Laos is way cooler than Vietnam. I am sure of this and I have not yet been to Vietnam. How can I be sure? Let’s look at it closer: both are communist countries (they like each other and China likes both of them), in both countries people speak very strange languages, and in both countries you get rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
However, there is one big difference: Laos did let us in. No questions asked. We had to pay 2 Dollars each (“for what?”… “hrrm, for stamp, stamp fee!”), got no receipt and there we were: in Laos! 
Back in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I have teamed up with Charlotte and Niklas. Who they are? Charlotte is Swiss and works for the Khmer Rouge UN-Tribunal in Phnom Penh. She is a friend of Alex who travelled with me through Thailand and tries to save world. Niklas is from Germany, but that it hardly his fault. He had made a clever move when he decided to study in St. Gallen, Switzerland&. A university buddy of mine. 
On the way up North we checked on the Mekong sweet-water dolphins (boring if you have seen Seaworld in San Diego) and swiftly moved towards the border. The street was superb, really a dream to drive on. How different from all the mud roads in the rest of Cambodia. However, the longest bridge between the capital and the Cambodia-Laos border was not yet finished (the money for the tarmac has vanished somehow) and we took a small ferry which crashed in some trees when trying to land. After we had freed ourselves we soon reached the border – and the end of the smooth tarmac. Picture this: You drive on a four lane super straight and sexy motorway, and then slow down and stop in front of a wooden barrier. Behind the barrier is a… …a… …no… …hrmm… …well, let’s say, there is hole in the otherwise tense jungle. So, this is gonna be Laos, the country cooler than Vietnam?

We negotiated with the custom guys; they tell us that the normal bribe of one Dollar is two Dollars today (because Sunday is a “High Bribe Day”), and then we drove three kilometres over muddy grounds, around trees and into deep water holes. But then – you have to picture it once more – we are welcomed by yet another shiny motorway. Communism seems to work after all!

We were overtaken by S-Class Mercedes, honked at by Land-Cruisers far newer than mine and found ourselves marvelling at a beautiful landscape of rice-fields, happy people working on them and a golden sunset. Cool place, I’ve told you.

After two days on the road we hit “Champs Elysee”. Laos was a French colony and like the Cambodians, they took over some nice habits from their former owners like Croissants-eating and Baguette-carrying. They also have a street very similar to the most famous French boulevard, down to the detail of an “Arc de Triomphe” (slightly higher than their French counterpart). This one was built with US-cement: the US generously offered cement for a new runway on the Vientiane airport back in the 60ies or 70ies (probably to reload their B52 bombers – Laos got 400kg bombs per citizens in 9 years – this is one bomb-raid every seven minutes for 9 years – long live the United States Freedom Policy) and the Laos people built their “Arc de Triomphe” with it. The cement building is also called “Vertical Runway” nowadays…

Vientiane is probably the most relaxed capital in the world (ok, Bern is very quiet, too), however, after a nice Mekong fish dinner and a visit to the “Laos Museum of History” where we could see “the mirror of comrade XYZ” and “the tooth-brush of Ho-Chi Minh”, we made way towards Vang Vieng. There, we had to cross a non-existing bridge (see video here) and were tubing through one of the most amazing land-scapes on river Nam Song. Along the river you can fall through rotten bamboo bridges, get some Lao Beer or a “Lao-Lao”, which is a very strong Whisky-style alcohol (1.5 Dollar for one litre!), in one of the floating bars, and generally lead a happy life. Oh, be aware of the word “Happy”: Whenever you get something in connection with “Happy”, e.g. a “Happy Pizza”, you will be flying on cloud No. 7 and have a stomach ache the next day.

Well, I like Laos. It’s relaxed, laid-back and beautiful. And certainly much cooler than Vietnam.