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Published: January 16th 2007
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HANOI to VIENTIANE
The drive from Hanoi (Vietnam capital) to Vientiane (Lao capital) can be a whole blog entry in itself! There were several travelers who had warned me against taking the bus, but my broke self had to opt for the cheapest method. The 20-hour bus ride was an overnighter, roughly from 7 p.m. to 4 p.m.-ish the next afternoon. The bus that took me on this journey turned out to be a retired Jeju-do (island in Korea) bus! The things you see!
Anyhow, let me paint a picture of the bus scene when I walked in: cheesy disco lighting; first five (or so) rows are locals; next five (or so) are travelers; last five rows are potatoes and onions. Literally, on the back of the bus, you can see and smell a huge mound/wall of these veggies. I'm thinking, "Where else in the world..." So after about four hours, we stop at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Yea, nice. Stretch around for awhile, smoke a cig or two, listen to the rooster cockadoo-ing... But two hours later...what? We're still here! Where is the bus driver you ask? Sleeping on a hammock, silly. Yea, it was
pretty funny/strange/annoying.
The border crossing wasn't too bad considering the stories I'd heard about getting stuck there for hours for a visa. It’s all hearsay. For us, it took just about an hour. During the process, the guard told us to pay $5 (I think it was), even through we had paid for our visas, and gave us no reasons why. When we tried to challenge this “fee,” we realized that they could care less if we got our passports back that day or next year, so we quickly forked over the dough. All in all, the bus ride wasn't too bad b/c I got to meet some nice travelers who I ended up seeing throughout Lao.
VIENTIANE
Yea, so comes the end of our 20-hour journey and we're finally in Vientiane. 😊 A big group of us dissolved down to two: Brent and me. Brent’s a fellow American (yay) who had been traveling for quite some time, en route to Tibet and India. So, as fate would have it, we were kind of thrown upon each other to become roommates, to stay in nice places (no more $4 rooms) at half the price. No more ghettoing it;
$15 per night rooms from this point forth!
We spent two nights in Vientiane, and oh what style we did it in: Orchid Guesthouse, vintage baby blue Vespa, and Beer Lao... Actually, that's my whole memory of Vientiane. We did check out a temple, but we were a bit blah-ed and uninspired from the bus ride, that we mostly chilled. On day two, Brent rented the cutest baby blue Vespa with white vintage leather seats from some local named "Street Boy," or something to that nature. This Vespa was like from the 60s or something. Sooo-o cute! Anyhow, we cruised around town and villages in it, and drove along the Mekong River. It was really nice. We were big-pimpin in the Vespa.
VANG VIENG
Then on day three, we rode a bus to Vang Vieng, a small town north of Vientiane. It's a town that has blossomed into a travelers scene thanks to it's scenic beauty and water activities. The bus strategically dropped us off at these bungalows (Bungalow Thavonseuk) in the most beautiful location. Imagine clear blue skies, rolling mountains and a river as your view outside the front door. It was truly a stunning view. It
At one of the main bars along the river
My stomach is the aftermath of too many Beer Lao wasn't cheap in Laos standards ($15) but it took us about one minute of "should we..." and "hmmm..." to settle for the night. The view itself was enough. Again, living large!
We had one night there, so we hauled ass to the tubing place. SOOOO FUN! It is definitely one of my peak moments during my travels. We rented these big round tubes and started 3 km north of town to start our tubing journey down the Nam Xong River. The view was absolutely gorgeous! I hope my recollection can justify how awesome this was, but I think it was the time, weather, and company that made it unique. Even if I were to go again, I’m sure it wouldn’t beat this particular experience.
So it was about 3 p.m. and the sun is not so bright anymore and there weren’t that many tubers left by this point. The ride started out slooooooow and as I was slugging along, I wondered if we would ever reach the finish line. Along the river, there are makeshift platform bars that you can pull over at to drink and chill. The first was a small one, and since we were moving
so slow, we bought two Beer Lao without ever getting off of our tube. It was like a drive (tube) thru bar.
The next bar we saw was pretty full and people were doing these hang-gliding/tarzan sort of jumps into the river. I never did it b/c I'm chicken sh!t and the river is like 6 feet at it’s deepest, but Brent did a cool somersault-esque thing. We chilled out and bumped into another traveler who was also a Hanoi-Vientiane bus victim. About 30 minutes later, RAIN! Everyone shot out, as did we. We tubbed down the warm river, with the cool rain just pounding down, lightening in the sky, and Beer Lao. All of the ingredients made that exact moment just so awesome. The rain eventually stopped (whew b/c a certain someone was scared of lightening; not me) and we continued to cruise along the river. About four hours after starting the tubing, we ended up at our final destination, and took a truck-cab back to our cute bungalows. It was a fantastic day.
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