Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng

We're in Vientiane at the moment - the capital city of Laos. There's not a lot to do here. Bizarrely, the place closes down at eleven o clock - there is pretty much a curfew on the city. Walking back to your guesthouse at night, you see policemen with AK47 machine guns on street corners.

This is because the Asia Summit takes place in Vientiane later this month and the authorities don't want anything to disrupt it. All tourists have to be out of the city by 21st November. So, on Thursday we embark on a twenty-four hour bus trip to Hanoi in the north of Vietnam.

Vientiane may not be the most beautiful and exciting place in the world, but the two other towns we've visited in Laos - Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng - were pretty special places, as these pictures will hopefully demonstrate.

The city of Luang Prabang

Me

Steve

A tree on a hill

A temple drum

A reclining Buddha and a dragon's tail

How's my composition?

Sausages curing in the sun

Our accomodation in Vang Vieng

Steve gets back to nature

Streethawk

Streethawk wannabes

At dusk a local child returns home from the fields

The sun creeps behind the mountains...

... and finally disappears from view

Laos is a very special place. It has defied all my expectations.