Blogs from Laos, Asia - page 4

October 11 – Not such a great night of sleep last night. Becky and I both heard the dull thud of a slamming door several times last night, and Becky also had the pleasure of hearing someone throwing up at the same time. Somehow I missed that. Then at around 5:30 someone outside was on a megaphone talking, no idea what about, until 6:50am. Damn, that was annoying. We got up well before it ended, because what else could you do? Before breakfast, we had a problem with the safe and couldn’t get it open. I think it just wasn’t working for Becky. I went downstairs, told the front desk girl, she woke up the guy who woke better English, and he came up with me to see. It opened when I tried, but since he ... read more

October 8 – Sleeping pretty well, if not early enough. I had fried eggs for breakfast today with banana juice. The minibus for our day tour picked us up at 8:30, along with a retired Irish teaching couple from Cork and their daughter who also teaches in Hanoi. We were randomly switched to a different bus and given our official ticket, hand-written on what seemed to be a scrap of paper. Our tour guide was called Thin, and our first stop was Whisky Village, unofficially (I think) named due to the 50 proof rice whisky they produce. We had a small demonstration of the process and they had whiskey on sale, including some stuff “just for men” that had dead snakes and scorpions in it. We had some time to walk around the village before getting ... read more

Na een paar uur vliegen landde ik in Vientiane. Ik moest ter plekke voor mijn visum betalen, alleen 1 probleempje: de geldautomaat voor de douane accepteerde mijn creditcard niet. Gelukkig hielp een hele vriendelijke medewerkster mij naar een geldautomaat vóór de douane die het wel deed en leidde mij daarna door een kleine security weer terug om het visum af te handelen. Met een goedkope bus kwam ik snel aan bij het hostel. Ik was nog te vroeg om in te checken, dus gooide ik mijn spullen neer en ging gelijk op verkenningstocht. Vientiane is om héél eerlijk te zijn niet een hele boeiende stad. Het heeft een aantal gebouwen die duidelijk Franse invloeden hebben (inclusief een boeddhistische variant op de Arc de Triomph), maar verder had ik de stad na 2 uur rondlopen wel gezien. ... read more

I won't write a blog for every single place I visited in Laos, because there's not much to say and not much I've seen. It could be just bad luck and the drama that came with it, but I didn't find it a very interesting country. First of all, I felt ripped off the very first day I arrived. When we took the bus bus from Chiang Mai to the border, we had to get a tuk tuk to the actual border, because the bus wasn't going there. Then at the border you have to take a bus to cross the bridge. There is no other option and you're not allowed to walk. On the other side, the dollars we used were too old or something, so we had to pay in another currency which costed ... read more

LES PLAISIRS MINUSCULES Vincent Delerm a commis avec bonheur sa « première gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs minuscules » expression des petits plaisirs de la vie sous forme de courts chapitres, formule qu’il a surutilisé par la suite jusqu’à l’overdose. Reste que ce premier bouquin, surprenant, était bien jouissif et étonnant de justesse. Ces moments de plaisirs souvent infimes et intimes enjolivent le quotidien, brillent les pupilles, ravissent les papilles, réjouissent les ouïes et frissonnent les épidermes. La vie sans eux serait certainement triste. Trop futiles, les plaisirs minuscules, fort éloignés du CAC 40, des complexes relations internationales ou de la crise bancaire, provoquent sans doute les dîners mondains prompts au dédain et à la condescendance. Voyager, c’est aussi s’offrir ces plaisirs simples tout petits, minuscules à retourner les sens et resurgir les émoti... read more