12Mar06 Sun 0802 Laos, Vientianne

As I left the central highlands of Dalat in Vietnam, everything is pretty much downslope.I mean this literally.From Dalat my journey stretched to Nha Thrang, a sandy and nice beach which I lingered for only a few hours before catching an overnight bus to Hoi An.

Hoi An is this ridiculous city which is like a hermit crab: an old shell taken over by a new living entity. It's kinda like our Chinatown , with virtually all the shops selling the same stuff.They also have a marble quarry nearby, so it makes it worse.I left Hoi An fo Hue soon enough.


I reached Hue at 1400 hrs, went for lunch at Mr Cu's
cafe, which is this amazing national geographic-like
photographer-owned shop.He gave me a few pointers on the timings and location for photos around the city, and thus I was much more efficient in exectution.




I covered the citadel and emperor's kingdom in the day, and set off for Laos at 1830. Laos is the biggest mistake of my life.