Major Flooding

As I write this, Vientiane is being sandbagged by the army and volunteers. Some say if it rains tonight it will be the worst flood since the 1960%26#39;s when the water reached Talat Sao.

Residents along the Mekong are being advised to prepare to leave their homes.

Major Flooding

in Kaolieo village, the road to the village is now the riverbank and all the houses on the mekong side are flooded with a meter or so of water including a couple good friends of mines homes

Major Flooding

The riverside restaurants where I was so glibly downing Beerlao after Beerlao just a few weeks ago are underwater! My buddy said his friends had to evacuate their house by the river and go live with cousins...Everything%26#39;s awash in muddy orange! Hope the rains subside as I%26#39;ll be there in 4 weeks%26#39; time...

Gosh, they%26#39;ve even just shown footage of this on CNN! The river is amazingly high! Another one of my friends over there in VTE says he has to help his cousin move whatever is salvageable from their house this afternoon, although most has been destroyed...

finally the mekong has gone down to where people can start cleaning up after a week of flooding, at the worst it was 1.5 meters above flood stage

Yes, and the buses, as of tomorrow, are going from VTE to Pakse again! Woo-hoo!

So can we expect that everything will be back in order in a couple of weekS?

I%26#39;m not sure the riverside restaurants would be up and running again so soon, but the roads heading down south (Vientiane-Pakse) are operable. The electricity has been out in Luang Prabang and the road heading there from Vientiane was washed out, but it may be passable in a few weeks. I%26#39;d contact a local travel agency and get teh lowdown if you expect to travel overland on that route.

Many reiverside restaurants are up and running already. Believe it or not, I had a beer in one of them on Saturday. (Not the dark beer Maneki as I find it too sweet for my taste.)

Sorry that should read Sunday, not Sat. They were putting many up again on Sun morning.

Oh, that%26#39;s great news Rufus!