5th - 7th September: Vientiane
Touch down in Laos. The flight had saved us 24 hours on a bus from
hanoi.
After several false starts regarding dodgy guest houses and hotels we found our temporary new home, dropped off our stuff, went for some grub and then headed back for a power nap.
6th September: Our day of sight seeing, and that's all you need in Vientiane. We visited Pha That Luang (the Great Sacred Stupa), Victory gate and Buddha park before heading for the highlight of the day which was the herbal sauna and massage (and banish the
memories of india...). It was now time to get out off vientiane.
7th - 10th September: Viang Vieng
Caught the afternoon bus to Viang Vieng, and the 3 hour journey was
spent amusing ourselves by laughing at the japanese passenger who was
obviously mashed and kept stirring from his stoned slumber to wipe away the dribble hanging from his mouth.
We also took endless pictures of the beautiful scenery; surely it couldn't get any better than this.....
8th September: Tubing. An extreme sport in itself, which has seen some fatalities, including one in august!
The concept of hiring a big tractor tyre sized inner tube, jumping in a river and meandering down stream, repeatedly saying ‘wow’ at the scenery, is a brilliant one, further enhanced by the locals pulling you into the river bank to sell you beer and other local products soon left you unable to say anything!
Struggling to recall much of the day after that……
10th September: We realized that we had very little money and no way of getting any more unless we went back to Vientiane or onwards to Luang Prabang, as these were the only two places that did visa cash advance.
We coppered up and had enough to cover the guest house costs and bus ticket to Luang Prabang.
11th - 17th September: Luang Prabang
The 6 hour journey north started off well enough, until we got 500m up the road and the axle snapped!
Wasn’t long before we were loaded into another bus and on our way. The scenery was even better than on the way to Viang Vieng; cue more hanging out of the bus window as best as was possible to try and snap some pictures.
12th September: Spent the morning in an ever more desperate financial situation as all the banks in Luang Prabang no longer did visa cash advance.
We got lucky and found a travel agents that did, thanked our lucky stars, loaded up with bundles of kip and went to sink some beers.
13th September: Made an early start and went to see Pak Ou caves, which were not especially great, but the setting and surrounding scenery made up for that. From there we went to see the Kuang Si waterfalls, which were very impressive.
15th September: Another Monday of extreme sports.
This time we hired mountain bikes and put ourselves through some intense physical activity and cycled to the Khan river before jumping in a raft, floating downstream by about 500m and pulling in on the far river bank, heading up the bank to find some more waterfalls, but this time with somewhere to go swimming and to cool off.
After that we jumped back in the raft and made our way slowly back to Luang Prabang.
16th September: D-day! Our visas were due to expire in 3 days, which left us with time to travel down the Mekong for 2 days, to the thai border, or head back south to Vientiane, and on to Bangkok.
Baz opted for the former, while Stu and I opted for the latter, with my intention to get a visa renewal and travel south.
17th September: Said goodbye to Baz. A strange feeling, especially after 6 months of living in each other’s pockets, knowing that I wouldn’t see him for at least another 3 months.
Stu and I headed south, and had our first experience of an armed guard on the bus, although not sure how much use he would’ve been as he spent most of the 9 hour journey hanging out of the window being sick; good job Norris was on board.
Headed out for a few beers and to watch the footie upon our return to Vientiane.
18th - 20th September: Vientiane
Hmmm. Bad guts and a hangover, never a good combination and certainly not welcome as this scuppered my plans to renew my visa today.
19th September: Still feeling bad, but time was against me, so made the border run. It only took about 2 hours in total, and I was all renewed! Booked a flight down to Pakse. Said goodbye to Stu as he headed to Bangkok; see you in 3 months big man!
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