Advertisement
Published: March 5th 2006
Edit Blog Post
So to get from Hanoi to Vientiane, Laos, we had to take the bus. An interesting ride, it was... sure lived up to it's name of the "Hell Bus from Hanoi". Gah! The first few hours were fine... our friend Tanya was on the bus... cool. Then, we switched... in the middle of the night... to this crummy smelly bus, half packed with giant boxes and sealed bodybags of goodness knows what (the border-cross busses here have a bit of a reputation, so we hear, for smuggling illicit goods. excellent). We had to wake up a few Vietnamese folk in order to get a seat... random bags of vegetables and other things were evvverywhere. We (luckily) found seats together... it was a packkked ship! And then our journey began... very rickety bus, but it was, however, equipped with a karaoke television! Fantastic! We watched thai music videos, and also "steps" videos, half of Top Gun... all with the sound system blarrring... just enough to overpower an ipod on full-blast! We also had a few engine difficulties... our bus driver had to stop every like... 10 minutes to let it cool down, or make an offering to Buddha, light some incense... the
usual stuff. So we took a tad longer than planned to get to the border. And some guy kept horking behind us. Fab!!!
The border cross was okay... had to pay a special $1 charge to whoever was dealing with our passports. After all, it was a Saturday... they'd rather not be at work! But, as soon as we crossed into Laos, it was smoooooth sailing! (with the exception of the engine cool stops). The scenery across the border was so radically different from Vietnam... so beautiful! Untouched jungle... huuuuge limestone karsts everywhere... it was splendid! We also stopped at a little Lao village, and saw our first Lao Wat (buddhist temple), which was soooo cool... very colourful and elaborate! The village was quite neat, too... the locals lived in these bamboo huts on stilts, and were bathing in the river.
We had officially entered one of the least developed countries (and most heavily bombed) in the world. It's SO AMAZING! The culture is just incredibly relaxed, pleasant, and slllooow!!!! Vientiane, the captial, has minimal infrasctucture, no street signs (which was kind of aggrivating), incredibly dusty roads, and just a really chilled out place. Many people make their
living barbequeing fish at night on the Mekong river. Sweet. And no one ever complains about Laos. Best place ever. Serriously!
In Vientiane, we saw the giant golden That Luang Temple.. and kind of got lost on the way.. but evan got his hair cut on the way at a streetside barber... for one dollar! so no worries! It was giant and gold! There were a lot of nifty wats surrounding it, aswell. We dined with some friends from previous places, and sipped Beer Lao (Southeast Asia's finnnest brew) by the Mekong. It was great. We saw some more cool sights, chilled out in the capital, then took the citybus (which ended up being way cheaper, easier, and more comfortable than the traveller busses) to Vang Vieng!
Here we are then... Vang Vieng! It's a really amazing place. Has the chilled out mentality of all of Laos... but magnified! 360 degrees around you, theres nothing but the giant limestone karsts and jungle in the background. The town is pretty and tiny, set on a nice river, lined with bamboo-huts full of pillow-mats, in which you can sit, eat, nap, and watch the scenery. It seems like all people
do here is relax. Which is cool. It's a very backpacker-oriented town... the restaurants that line the main street are filled with the same bamboo-pillow-mat combo. Most of them have western t.v. playing all the time... FRIENDS! lost of friends... but some family guy, or movies, also. Annnd.. all of these restaurants have a special "happy menu" tacked onto the back of their regular selection. Yes... "happy"... as it pot, mushrooms, opium... gah! We've heard it can often lead to unhappy nights, and (don't worry mom!) we've stuck to the classic beer lao.
The first days we were here were cool... it's quite easy to get caught up in the "do-nooothing-at-all"sort of mentality! But yesterday, we splurged and took a day trip... which was amazing! We went through these caves with headlamps and tubes... so cool... very cold, though! Many cool and eerie-looking rock formations. Cool. Then we had lunch, and hopped into our kayaks... It was actually the coolest place to kayak... amazing scenery! Nothing but scenery, actually! And a nice river, with a few very tame little rapids that pushed us along. It was amazing... a highlight, for sure. Then, we got down to the area where
people tube down the entire river, and hung out at one of the bamboo riverside bar/restaurant/hangouts. We jumped off a fun zipline, into the river, which was a blast, and just spent a few hours chilling and enjoying the cool... but admittedly strange atmosphere. There are so many of those little river-side Beer-lao stands, all pumping Bob Marley, all equipped with a rope-swing and perhaps a volleyball net... so fun... but very very weird!
Today, we mostly hung out in a hut by the river... such a nice day! It'll be hard to leave this gorgeous scenery and incredibly chill atmosphere. Loafing is seemingly the official pastime in Vang Vieng. It''ll be hard to leave... but we still have a few dayas!... planning to volunteer a bit - not sure how that'll work out... if anything hopefully we'll be able to teach an english class for an evening.
Thanks for the comments/emails... we looove them :D later!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0721s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
mommy n
non-member comment
nice hair cut
well Indiana Jones, you're looking very rugged and about twenty five years old sporting your new hair cut. Amazing pictures and I have absolutely no way of comprehending how you tolorate all these bus trips. You used to feel sick when I took you on the city bus to the library and the art gallery when you were young. It all sounds so interesting and we're all learning many things as we research where you two are. As look at these pics I can't help but wonder about all the smells(especially on the buses) and in the markets. As you swing through the vines, remember about all the parasitic infested waters you are supposed to stay out of. Sorry , I had to say something it's a mother's perogative. You're in all our thoughts and take care. Fifteen days until spring here. love from G-ville.