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Sunday, August 11, 2013

Email to Friends: Sabaidee from Laos!‏

The flight from Mandalay through Bangkok to Vientiane wasn't too bad. Much like the rest of my trip through Myanmar, all the tourists try to help each other out (since there is really very little current guide book information as the country is changing at such a rapid pace). We all traded currencies as we all head into different countries to avoid the high money changing rates at the airport. Had time to kill between flights so grabbed a delicious bowl of Thai chicken green curry Bangkok. The change from little villages in Myanmar to the loudness of Bangkok was actually quite jarring. Arrived in Vientiane late, but got my Visa on arrival so didn't need to stay in the airport.

Spent the next day sleeping in past 4 or 5am for the first time in two weeks (no monks chanting or early buses to catch). Walked around Vientiane and up and down the Mekong River. But this city doesn't have much to do. Lots of NGO workers and creepy dudes looking for Asian women (one at the airport last night that I watched walk up to all the women traveling alone kept trying to share a cab with me, but I didn't want him know my guesthouse). May have to do with the fact that Soukxana Guesthouse where I am staying is right across the street from the nicest hotel in the city. They all seem to sit around drinking and talking about how awesome they are. I am sure you can imagine the face I give them as they are talking. Lots of restaurants for Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, French, and Italian food when all I want to try is Laotian food. Found a bit at the night market, but the street stalls here don't have seats (you have to take the food to go), which is half the fun. Oh, and lots of shopping here... And everyone knows how much I despise shopping. It is raining, but I just pop into coffee shops to enjoy a delicious Lao coffee whenever it was a real downpour, which never lasted long.

I wanted to like Vientiane, but just didn't. It is hard coming from such a wonderful Myanmar experience where life is relaxing and the people were so quick with a smile to a city where everyone is so serious looking, people speak less English, and are not horribly friendly. But one of the bonuses of traveling alone and having no set plan is that if I don't like somewhere, i can just pick up and leave. Looked up the destinations of the local buses and just pointed to somewhere south about 6 hours away called Thakhek in southern central Laos that is suppose to be a more sleepy town with caving and trekking.

Thakhek has very few tourists and is a good little town (the center of town is a small few block of a few shops). It is in a thin strip of Laos, with Thailand right across the Mekong and Vietnam a motorbike drive away. Laos is proving to be far more expensive than I thought, and people are not very helpful at times. Booked a $15 room at Southida Guesthouse in the center of town that is cleanish with only a few bugs, one block off the Mekong River. Ran into a Japanese businessman that was on the bus with me who had helped me negotiate with the tuk tuk driver and we went to sit by the river. We joined a couple sitting next to us, and as luck would have it, they were just the right people in town to know. He is an ex-military mountain ranger from the German army turned teacher and she is a native Laos, Vietnamese/Chinese woman he married. They own Mad Monkey Motorbikes and rent motorbikes and do tours of the area. We drank beer Lao and ate a lovely dinner of noodles and papaya salad, watching the twinkling lights of Thailand across the river. A mini carnival was across the street with a bouncy house slide and kids throwing darts at balloons. The couple invited us to their house/shop and we stayed up talking and playing with their very friendly yellow lab, Lucky, who sits by my feet and rests his head in my lap so I will continually pet him. The power goes on and off in this town pretty often since apparently they are all running off one small cable, but who cares... we have a bouncy house slide! They offered to give me a motorbike tour in the morning and said they would only charge me for the bike and gas, and not the tour. I said that would be okay, as long as they would make some money.

In the morning, I woke up and chose one of the busiest shops for my morning coffee and noodle soup for breakfast across from the tourist restaurant. People were very friendly. Bing took me out on her motorbike for 8 hours, deftly avoiding chickens, goats, cows, pigs, geese, dogs, and whatever else seems to be walking the road. The big trucks carrying stuff to Vietnam and Thailand are horrible, and even ran us off the road once. We went and saw the hydroelectric dam (where 95 percent goes to Thailand and only 5 percent stays in Laos) and little towns in the mountains. Occasionally you can hear land mines being detonated by a group called MAG that finds them in a nearby province and blows them up (her husband had told me that during the war, the B52 bombers had to drop them undetonated in order to land in the smaller airport, but now farmers pick them up and try to unsuccessfully unarm them for the metal). We went to local food markets where they sell all things from the mountain forest... snail, land crab, bamboo shoots, cricket, river fish, something that looked like chipmunk that was swarming with flies, and some kind of large forest mouse (which were still alive and kind of cute, so maybe they are being sold as pets? Yeah, that's what I will tell myself). I didn't buy anything there, since my doctor made me promise to TRY not to eat anything with too many flies on it.

On the way back, we went to a cave that you boat and then climb through. Since it is rainy season, the light pours through holes in the cave where waterfalls flow in. Very beautiful and very slippery. I was lucky to have Bing there with me, as our tour guide got lost in the cave and she luckily remembered the way out from when she was younger. After getting out, we headed back to town, watching the children swim in rivers and blue green ponds. As we return through the mountains, there were several rainbows.

They took me to a wonderful dinner at their favorite restaurant and then we met up with a few other guys from Germany and a local guy and had more Lao beer on the roadside tables along the Mekong. They offered me a ride further south and I am sure it would have been fun, but I decided I should start the long bus ride north. The Mekong is looking pretty full, and some roads are washing out already. The north is full of narrow mountain roads, and I hear they can get dangerous in the wet season.

The next morning I got up to try to catch the 5:30am bus to Vientiane and then start heading further north. Of course, the local buses leave on their own schedule, so we didn't leave until after 7am. We creep along through the small. Towns, stopping at each so the driver can try to find more passengers (as if people might have been late for a bus that is over an hour and a half late). I have to remind myself that I am on vacation, and it doesn't really matter if I don't make my destination. At some point, some woman says something to me in Laotian and sets her little boy almost in my lap and leaves the bus to go buy food. Not that the kid wasn't cute, but glad she returned! It starts to rain and the bus starts leaking through the roof. Ah, travel days...

Had to go back through Vientiane and I have to say, the people I interact with are again, not very helpful and out to take advantage of tourists. But switch bus stations and spend the next four hours drinking and eating random meat on sticks with the mechanics and bus drivers who invite me to sit down (thankfully, not my bus drivers, as they are drunk when I leave). One had sliced his finger pretty bad, so I did my best to fix it up with my first aid kit. The sleeper bus wasn't too bad, although made for people much shorter than me.

Thought about stopping in Vang Vieng, but I heard the town was full of drunk tourists looking for drugs and intertubing down the river (apparently 14 tourists died last year). So headed straight for Luang Prabang. Already liking it here and found a nice guest house for $13 (although I may try to talk them down a buck or two since I will likely stay here for at least 5 nights). Finally had a hot-ish shower and now off to explore!

Love,
Betsy

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