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This morning we got up at 6am as we wanted to the monks recieving alms. This is when the line up along the street and the locals bring them food for their breakfast and dinner and put it in their bowls.
It was a nice time to be up, very peacful and not so hot. We walked about all the streets where we believed it to be, but no luck. However we stumbled across a local food market set up down one of the side streets. We were the only non-locals there. They were selling the usual fruit, fish, meat and veg, but also they had buckets of huge live dung beetles, live frogs, dead common garden birds, fried and dried rats and bats. There was a man who had like a large vole creature, alive, with one leg tied to a cucumber so it couldn't run off!
One lady had a leopard cat (like the one we saw on safari in Malaysia) layed out next to her mushrooms! Another lady looked like she had just got everything she could find from her garden that she thought she might be able to sell! She had, birds, frogs, squirrels, rats and wild
mushrooms. We got a lot of looks walking through the market but we really liked it as it was truly only a local market.
Now the time had come for the dreaded journey! We were catching a minibus to Vang Vieng, down South on route 13. Now one of the reasons I (Melissa) didn't want to go to Luang Prabang or Vang Vieng, is because of what I had heard about this journey, this is also why we flew in and only had to do the trip once, a compromise you see.
Anyway the reasons why I didn't want to do it are as follows. The local bus drivers drive crazy and the roads are all up in the mountains with no kind of barrier at the edge of the road, let alone road markings! Locals (apparently) don't travel well and everyone I spoke to had people throwing up on their buses on this journey! A couple we spoke to, their friend had gone over the edge of a cliff on this road and they all had to climb out the back window of the bus! Finally there is a history of bandits on this route, holding up buses
and in 2003 a swedish couple were shot and killed during one of these hold ups. So you can see why I wasn't so keen to do it. But Andy kept telling me how amazing the scenery was supposed to be! Well it best be bloody be amazing to overcome all this worry! ( I only go on what people tell me and EVERYONE said it's the best country they have been to!!!!!!!)
So on with the story. We got our tuk tuk which took us to the bus station. It should have taken us over the road to where the minibuses were, but no he dropped us off at the local buses where the drivers promptly came over and tried to get us on a local bus (NOT LIKELY!!) when we told him we had a minibus, he tried to tell us 'no have, minibus'. WHATEVER!! we walked over the road and found our bus, good.
We were due to leave at 9am, it was now 8.10am and we have heard that whether or not you have booked a seat if it isn't full then it won't leave, which was very stressful as no body arrived until 9.15am,
but then we were full and on our way.
So far so good.
Now I was amazed at the journey, the driver drove slower than me! He was so careful and went around every corner really slow! I was so pleased!! I could relax, we weren't going to go off the edge of a cliff and surely this would not make anyone feel ill.
The scenery was really amazing. Massive hills and mountains covered with, what looked like green velvet. Huge limestone peaks poking out of lush greenery. Driving through all the little villages was really the best thing. Bamboo houses at the sides of the road with old ladies and children carrying heavy bags full of wood hanging from their heads. Children playing in the roads, dusty clothes or half naked. Young children carrying babies in scarves on their backs, pulling buffalo along and pushing big wooden barrows.
There were women washing their children and themselves under taps on the side of the road. In a couple of the villages there were wells that had been funded and given by UNESCO, a charity organisation (the sort of things you see on tv, we were seeing!)
We had to slow
down and beep cows, buffalo, goats, chickens, pigs and children out of the way on the road.
We stopped off twice along the way where some cute kids hung around us, a guy with no arms asking for money. We arrived in Vang Vieng 7 hours later, it was supposed to have been 5 hours, but I didn't mind as the drive was so slow.
We were a little surprised when we arrived as it was a really small town (which Andy expected) and it was just dirt tracks. We checked out a couple of guest houses and got booked in, got a dollar knocked off, $4.
After a shower we walked around town. Straight away we liked it a lot, something a bit different. The small town is encased by massive mountains with low hanging clouds, really pretty. We had heard about Vang Vieng and the restaraunts, because they all play re-runs of friends and simpsons, quite funny as it seemed an odd location to have these things. As we have been away for such a long time we didn't mind these western influences, so we settled down (on lie down seats) to watch a few episodes of
Friends and had some dinner.
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