Simpsons, Friends? Must be Vang Vieng!

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Alexis and I parted ways in Vang Vieng, but not before we marked the auspicious occasion with a Happy pizza party. Bad idea. Not recommended for the faint of heart. Somehow Alexis gathered herself together enough to catch the last bus outta of Vang Vieng, while I spent the day wandering from one restaurant to another. The main tourist street in V.V. has been likened to a mini-Khao San Rd. for good reason. Lonely Planet calls it as incongruous as Vegas rising out of the desert. The only thing here are white tourist and restaurants that feature constant re-runs of your favourite must-see-t.v. show. For lunch I dinned with the Simpsons; then a mid-day fruit shake with Friends; for dinner I had a date with The Family Guy. Sad but true, yet it was exactly what I needed to recover from the pizza of the night before. The next day I was a little more constructive. I made some friends and we went tubing down the river - the main form of entertainment here. There are about a dozen or so bars set about 5 meters apart all along the riverbank. As you sit in your tube slowly flowing down the river someone pulls you in with long bamboo poles so that you can drink, eat and jump from zip lines and swings into the water. We started tubing at around 10am and had our first drink soon after. It took us 5hrs. to tube down a section of the river that frankly is not very long. But it was a very relaxing way to spend the day. And I'm proud to say that I jumped from several of the swings. It's really weird for me to remember that I can now swim. I was bushed from a day drinking and sitting in the sun so I had an early night after another Friends marathon. I had vague plans of leaving Vang Vieng the day after, not wanting to get sucked into the vortex of the black hole that is this town. Luckily, at breakfast I bumped into a couple that I befriended during tubing and they were heading out in 30 min. for Vientiane via kayak. This unique mode of transportation was too much for me to pass up (I also knew that there was a 24 hr. bus ride to Vietnam in my near future and was not looking forward to even the short 3hr bus to Vientiane).

Breakfast was forgotten as I rushed to sign up and then head back to my bungalow to pack. I was only a few minutes late and the good people of Green Discovery Tours were kind enough to wait. There was a group of about 11 of us and we became fast comrades during the 1.5hr ride to the part of the Mekong that we would be kayaking down. Turns out that I'm decent at this kayak thing. I was originally partnered up with one of the guides (the kayaks were all doubles except 2 of the guides have singles). So I thought, "Smooth sailing. I don't even have to do any work." Unfortunately, two Dutch girls that were paired up kept going around in circles, so I had to help them out and traded places with one of them. I ended up being the person that had to do all the steering at the back and worked my ass off! My back, neck and arms are still pretty sore. We were on the water for about 2.5 hrs, stopping on a rock for a superb lunch, then back onto the back of the truck for another 1.5hr. ride to our destination. A funny moment was when us ladies had to change out of our wet swimsuits in a clearing surrounded by trees when suddenly we heard the crackle of twigs breaking and stifled giggles. I guess, some local boys thought that we could provide them with some female anatomy lessons. We even saw one of them fall out of a tree trying to get a peek. Pervy, but funny at the same time. We got into Vientiane around 5pm and I decided to follow my new Dutch friends (after all, I saved their asses kayaking) to a guest house. Now the three of us are all cozy shacked up together in one room. Only $6 a night, gotta love it. Our first full day in Vientiane, the three of us did a couple of touristy things including heading to a spa located on the grounds of a monastery nestled in a forest. We sat in a sauna with a bunch of local people (including a nun) for about an hour; we were also served tea and then had an hour massage. All for under $5. It was a really great experience especially after a day of kayaking. The only fly in the ointment was when the Dutch girls were the unwilling recipient of a shoulder rub from a chubby, half-naked Laos man while in the sauna. They both said that they were torn because the shoulder rub felt so good, but so pervy at the same time. They didn't know if they should ask him to stop or keep going. I'm glad I wasn't forced to make such a difficult decision!

My Dutch friends left this morning and now I'm bidding my time until I catch a night bus to Vinh. Finally, I'll be Vietnam by this time tomorrow. Only a 16hr. bus ride separates me from my peoples!

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Comments

[Lexatron]

kayaking jealousy
hey 2 comments from me! i'm addicted! anyways, wish I'd done the kayak thing, only I was still wrecked from the "happy" pizza and woulda had to have been dragged the whole way. have fun in vietnam, see you in Jan (I hope!)