More pics from Laos

I saw this calendar hanging on the wall in many laotian homes, in restaurants and many other places. The calendar is from Thailand. This one I photographed in a restaurant. Notice the year 2548, it is the Thai year.

The Thai people count their years from when Buddha was born, which is year 0 for them. Buddha was born on 543 BC. So, when we say year 2005, the Thai people say year 2548.

Why was it year 2005 on the calendar when I was there in 2006? Old calendar? No, that’s because they celebrate their New Year in April month. So they didn't changed year yet when I was there in February month.

Bridge between Laos and Thailand

We visited this bridge near Savannakhet (a city in south of Laos), they are building a bridge between Laos and Thailand.
You can see Thailand on the other side of the river. When I took this pic, it was evening about 5 am (11 pm in Sweden).
This bridge was delayed due to an accident. A construction worker on the Thai side of the bridge fell and died. So the work on the bridge stopped for a couple of months. Maybe they have started working on the bridge again, I think.

Holy basil - Laos

I eat this food in Laos. It was called "Holy basil". Found it in the menu at a restaurant in Vientiane, and I was curious at it. What is so holy about this food? Choosed it only because of its funny name.

"Holy basil" is the one in the middle of the menu.

It was actually good, but very spicy. Now I understand why it calls Holy basil. It is so spicy that you become almost holy. I drank a lot of water. But it was good food!

Some pics from Laos

Tuk tuk in Laos, a taxi. The cost was 7 000 kip/person from our hotel to city. 3 years ago it was 5 000 kip. We often went to city, because there was no mobile coverage at our hotel. In city, near the river was/is good coverage, so I could send and receive text messages to my family and friends back home.

Food in Laos - they fry grasshoppers and eat it. It taste like chicken.

A toilet in Laos - there is no toilet paper and no soap... so I had to bring my own toilet paper (taken from my hotel room) and wet tissues to wash my hands. You do not sit on this toilet seat, but you stand with your feet on the seat and squat.

My Laos travel

I have been to Laos, and have come home safely. I was planning to write about my travel in this blog when I was there, but I didn't. Busy with meetings and other things (other things=night life).

It was a good trip. Nice people and warm weather. Great to get away from our winter for a while, I travelled for two weeks in February. I know, been lazy to update this blog...
I tried to get a tan. When we were outside and waited for the meetings to start, I turned my face towards the sun to get some tan in my face.

Surprisingly, the weather in Laos was really pleasant, in spite of Laos beeing a tropical place. It was about 25-30 C, almost like a really hot Swedish summer day. For them in Laos it was cold and winter, but for me as a Swede, it was really hot.

Before I travelled to Laos, I was worried that it would be too hot and humid there, but it wasn't. I have been there once before, in September 3 years ago, it was toooo hot (about 40 C), humid and muddy roads. My feet and shoes got all dirty from the muddy roads, and the cars had a hard time to drive on the roads.
This time in February it was better weather, dry and the cars could drive on the roads without problems. And I could keep my shoes and feet clean.

I got the chance to ride a moped and that was great! I didn’t drive myself, I sat on the back seat or whatever you call it when you sit behind the driver on the moped. There was a group of nice deaf girls who offered us to ride on their mopeds.

I saw one thing which made me a little upset. There was a guy, a deaf man from Thailand who visited Laos for a couple of days as a tourist, and he joined us for dinner in the evenings.
He walked straight to one of the girls, told her to get off her moped and let him drive. He didn’t ask nicely, but told her in a rude way. She tried to protest, but too weakly. He didn’t listen to her and whisked to her to get off the moped. Finally she got off her moped and he drove it.
There really is a need for fight for equality here!

Anyway, I hope to return to Laos again. Depends if my deaf association send us there again for volontary work.