Sabaidee! (hello in Laos)
The capital of Laos, Vientiane, is a sleepy, dusty little town with very little trees(no shade, i.e. damn HOT!) and little personality. Their most hyped about temple, Wat Sisaket, is such a delapidated temple and looks like it's about to collapse under the termite threat. I got in and out within 5mins. I've just arrived here and within 2 hours, I'm already bored of this city. Moving on to something more interesting, let's backtrack to Vang Vieng.
Entering Vientiane on Friday, we decided to travel up north to Vang Vieng. Squeezed into a tiny songthaew(bigger version of a tuk-tuk) with like 10-12 other laos people, 5 bags of fish packed with ice(fishy...eeks). loads of shopping bags stuffed with food, umbrellas and what nots, we took off on a rollercoaster 4hour journey towards Vang Vieng. For 100baht, you really shouldn't complain...the driver thinks he is a F1 racer and goes really fast(the speedometer is conveniently broken btw) around the bends of the mountains and each time he makes a sudden stop to let a passenger alight or board, my insides(brain matters and intestines) are still spinning inside me even though the songthaew has stopped moving. Before I know it, I had motion sickness. The view outside is spectacular with rolling mountain views and lush rice paddy fields, but the songthaew is not very travel friendly with its design as it forces you to bend to your stomach if you want to take a peek outside the roof bend. I saw enough to discover that unlike the Thais, the Laos mostly sleep in bamboo houses, instead of teakwood houses like in Thailand. It only cost US$20 to build a bamboo house so I guess the earning power of the locals ain't that fab. It also makes me wonder if that is an excuse to change a new house every year...not so sure how a bamboo house can survive a huge thunderstorm with a strong whipping wind! Yes, the rains here are really crazy...it comes without warning and when it pours, it pounds so hard and in relentless torrents, beating down real hard on the pavement and the roof...it drowns out the sound from your television even.
Arriving in Vang Vieng(finally!), a pictureque view of the saw-toothed mountain view at dusk greeted us and warmed our hearts immediately. Aiming for a guesthouse with hot shower and a soft bed, Klasina and I were happy to pay for a nice room in Nana Guesthouse for only US$3/room/nite. They provide free flow of Laos coffee and tea too! So thoughtful! =) After our hot shower indulgence(just can't get enough of it!), we went in search of a nice cosy restaurant for a BIG dinner treat!!! In total, I had spent almost 10hours on the road today! 5hours on a bus from Kaeng Kro to Nong Khai, crossed the border in about 35mins by mini-bus and another 30mins from the Laos border to Vientiane by songhtaew and another 4 hours to Vang Vieng... A dinner treat is a must tonite.
In the dark, I could still spot the farangs wandering about the streets since they are so white...it feels funny cos I haven't seen so many farangs in such a long time. I have arrived at Backpackerland. A parade of Teva sandals, dreadlocks, sarong pants, headbands, Beerlao t-shirts drifted past us as we searched for our restaurant. Finally settling into one, we joined the farangs community and gazed in the same direction...towards the huge TV showing rerun episodes of FRIENDS. This whole street only shows Friends...different series I suppose, but EVERY restaurant shows FRIENDS. Somebody should import Sex and the City to this town! Haha... ;)
After 4 episodes of Friends, Klasina and I had enough of Ross's stoopid comments and wandered around town looking for the next day's activity. Browsing through a few adventure companies, we finally settled on Riverside Tours since the guy who runs it, Pan, is fluent in all languages imaginable and provided good after-dinner entertainment. Kayaking is an all-time favourite activity in Vang Vieng, especially now that it is the rainy season, the water level is higher and much faster. Tubing is another all time fave. You can just rent a huge blown up black tyre tube and leisurely float down the Nam Xong river back to Vang Vieng in about 40mins. We settled for the 1day kayaking/tubing/caving activity for the next day. At US$8 including breakfast and lunch, I thought it was a good deal...maybe it helps that Klasina has blond hair and blue eyes...kekeke....
The next morning, we went shopping since Klasina has no shorts to do kayaking. Even though this is Backpackerland, I must say the shops here are not of the same quality standard as Kathmandu or Bangkok's Khao Sarn Road. And it's not very cheap either....(I discovered most of the stuff are imported from across the border of Thailand). Joining the rest of our kayaking group for breakfast, I enjoyed a strong Laos coffee and a french loaf with eggs and ketchup. You just can't go wrong with eggs no matter where you are, can you? The Laos coffee is very yummy with lots of condensed milk...I drank so much that I got gastric...too much acidity.
Since we are the only non-couple in the group, Klasina and I got paired up each with a local Laos boy. Putting on our lifejacket and helmet, we pushed off into the muddy river and drifted with the current. It's easy kayaking cos the rapids are only grade 1 and we're not going against the current at all! Piece of cake! I'm proud to announce that only Klasina and my kayak did not capsize in the whole day's trip. Guess my OBS days in secondary school did pay off.... The journey down the river was very pleasant as the surrounding craggy mountains greeted us at every turn...
Our first pit-stop was to go tubing in Water Cave. Looking at the tiny entrance to the cave from the water front, I was surprised I managed to enter the cave at all with my tube! Without a headlamp, I had to depend on the others who had one... One of the guys got freaked out when he entered and saw how claustrophobic the cave was and he opted out. I'm not particualrly fond of caves but I do wanna try tubing. We entered a cavern tunnel and since the water level was high, the ceiling was like only 30cm above my head. Dark, dangy and dripping, I wondered what I have gotten myself into. There is a very strong current in the cave and we all had to hold on to the rope and yank ourselves deeper into the cave. Bloody hell...everyone must be damn scared shitless cos' they yanked so hard and moved so fast....soon, I realized that I'm almost alone in the dark cave! After about 15mins of yanking, the kayak master decided it's time to yank ourselves out of the cave...and more yanking again... I wonder who is the idiot who discovered this cave and think that tourists would be interested to visit the yanking cave in a tube!?!?!?
The trail back to the riverside and the next cave, was very unpleasant as there is a very muddy and shitty trail...often, I find my feet slipping into the wet mud and I got a free mud spa for my feet as a result. The Elephant cave next has a Buddha's footprint and some Buddhas inside the cave. Ok...next! Lunch was good with fried rice, skewered chicken grilled on a satay stick with pineapple and cucumber and french loaf!
More kayaking for the next 20mins and soon another pit-stop. This is a damn wierd pit stop cos the minute we embarked on land, pumping trance music greeted us at the "bar" with BeerLao and Vodka redbull on the menu. Some smart aleck must have thought it is very funny to see drunk tourists kayaking/tubing down the river! The only cool thing at this pit stop was the "swing". Hung from the cliff, the swing is just above the river, you swim out and climb onto the swing, stand on it and a rope linked to the swing will be pulled by a few Lao men(did I mention some of them are very cute?) till you go backwards on the swing to a few storeys high, and then they let go and you swing forward and dive into the river! 3secs of adrenaline rush. Cool. Thank god my insurance covers water sports...but not sunburn! I thought my pale legs needed a tan and decided not to put any sunblock on them at all. BIG mistake. Describing them as "Lobster Red" is an understatement.
Trudging back to our guesthouse once the whole trip ended, we showered and got ready for a chill out night again. Still early, we walked around town and found a cool riverside bar with bamboo huts(Smiling Bar or something like that) and nice cushions. I opened the menu and the first page reads:
Happy and Funny Hour for you!
Marijuana, weed and magic mushrooms
Special omelette
Special tea
blah blah blah...you get the drift....
Whoa! My search for magic mushrooms is over! But I'm travelling with a Dutch girl who doesn't do drugs and I am a Singaporean girl who has never even seen drugs before...so I let this Bridget Jones moment pass by me quietly... All I want is a healthy orange shake. Yumz! =)
A few travellers joined our group and we made friends with a New Zealander couple, a Chinese American and 2 Brit girls on a summer break and a tall lanky Ozzie guy. The Chinese American guy was laid off and has been travelling for more than 9months since then and much longer to come. Shites...I wish my ex-company had laid me off...I could help with the extra cash here...
After dinner amidst the scary signature thunderstorms(the roads looked flooded), we headed to Nam Lao Disco! Only the most hip crowd of Vang Vieng were hanging out in the disco and not dancing...just drinking Beerlao and Lao whiskey. After ordering a Melon Madness(vodka and redbull served in a watermelon), I got a glass of something else instead. Puzzled, I asked where is the watermelon and she said there is no watermelon. Ok...then pls tell me and dun just serve me something else! Next boo-boo...I ordered Malibu and she gave me a shot glass of something else again. I asked her if there shoud be a glass with pineapple juice+alcohol and guess what's her reply? No pineapple. Gee! What's wrong with the service here???? Around midnite, the disco started heating up and more farangs crammed into the dancefloor. I swear some of them ate the special omelette for dinner...they were totally bouncing off the floor like Gummy Bears(in case there's any generation gap, it was a very popular cartoon series of bouncing bears with special powers back in the eighties)! I started getting sleepy after my drinks so I joined the Gummy Bears as well. Otherwise, I'm sure to start falling asleep all over the club. The DJ was not too bad and kept the crowd going happily(though I swear some of the Gummy Bears got concussed out after a few more rounds of jumps). By the time the club closed at 2am(not bad for a Communist country, I think!), I made friends with a 51 year old Swedish guy, a South African guy who is taking Tai-chi instructor course in Chiangmai and a Lao-Aussie couple(his wife, the Lao girl is damn hot!) and a 2.1m tall Irish guy who Klasina thought was cute(in the dark). The happy troopers had fun that night.....without any special omelette's help. Very proud of that.
It was a great way to end my weekend indeed...great sun, fruit shakes, dancing, making new bizarre friends and my first restaurant encounter with marijuana....perfecto! A girl couldn't ask for more. =)
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