Jan 8th 2011, Savannakhet-Pakse, Esa

Lao Airlines Airbus 320 had lime-green leather seats and fancy blue lights running in the ceiling. The announcements sounded as if they were from a South Park character. My first impression of Laos. Vientiane airport was the most laid-back airport I've ever seen, and the visa-on-arrival procedure didn't take long. We filled in the application forms, handed in a passport photo and 35 American dollars. Our visas were ready in 3 minutes. One traveller didn't have a photo, but it didn't seem to change the world. Another funny thing to mention: In the application form there was a question about the applicant's race. I wrote ”human”. Should be about right.

I'm writing this posting on a shaky bus somewhere in the Lao countryside. There is little traffic, and no-one is in a big hurry. That's how it feels at least. These crowded buses seem to be the main form of transport in this country, and have become familiar to us, too. Today's trip is about 270km and the expected time to cover that distance is somewhere between 5 and 7 hours. Excellent! There is an elderly Lao couple sitting close to us. The man bought some meat on a stick and ate it with great passion. I wonder what it was. Maybe rat. That could be true, by the way. We saw them selling rats at a market. Well, meat is meat. Always delicious. We must also remember that there is no honest bus trip without endless Lao Karaoke music filling the air. It sort of gets on your nerves after a couple of hours.

Lao P.D.R is formally a communist society. You can see that, for example, in the prices of everyday products. In our case that often spells out as beer. The price of beer always the same no matter where you buy it. Restaurants, kiosks, markets...it's (almost) always the same, 10 000 Kip (1 euro). Here, in spite of the political system, pretty much everything seems to be available (compare: Cuba).

Some 300 km north from here, around the Konglor Cave, the scenery was mountaneous and looked somewhat other-worldly. Extremely pointed mountain tops and cliffs made for base-jumping. Good that none of us is into such things. Here, instead, where we have reached the lowlands, fields and some kind of bushes are dominant. But a few words about the cave. The little ”Indiana-Jones-excursion” we made took us through a mountain on a boat. The river flowing through the rock is about 7 kilometers long and was formed probably millions of years ago. It was a strange feeling to sit on a long-tail boat speeding through the darkness. The cave itself looked like a man-made highway tunnel at some point, while at some other point rock formations of different sizes and shapes made the place look very scary. We were wondering what kinds of creatures were lurking in the dark, secret rooms of the mountain. Sampo was a little afraid. The only lights in the cave were the spotlights from our flashlights dancing in the ceiling. The river was surprisingly shallow - only some centimeters. In fact we got stuck a couple of times. In general the cave trip was really cool!



The place that we want to, or hope to, reach today is Pakse which is rather close to the Cambodian border. The last place before crossing the border will be an area called ”4000 islands”. We hope to find a nice place there, relax in a hammock, drink Beerlao, and watch the Mekong flow by. They say you can, with good luck, see some Mekong dolphins in the area. I'm sure a friend of ours, who couldn't join us because of his friend's relationship problems, would also love to be there. Well, we wish you were here! :)

Practicalities and traditions is the clue that keeps the group together and helps to cope with difficult situations. These things make life a lot more fun, too. By this I mean our normal daily lottery. Olli is the lottery guy, officially ”Minister of Lottery” (arvontaministeri) who uses his magic and quickly organizes a little card game or a paper flipping moment to solve a problem. As many of you already know, we have used the very same method hundreds of times during our previous trips. An example: There's four of us and only three beds. Who's going to have to share a bed with another guy? Or: there are three cold beers and one warm. Who will be the unlucky one? Just to let you know, Olli has had to spend a lot of time in the same bed under one planket with Peltsi ;). And Olli got also that warm beer.. Maybe he'll then win a some huge lottery prize later.

I've had some minor heath problems since the 3rd day trip. It might be that the anti-malarial drug that I'm taking has some side effects, or I simply ate something that screwed up my stomache. Anyway, I'm fine now. And no matter what they say, it's malaria that kills, not the medication. I just can't wait to hit the beaches...

That's it for now. Timo and Laura: Have a great time in Barcelona! :)

Btw, photos added to Jan 4th post.