three things

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Today we took a mini bus to Vang Vieng, a small town in the middle of Laos that has been completely developed around backpackers. At all the restaurants there are TVs set up that are either playing Friends, Family Guy, or the Simpsons. After being away from North American from popculture for so long this is almost like a re-culture shock to our own culture.

Because this is more of a touristy town, the internet is ridiculously expensive to use. There are three things I made a note to write about over the last day, so here they are:

1. Yesterday after we returned our bicycles in Luang Prabang we headed back to the hostel to relax. Adam wanted to have a nap, and similar to when I was a child, I layed there for a bit, read, but could't fall asleep. So I decided to go on a little adventure around the hostel. When we had first arrived at the hostel, they put us in a room that did not have a balcony on the river because they said they didn't have one available. After we had showered and unpacked our things they told us there was one available if we wanted to move. At that point we figured we would just stay where we were because we had already unpacked. The room with the balcony did have a beautiful view of the river and I decided that I wanted to go read on that balcony. I checked to see if the empty room was unlocked and sure enough it was. I didn't think they would mind if I just went in read on the balcony, especially since the room wasn't occupied. After I had been reading for a bit, I realised how ridiculous it would be if the hostel owners were showing the room to someone and I was there sitting on the balcony, so I decided to head back to our room. When I tried to open the door from the balcony, it wouldn't open. The latch that secured the door shut had slid back into place when I shut the door. What a predicament I was in. Here I was standing on the balcony of a room that wasn't even mine with no way to get off. Adam was soundly asleep in our room and would have no idea where I was. After a brief moment of panic, I used my book to wedge the door open just wide enough so I could fit my hand in to open the latch. How embarassing would it have been to have to get the hostel owners to let me out.... That's what happens when I'm unsupervised.

2. This morning our bus to Vang Vieng was at 8:30 am. We decided that we would go for breakfast before we got on the bus and pick up a couple of sandwiches to take with us. There are plenty of small restaurants on all the main strips that make sandwiches you can take away. The one particular place we stopped at this morning had either a pork or egg sandwich option. Adam decided to get the pork. Apparently in Laos a pork sandwich involves pork on a bun in three different mediums. First she put some kind of pork spread (what looked kind of like head cheese), followed by ground pork, some mayo, vegetables, pieces of sliced pork, and last but not least some fried egg. Adam said it was one of the best sandwiches he has ever had. He could only eat half of it though because it was so incredibly huge.

3. Our mini van ride to Vang Vieng was supposed to take about 5 hours. I'm not estimating when I say that our bus driver must have stopped ever 45 minutes to either go to the washroom, have something to eat, grab a drink, pick something up at the market, drop something off to a friend...the list goes on. At that rate, we figured we'd be lucky to make it to Vang Vieng before it was dark. I think it was about the 4th time that he stopped, Adam and I decided that if we stayed in the van, maybe he would get the message that all the passengers didn't want to stop so frequently. We stayed in the van for about 5 minutes before we reailsed that without the AC on it was incredibly hot. It was a good thing we got out because the reason the driver had stopped was due to a flat tire. Our driver, this tiny little Laos man, had started to change the tire himself. Adam could tell that the driver was having some difficulty went over to help the driver. Adam basically changed the tire of the mini-van with another Thai man. At one point when the Thai man was tightening the blots, he handed the wrench (if that's even what you use) to Adam and said "you do it, you have big power". We could hardly control our laughter, although Adam was secretly loving his life. The rest of the ride we discussed how important it has been for him to have the 6, and how if he hasn't had her, he woudn't be such an efficient tire changer. The whole ordeal only set us back about 15 minutes.

Alright, that's all the stories for today. More soon.

Lots of love,

Nicole/Poke
xoxoxo

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