The mysterious country of Laos

Hello dear friends!

While the others are getting ready for dinner, I found some time to share our experiences from the past days of our trip. As you already knew, we are discovering the mysterious country of Laos.

Yesterday was quite a rough day. We were a bit exhausted from our tour through Thailand and we needed to hit the road again that day. More

over, my dear friend Ruben wasn't feeling really well yesterday. The Thai food didn't really please him but he's not a complainer so we could continue our journey. A few hours later, we crossed the border of Laos.

Luang Prabang

My uncle knows a lot about travelling and when I told him I was visiting Laos, he didn't hesitate to tell me where to go. He told me that we should definitely visit Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is a city in the North-East of Laos that is known for it's well-preserved landscape and the numerous wooden Buddhist te

mples. The city is also considered to be the cultural and religious capital of Laos.

My uncle recommended us to see Luang Prabang by boat and so we did. Our guide navigated the boat down the Mekong river. During the guided tour, I was really astonished by the beauty of this country. We passed beautiful mountain landscapes and shiny wooden temples. But the most impressive were the limestone cliffs. O my gosh, that was so amazing! I'm sure I will never forget this boat trip. No wonder Unesco declared Luang Prabang heritage of the world.

Thanks to the beautiful boat trip we made that day, we forgot how exhausted we were that morning. Still, it was time to get some sleep.

Vientiane, the capital of Laos

Sunday rest day? I don't think so! Today we visited the real capital of Laos, Vientiane. This city is more like the economic center of the country because it has known economic growth. However, there's still a lot of poverty in the country. Again, religion is dominating the city view. There are temples and religious buildings everywhere. People around here try to live the quiet Buddhist life. So therefore we decided to visit The Buddha Park, where you can see a collection of Buddhist and Hindu sculptures, scattered amongst gardens and trees.

The last stop today was the memorial monument 'Patuxai'. This monument was constructed to honor those who fought for the independence from France. They made an Arc de Triomphe look-a-like on purpose but with a typical Laos influence. It was really interesting to see the sarcastic reference to France.

While we were in the capital, we decided to spoil ourselves and we looked for a nice hotel near the city center. And so here I am, writing my blog in the hotel room. I should go check on the others now, I guess it's time to have dinner. Thanks for following everybody and you'll hear from us soon.