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Again I apologize to those of you who have been following my travels for not having written before, but until last night, when I actually sat down and wrote everything down I didn't think I had done much. Now I realize this post will probably be really long. So, here goes...
Once I arrived in Laos' capital Vientiane I realized there was not much to do here so I packed up and headed north with a Canadian couple to the famous for tubbing town of Vang Vien. We arrived on a bus that unlike those in Colombia (who must stand for the whole ride), offers the extra passengers a small plastic stool to sit in in the middle row for the ride. The following day we did the whole tubing thing. Unlike the tubing I am used to (family style BYOL), there are several bars along both riverbeds where a thirsty tuber might stop for a drink. For the first ten minutes there are about 15 bars so the Canadians and I decided we would wait for other bars further down the river not knowing that would really be our last chance. So basically we messed up. We floated down the
river for a couple of hours, missed our exit and had to walk our tubes back the rest of the way. No biggie, I knew I would be heading back that way and the wiser for my mistakes.
I had to get my Vietnamese and Cambodian visas as well as have some extra pages sown into my terribly thin and problematic passport so I headed back to Vientiane. I was surprised at how easy it is to walk into an embassy here, especially since my only real experience is with the US one in Bogota and that is completely surrounded by armed marines, but I made it, got all my paperwork done in two days and then luckily ran into my Dutch friends from Chang Mai. I say luckily because Vientiane is the slowest, quietest city I have ever been to. It feels like a capital town not a capital city, and although I insult it often, I find I have spent most of my time in Laos here.
I went to diner with the Dutch guys and there we met Sonya who would become my next travel buddy. We stayed in Vientiane to celebrate one of the boy's birthdays
and were then going to move on to Vang Viene. During one of my bike rides to the embassies, I saw there was a water park and seeing as I had already seen the sites I decided to spend my last day in Vientiane in the water park. Little did I know the pool had not yet been built and the only pool they had was a kiddie pool. Not deterred and exasperated by the insufferable heat I lay there in that kiddie pool for the majority of the day. The one time I decided to be brave and throw myself down the spiral slide, I managed to scrape my elbows enough that the 20 lifeguards (I am not exaggerating) who were on duty (there were only two of us in the park, me and my friend Arno) came to my rescue and bandaged me up, leaving ridiculous looking tan lines on both my elbows.
Sonya and I moved on to Ban Na, a small village north east of Vientiane to do some trekking and probably some elephant spotting. The elephant spotting was scratched when the village guide, who spoke no English, wanted to charge us a ridiculous amount to
take us to see them. So we decided to move to the next village which was 10km away were there were smaller treks to waterfalls and where Kristy, a Canadian girl I met in Thailand was volunteering for a couple of weeks. Luckily the guy who had brought us to Ban Na, and charged us 30,000 kip ($3.50) said he would take us this small distance for 100,000 kip, but seeing as we were in the middle of nowhere, we had no choice but to accept. So we moved on to Ban Hat Khai where we stayed in Mr. Camoun's house with his wife and children and were later walked to the waterfalls you will see in the pictures.
From there we moved onto Vang Viene where we met Simon, the completion to the team. I went tubing once again, this time stopping at the bars at the beginning and having a blast. Simon, Sonya and I walked to a cave around the town and then swam with a monk in a little pond (see pictures).
The next stop was Luang Prabang, a world heritage town in the North which is famous for its French colonial architecture and many wats,
if I were to live anywhere in Laos, it would definitely be here.
(The entry might not be that good from here on because the F*ing computer I was using just deleted half of what I wrote. VERY FRUSTRATING)
From LP we moved north to the town of Nong Kiaw where we decided to venture further on a one hour small boat to the small village Mueng Ngoi nestled in some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. The village is known for its many treks that again would probably be even nicer in the rainy season but were amazing still. The team trekked through the sun and rice patties with water buffalo which aside from looking serene and beautiful are a quite tasty reward meal after having walked for about five hours.
From here the team split up and I headed south again to Vientiene, where I am now so that I can again head further south to eventually get to the border crossing with Cambodia and on and on. So tonight I am taking my first sleeper bus, yes beds, on the bus and will let you know how that goes, pictures included. I can't wait
to get on this bus because the last one I was on, from LP here, was so horrifically tight that I got a bruise on my knee and my first experience with Kancles (not ankles, calves that extend all the way to your feet) and my toes were so swollen I could not even separate them. Now I am fine and moving on again!
Let me know what you're up to!
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Nana
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Por Fin
Hola nena, por fin cuentas en que andas!! Feliz cumpleanios adelantado- me avisas como contactarte. Un besote, Nana