All about: Vientiane

Uitwaaien in Laos
Een van de voordelen van het freelancerbestaan is de mogelijkheid om spontaner dan een werknemer even naar de tropen te gaan. Toen ik een maand geleden mijn ticket naar Laos boekte had ik last van kiespijn en dacht ik: die ga ik in de jungle wegmediteren in een hangmat. Hier aangekomen was de kiespijn verdwenen ...
June 1. Stay another day…
On our extra day we visit Peuan Mit again, have a nice cup of coffee there and I donate what is left in kip to their program. That is a no-brainer for travelers, of course. Whatever you have left IS part of your budget so don't come with "I don't have money" it won't work ...
May 31. Worst War crimes ever?
Cornflakes and coffee, and it's already ten. Lazy bastards, you think. Where's the early morning gymnastics, the 2-mile-walk, the 150 pushups and the rigor-vigor?


Anyway, we visit COPE today and have a good look at the museum that displays handmade prostheses, we are talking about wooden leg, cast iron pparts nailed together with ...
May 29. Borrowing vintage bike.
Shaun, a friendly Australian guy living here offers us his little vintage motorbike in the morning, and we gladly accept that enhancement of our mobility.

We will be taking that green bike to the friendship bridge and back today. Not that there's much to see - the friendship bridge is essentialy a concrete corridor ...
May 28. What is ten dollars?
We have a brunch with a German lady, Dagmar, who tells us her compelling story: she is editing and publishing an autobiographical book about a Lao monk. It's what keeps her here, and what keeps us listening. It is really nice and I hope she will publish the book.

I pick up my Vietnamese ...
May 27. COPE-ing with UXOs
Our arrival in Vientiane should be different than Vientiane, I think, and stick obstinately to my idee fixe when we arrive at the bus station. NO tuktuk, we are FINE, we know our way around. We walk a couple of miles and indeed, reach central Vientiane and lose about an hour. We make ourselves comfortable ...
COPE Laos
COPE Laos, VientianeVientiane, Laos. June 2nd, 2010We visit the good museum at the COPE center and learn about the results of cluster bombs. COPE helps victims of "bombies" that are sadly still prolific in remote areas of Laos, to get a tailor made artificial leg.

We have donated four legs.


NameCOPE Laos, ...
Peuan Mit

Vientiane, Laos. June 3th, 2010Peuan Mit ("strong friends") in Lao, supports former street children with vocational training. They run a restaurant themselves that serves delicious food.

We donate what we have left of our Lao KIP, following the suggestion of stayanotherday.org.


NamePeuan Mit through stay-another-day.orgAim
to reintegrate the children into their society ...