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Published: December 29th 2007
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Outside my room
From the balcony outside my room Two nights ago from Luang Prabang I booked myself a bus, which they called the 'vip bus' for 5 dollars to Vang Vieng. It is located halfway between Luang Prabang and Vientienne. This town is a 'bug out'. First off, the town is surrounded by the most beautiful scenery I have EVER seen. It's like the garden of eden. Lonely Planet describes it as the scene from King Kong, which is a perfect description. This isn't the bug out part. I have read some things in the tour books about this town in the middle of nowhere in Laos, but nothing could have prepared me. This town has been TAKEN OVER by Western backpacker stoners. People come here and never leave. I am NOT kidding. Supposedly, a famous club promoter from Britain pretty much 'invented' this place 5 years ago. He looked for the most amazing location to build his 'paradise'. First off, every restaurant is filled with pillows, where you lay around facing a television that plays 'Friends' DVD's on repeat nonstop. This isn't one of the restaurants; there are about 5 of these in a town no bigger than Ridgewood. It looks like a Wild West village. There are
The Laotian Minivan
They ride deep in SE Asia, sometimes fitting a family of 5 or even 6 on a single moto bike. Here's an example of a roomy ride for a Laotian family. other's of these Restaurants playing Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, etc. When you think about where you are, it's crazy that this is going on. All of the places sell Special Shakes, Happy Pizza, Mushroom Tea, etc. And, this is a communist country.
During the day, people float down the river amongst the scenery, where for about 15 miles, no exaggeration, the river is lined with these ramshakle bars, with high jumps into the river, tarzan swings, zip lines, so on. When you pass, the bars throw you out a rope and pull you in. It is absolutely nuts. Each place has a dj, playing European techno nonstop, filled with ALLL Westerners, mostly Europeans. It is crazy. Thank God I wasn't here two or three years ago, or I would've either died or never came home. Or, I would've ended up staying, until I died. There are MANY people here who have come and NEVER left, some here for a NUMBER of years. Pretty crazy. I can't believe that Rolling Stone hasn't written an article about this place. This is in a country that has the infrastructure of the 5th century, minus a few internet connections. That's another thing. Every
third place is an internet cafe, where they again, are playing European Techno nonstop, with flashing lights and the bit.
Well, I arrived here yesterday by bus, which in itself is a story. It was supposed to be a 5 hour bus ride on a 'VIP' bus. Well, they JAMMED the bus more than full. We stopped unexpectedly every hour, due to bad roads, etc. At one point, the road was so bad, that we all had to get out and walk a MILE, where we met the bus further down the road. At the end, when we were finally only 15 minutes away, the bus got a flat, and they had no spare. I knew that this wasn't going to end up good. I grabbed my things from the bottom, flagged down a Laotion, and gave him the equivalent of 50 cents US, a fortune in this country, to drive me to town. He ended up driving me right to the hotel I was staying at. It ended up working great. I ran into one of the girls that was on that bus today on the tour I took, which I will go into in a bit, and
she told me that it took 3 hours to fix it.
Now to today. I figured I definitely needed to take a tour today. I didn't want to hang out looking for trouble. If you hang around a barbershop you'll surely end up getting a haircut. So, I took a tour that began at 9;30AM, which ended up being awesome. There were a bunch of young people from all around Europe that I met, a bunch of who turned out to be real cool. There was even a kid from NYU, who is studying abroad in Singapore this semester. Not surprisingly though, he is so gay. It was so funny. At one point in the tour, we were all wet and disheveled, and he asked the guide if it was disrespectful for us to go to this village like that. He goes, 'For Men it's not, For Women it's not, but for Lady Boy's it is'. LOL. I love the Laotians. The beginning of the tour started off slow, so I thought it wasn't going to be so great. There was even three old people on the tour with us, but they only had a two hour tour to
the village, so it ended up being ok. The tour was treking, caving, and then tubing down the river. The first cave we saw sucked; however, the second cave was awesome. We had to wear all these lights and everything, bouldering in the dark. It took over an hour. Then, we went to an underwater cave. It was amazing. First, we had to get in these tubes, where we pulled along a rope, sort of like the ropes that everyone holds in haunted houses, and you pull yourself along the water in the pitch black cave. Then, it gets really narrow, so you have to get out of the tube, and swim in the water, carrying the tube. Then, it opens up, and the water ends. You leave your tube, and begin REAL caving. Very small opening, big crevaces. Many times you had to crawl. At one point we had to slide on our stomachs for a while. It was awesome.
After caving, I did the tubing thing, where you go along the river and people pull you in. I also did all the high jumps and tarzan swings. They were cool, but the setups they had were so
rickety. Luckily they didn't break. I just ended that tour 2 hours ago. My next stop is to go to Pnom Penh in Cambodia by way of Vientienne. THis morning I bought a plane ticket from Vientienne to Pnom Penh for only 95 bucks. It is really the only option, since there really isn't any roads in between and there is no train. The plane flight leaves from Vientienne at 10AM, and it's international so I have to get there at 8AM, so my only option was to stay a night in Vientienne. This is fine though, since I had actually thought about checking the city out anyway. It is the capital city of Vientienne. It is considered the only city in the country; however, one of the people I talked with today said it is just a big village. The place I stayed here in Vang Vieng for two nights was also REALLY nice. For 35 bucks a night, I have this awesome room with a porch right on the river overlooking the mountains. It's called Elephant Crossing. You can probably type that into google with the word Laos and find the site for it.
OK, I'm off.
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Beer Lao
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Where´s King Kong ? And Who is King Kong?