Laos - Mekong - Luang Prabang - Vientiane

Let’s go to Laos. Together, with Charles a Belgian friend of Nicolas, we went on a boat on the Mekong during two days. The Mekong is a huge river with a lot of floating trees. Poor families throw their dead there. So, a big silence went through the boat when we suddenly crossed a dead floating human body.

Later on, in a small village, we saw the people cooking a dog on a fire. It was quite impressive to start visiting a country on this way.

Now, people from Laos are kind and the atmosphere is laid back. We really enjoyed Luang Prabang. It’s an old French colony town that is now protected by UNESCO. You can see us there at sunset with our Indian friend Sasha.

Don't miss the nice butterfly we saw in the Royal Palace ;)

Afterwards, we went to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. They have their own Triumph arch made with concrete offered by the USA. We visited a funny temple with Indian and Buddhist statues.

Myanmar (Burma/Birmanie)

Here there are some pictures from Myanmar.

There is still a militar dictature. As a result, the internet is difficult to access. In fact, the main mails as Yahoo and Hotmail are banned. Same Google has been blocked.
The Press is also controlled by the government.
We also saw many roads blocked with soldiers. Tourists are only allowed to go to some parts of the country.

On the other hand, the people are fantastic. They are very kind.
We made a trekking where we didn't saw any tourists! We slept in the house of the Hills tribes, right above the buffalos and the cows. It keeps the family warm!

Myanmar is like Thailand 50 years ago. There are still using buffalos for the agriculture and horses to walk around.
All the cars, buses, houses and streets are very old!

On the pictures you can see a farmer with his tractor: a Water Buffalo. I tried to climb on one but I nearly felt and he ran away!

After, you can see a house where we drank tea.

You can also see some fishermen and monks in Mandalay.

Then, a old woman is learning me some religious traditions in a temple of Bagan.

You can also see monks making the queue to have lunch.

Finally, Tina is taking the picture with the Moustache brothers. Its a theater group with controversial humor.
The guy on the right of Tina has made 7 years of carcel because he was making joke about the government ...