Vientiane ,Laos

The bus trip of 10 hours from Luang Prabang was most interesting and filled up with breathtaking sceneries high in the mountains and in deep valleys with rivers and rapids. We sometimes passed beautiful villages, which probably have been looking quite the same for centuries. We stopped somewhere and the the village people were as curious of us as we of them.
Next day I started to explore Vientiane, and found it quite pleasant and friendly city. However much more international than I did expect. After a few hours walking I stopped at a nice looking terrasse of Lotus resturant for some drink to find out that at the next table were sitting and writing postcards my fellow counrtry men Kari 43 and Minna 38 from Helsinki. I had not been talking with anybody for a couple of days, and with the help of new drinks I became very talkative and interupted their writings probably too many times. Later back in my hotel's garden bar, there came in two young American fellows from Arizona James 23 and Luke 22. I already had met James briefly earlier that day, so they joined me for some beers. They both were English teachers in Nanjing, China, working there for the Chinese government with one year's contract.Later that evening after looking the Tennis final from Australian Open in Melbourne,I decided to go to a nice looking Italia restaurant, which I had passsed earlier, L'Opera. I took a tuk tuk to there and had an excellent dinner penne with mozzarella and porcini. I also loved to hear them playing Luciano Pavarotti and asked them to play the cd louder. They did it and I became a friend with Giancarlo Pozzoli, the owner of the ristorante. He was a deep Pavarotti fan, and in his opinion there never was anybody to be compared with the late singer.
We did have a nice chat, and I did also like the marvellous house wine from Italy
of couse. Yesterday I first met Steven around 45,from Kent, England and his local Thai wife Mod. We sat together a couple of hours, and now I was mostly listening.
Later at another terrasse I met Johnny 58, an extraordinary character, born in Pakistan as a son of Irish missionar. He had no home and had been travelling all the world since he was 20. Everything he owned was two pairs of shoes, two pairs of trousers and two shirts. I did not quite understand, how he did manage everything, living in hotels, eating, drinking, giving money to beggars etc. He never had worked
anything. He started to buy drinks for me and I did then do the same.We spent all the evening together, moving to different places. He had been in Vientiane for three months, and knew the city well. In his opinion I was the most interesting man he had met in long time. So we had a lot fun with philosophical discussions, and departed around midnight. I did not as you can see have any time to study deeper the local culture, but at least I did visit in Luang Prabang The National Museum, former Royal Palace. Tonight I'll have an all-night bus ride to Pakse.