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Published: August 14th 2008
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It seems crazy talking about Laos when I am in Vietnam but I have been loathed to write about my experiences in the latter country, of which you can only begin to understand as I will never give a full depth appraisal. It would be too sad and too venomous. What I will say is that Vietnam has been a country of contradictions: a disappointment on many levels and in fine contrast to that, an exhilirating ride of excess. Details to follow...
Now for my favourite subject. LAOS. Beautiful, intoxicating, memorable Laos.
Marion and I made our way to the capital city of Vientiane ("vienchan") with Louise and Sam but I am afraid the journey was nothing to shout about. In fact I don't remember it at all. The mountains that I have been previously raving about sadly disappear the further you head to the central plains and in accordance with the landscape Vientiane was also rather flat but in typical style we made it our own little paradise. Thanks to the Martini bar we discovered, the local bar/clubs and of course the locals who as usual greeted us with open arms.
We didn't do much in terms
of sightseeing but the places we did venture to were quite a site to behold. Due to its French connections, the city has its own Champs a lysee (forgive my spelling) and of course, arc de triomphe, which you can climb up to capture the city from high above. There is also the Buddha Park which is a strange site as it not only fuses Buddhism with Hinduism the sculptures are quite bizarre and one in particular. From the surface it looks to be a huge ball from the top of which protrudes a sort of tree. At its entrance is a mouth with teeth. You can imagine I headed straight for it and discovered that you could climb in. Inside there were chambers filled with more statues on several layers all of which you can climb. One chamber was deovted entirely to snakes in all forms and guises. Climbing through this strange place gave the eerie impression of having discovered a relic as it wasn't lit on the inside, the stone from which it was constructed smelled of earth and we were the only ones brave enough to enter.
It is said that the man who built this
bumping into old friends
jez, me, marion, louise and sam strange park was as eccentric as his creations
That evening it all went askew. Marion and I were rightly distracted by Happy Hour at the Martini Bar and one thing led to another and before we knew it we had missed our meeting with Sam and Louise. Oops!! We were sweaty, wet and dirty from the day's outing but we had cocktails 😊))
Later, we returned to the Italian restaurant where marion resumed her conversations in French with the old Laos man working there. He was an absolute charmer, honest and intelligent. How could we refuse his offer to take us to a couple of local bars. While Louise slept and the boys were lost to us we skulked into the night to take refuge in Laos pop and culture. Well, again one thing led to another and I persuaded Marion she should sing. She was fabulous and to cut a long story short we had a lock in. But unfortunately after the stroke of 1am common sense prevailed and we thought it better to return home.
The next morning we were dead to the world. There was not a God in heaven who would have had
the strength to budge us from our beds to catch the bus south at the ungodly hour of 7:30am with Sam, Louise and Jez. Instead, we forced oursevles up a little later to catch a different bus, which we were later to discover would take us to the middle of nowhere...all in the quest to see the longest cave in Laos. I think it is 21km long.
So we arrived Viengkham and not one person said hello, it was as if we were invisible. I am so glad I was not alone. There was only guesthouse and it was awful but we made the most of it in spite of it being right next to a disco, which after last night's frolics we were in no mood for.
The next problem - how the hell do we get out of this hick town to Bin Na Hin? There was no one we could ask, no tourist informaion, nothing. The next morning we made our way to the only road in the town and hoped and prayed a bus would pass. Instead we were more fortunate and we were picked up by a pick up taxi truck (that's the
best way I can explain it). We were both short of cash and without any means of getting any for the next couple of days.
In Bin Na Hin, the universe once again showed its mercy and we were able to go to the caves that afternoon. But it wasn't going to be easy. Again another pick up truck to another destination and then another truck to the final destination. And there, we had to search out where we could go to/who we could go to to take us to the cave.
In the end it was all worth it in spite of the fact that we were both starving, tired, sweaty and hungry!! After the caves we decided to stay in one of the local villages and saving the complicated return home for the following day.
The next day was equally a nightmare. The pick up truck was demanding too much money of which we had none to give, the sun was threatening to burst into the sky frazzling us to a crisp and I was hungry! There was no where we could go to eat but ever the opportunist I spotted a foreign family emerge
from one of the huts off the road. On discovering they were French I sent Marion in. Consequently, we scored two steaming glasses of coffee and I, a handful of sticky rice. At that moment we spotted another foreign couple climbing aboard the pick up truck. We ran to make our negotiations and got the deal we wanted now that we weren't the only customers.
As soon as we got to Bin Na Hin there was no stopping for food unfortunately as we were herded onto the next truck to take us to the next major town, 7 hours away where we were to get a bus to Savannakhet, a further 3 hours from there! We were broke, famished and exhausted by the time we arrived in Savannakhet.
There was absolutely nothing to do in the town but as usual we made our own entertainment. It was unlike the towns we had encountered before...no wine bars unfortunately. So, we crowded into a local karaoke bar and as usual we had the time of our lives. That was my farewell to Laos and to Marion.
Early the next morning I kissed her goodbye and made my lonely way
to the bus station to make the journey to Vietnam.
If I had known then what I was to encounter I would certainly have stayed in Laos xx
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Dave
non-member comment
great time
Hi Remember me see and read you had e great time in Laos. I am not in India anymore, but Sri Lanka where i am teaching English which is great. Enjoy your travels Dave