Paul's Country Review: Laos

We arrived in the former capital city of Laos, Luang Prabang on a short flight from Siem Reap with two other people - weird. Anyway, we immediately liked Laos, the country is beautiful and the people are so nice. It's very laid back and (for the most part) walk on the sidewalk and drive on the roads - crazy, I know. 

Overlooking Luang Prabang

We walked around, saw the sights and took a tour to some caves of religious significance. Along the way we stopped at a place called Whiskey Town where, strangely enough, they made whiskey. It was 9:30 am so naturally they wanted us to try it. They explained it was 53% alcohol (about 110 proof; what's rubbing alcohol?) and had a giant scorpion in it. Whiskey Town, like Frog Town, is a very strange place and we refused the offer of potent, scorpion whiskey and continued our sight seeing. 

Whiskey Town's finest

This reminded me of the Town of the Crazies in Gymkata

We then took another short flight to the current capital city, Vientiane, where our opinion changed from liking Laos to just liking Luang Prabang. There really is no reason to go to Vientiane unless you are a diplomat and it's in your job responsibilities. It was unnecessarily expensive, there was little to see (we saw the entire city while looking for a health clinic) and nothing to really eat.

I like the way this looked

That's Vientiane down there

We ate at a Swenson's everyday using a little known, extremely effective ice cream diet (who knew!) and counted down the days until we left for Taiwan.

I smell ice cream...they got Swensens!

They got Mississippi Mud

They got Chocolate Eruption and Super Duper Chocolate Eruption