Let there be light!!!

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"The bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng leaves in 10 minutes!" he exlaims as he tries to push me out of his office into the street to get into a tuktuk! This tiny Lao man who the day before had told me he loved me in Swedish (and had been very proud of his limited knowledge of the language!), was now looking like he did not like me at all! The minibus I booked with him was supposed to pick me up at my guesthouse at 9am, but apparently forgot about it! Typical my luck, I could really feel what it was going to be like to be on my own again! Hard work!!

So eventually after a lot of hustle and bustle I got to the bus station! But the bus was not there! Furiously I screamed at yet another poor tiny Lao man at the ticket office, until I made my way to the nearest phone booth to call the travel agent and give him an earbashing! Moments after, the tiny Lao man from the ticket office comes running up and tells me that the bus is waiting for me at a nearby gas station. So with all my luggage, heavy backpack and all, I get on this tiny man's tiny little scooter and off we went on the dirt road to the gas station. I clasped my arms around his tini- tiny body, in the hope of not falling off the bike and lose a limb or two!! I felt like a massive Amazon woman, compared to this little man, and it must have looked pretty funny seeing the two of us on his little scooter, haha!

But I made it to Vang Vieng in the end. The bus ride was supposed to take 6 hours, but like everything else in Laos, you have to take it with a pinch of salt! The bus ride took more or less 7- 8hrs, and it was a challenge, even for those who do not tend to get car sick! The bus was supposed to be a VIP bus with air- con, but I think it should be called the "hell ride without suspension" instead!! Everytime we hit a bump, I hit the ceiling! The only thing that was VIP with that bus was the tinsel in the windows....very Bollywood, haha!

Back tracking the story to Luang Prabang for a moment! Had a good couple of days with the Canadians. We went to Kuang Si Waterfall on Tuesday, which turned out to be quite a hard days work! The roads up there where bumpy as well, so we had to stop half way so that Trevor could get out and "discard" his breakfast, haha! The waterfall was beautiful, but the weather was crap. It has been cloudy now for the past three days, it has actually been fairly cold here, about 18 degrees during the day and freezing at night! A bit of a change from the extreme heat I've experienced before! But today the sun decided to shine! Oh let there be light!

Staying at an organic farm outside of Vang Viang. Found it on the internet at www.laofarm.org, but it is also mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide as being a good place to do some WWOOFing (means "Willing Workers On Organic Farms"). You help out with some community work and if you stay for a longer period of time, they put you up for free! So far I have to pay, but I only intend to stay at the farm for a couple of days! They grow mulberries at the farm and they have the most amazing mulberry pancakes, tea and shakes! I got up really early this morning, but only helped out for a couple of hours watering the pineapple plants. There's not really too much work to do there at the moment, as it's not harvest season, but the atmosphere on the farm is great. The owner, Mr Thi, has got 17 adopted children that all work on the farm, and there's also a bunch of foreigners helping out, so the vibe is just amazing!!

Have now been travelling for almost a month! I can't believe it.......time really does fly by fast! I am dreading having to end my "holiday" in August, I just want to hold on to it forever!!!!! =(

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Photos

The VIP bus
This is all that the VIP bus had to offer- tinsel in the windows!