig to make up with the local gods!! But probably we did piss off the gods anyway, because at night a storm raged over the houses and the next day we had to pay dearly for our (unknown) sins....

JUNGLE TREK - DAY 2

In the morning we played "official village photographer" for at least half an hour, giving away Polaroid pictures of our host (official portrait of the 2^nd chief!) and snapshots of families, friends and the new born. It was absolutely crazy.

Once on the road, the rain started again and was persistent. Kong Keo seemed a bit worried because of the water rising in the rivers and urged us to hurry. This was not so easy because we were on the flip-flops again and the trail was slippery with mud.

09-12 April '04

This time we went back the way we came. We stopped in Luang Prabang and visited the Pak Ou cave, holiest of caves in Laos, with thousands of Buddha statues. In Vientiane, we still hopped into Vat That Louang, holiest of temple in Laos. Finally we went back into Thailand over the Friendship bridge.