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Published: December 26th 2011
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Last sunday I had an overnight bus booked from Krabi to Bangkok. I waited for about an hour after the pickup time before heading over to the travel agent I had booked with to see what was happening. It turns out that I missed the bus and of course she blamed me and said that she thought I was going to wait at her office and then kept telling me I should have come to the office earlier. She made a few calls and got me on a later bus but I had to pay for the motorcycle taxi to take me to the private bus station. I couldn't be bothered arguing. While waiting for the bus I ran into Adrian from Holland who I had met in the Cameron Highlands which gave me somebody to talk to for the 12 hour trip. The trip wasn't too bad and I had about 3 hours sleep before arriving at Khao San Rd early monday morning. After having a couple of coffees in Soi Rambuttri we found a great place for $9 a single right in the area I wanted to stay. I decided to stay in Bangkok that night before catching the
bus to Udon Thani the next day. I didn't really do much except take a cruise a few kilometres down the river and back again.
Tuesday morning I caught the local bus out to Mo Chit bus station and then hopped on a bus bound for Udon Thani in the north of the country. It took a little longer than expected and I finally arrived in town about 7.30pm. I walked to the tourist / bar area and decided to treat myself to a great room in a brand new hotel for $20 a night with 32" LCD tv and fluffy pillows and doona. I spent a couple of days here enjoying the cooler weather and having a wander around town before catching a bus to the Laos border.
While waiting in line I met Lisa from New Zealand and we decided to share a taxi to a guesthouse in the centre of Vientiane, the capital of Laos. I decided to take a $10 room with shared bathroom and then met up with Lisa for lunch and a walk along the riverfront. I was quite surprised how clean the city was, not really what I expected. It also
had more guesthouses, hotels, restaurants, and cafes than I imagined.
Friday afternoon we decided to hire a tuk tuk to take us to Buddha Park about 30 km east of Vientiane. About 10 kms out of town we ran out of petrol so we had to wait about 15 minutes for the driver to catch another tuk tuk up the road to get fuel. The park had quite a few strange religious sculptures and wasn't a bad place to visit for an hour. The next day I wandered around the city and went to the museum which was okay but nothing special.
On sunday I met up with Lisa again and we took a walk to Patuxai Gate and then onto Pha That Luang temple. I was a little disappointed with the temple but really liked the design of the gate. That evening we took a tuk tuk to the Circus Hall which was hosting a competition, with performers from Vietnam and Cambodia as well as Laos. It was very enjoyable and highly entertaining.
Today I caught the bus for Vang Vieng. It was supposed to be a 4 hour trip but turned out to be about
5 hours which isn't too bad I guess. I have a good room for $8 a night and just about to go out to watch "Friends" or "Family Guy". Ciao.
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