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Published: January 13th 2008
So, we'd moved onto Vientiane, the capital of Laos very close to the border with Thailand. This must compete with Phnom Penh as being one of the most laid back capitals in the world, probably just winning, but was still a shock after Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng as there were cars and motorbikes and people! It's clear that we have run out of steam a bit and are looking ahead to our next challenge so have not been doing as much sightseeing in Laos as we might have done. We had intended to go out of the city for a trek one day but decided in the end that we didn't have that much enthusiasm for it and it was also pretty hot during the day. So, we visited That Luang, a huge gilded stupa (said to have been originally built to house a piece of the Buddha's breastbone), a couple of wats and the National Museum. The Museum was very interesting - it had previously been the revoluntionary museum and had a few bits added since but it was easy to see which bits had come from the original one. This was a very good example of a country
that wants to do lots of good things but is getting by with what it has at the moment. It's a little dilapidated and only some (a random some!) of the exhibits have translations, some have them into French only, some into English only. However, it's very interesting and put the country into context for us. Laos was very much affected by the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia but is rarely talked about in the same way and it was good to understand what happened a bit more. Still, the explanations referring to the Imperialists and their 'puppet army' (the Americans if you weren't sure!) amused us....
As I said, we also started thinking about the next leg of our trip and doing some planning but I won't spoil the story by giving too much away for now.
Laos had also become a bit of a foodie place for us (it did benefit from French rule, even if only in culinary terms) and we were delighted to find that our favourite cafe from Luang Prabang had a branch in Vientiane too - the best lemon slices ever!
And suddenly we came to our last day in Laos
and lots of other lasts - our last border crossing in Asia, our last overnight train trip and our last rip off......well, probably not! We were due to be picked up from the hotel at 3.30 to be taken across the border into Thailand to get the train back to Bangkok. As ever, our pick up didn't appear without a prompt and then several other people had to be picked up. We had vouchers for the train tickets and had treated ourselves to first class - only 2 in a carriage - as it was to be our last overnight train of the trip. We were to exchange our vouchers for tickets at the border and this duly happened, only the tickets we were given were for beds in different compartments! We caused a bit fuss with the guy but he said that he would sort it out at the station. Somehow the whole process took us over and we were rushed through leaving Laos (paying the 20p overtime fee for the pleasure!), customs, arriving in Thailand and being taken to the station in various different types of transport and with various guys from the agency organising it accompanying us.....
That was until we got our Thai entry stamps and were rushed into a mini bus to the station being told that the guy we needed was at the station sorting our tickets. Of course this was rubbish and there we were having paid more for one bottom bunk, with 2 top bunks in different carriages. To cut a long and very angry story short there was nothing we could do and as we had been paired with single travellers of opposite sex the train guard would not let us swap.
So, already pretty fed up, once Hugh had disappeared to his carriage with a Thai soldier, I was hurried along to tidy my things, lock the door and get into my top bunk by a lady who seemed to speak a little English and kindly warned me she had a bit of a cough. This was an understatement - she spent the night coughing, sniffing, spitting into a plastic bag and, when she finally slept, snoring - it was your worst night on a Chinese train, all from one person! And in between all that she seemed to be organising her belongings in plastic bags, long into the
night. Hugh had a pretty serious snorer as well but managed to sleep with earplugs.
I was so relieved when the train got into Bangkok and I could stop listening to my companion. Tired and hot we fought to get a cab in a queue that seemed to have no rules and then began to realise that the cab driver was going the long way around. Not uncommon but pretty excessive when we suddenly noticed he was heading over a bridge across the Mekong when we were already on the right side and about 2 minutes from our hotel. We caused a big stink and he claimed to have just made a mistake but it took us another 15 minutes to get back. He tried to argue for more than we were prepared to pay but it was rather half-hearted so assume that we still paid him much more than we should.
While arriving into Bangkok from Tokyo was a shock in one way, we were used to crowds and there was relief at the much greater availability of food that we could understand. This time, coming from Laos it just seems very tacky and unpleasant - like
the worst of the Costa Del Sol but with people trying to scam you all the time. That's maybe an exaggeration coloured by lack of sleep on the train but I think we are pleased to be moving on.
So, we're coming to the end of 3 months in various parts of Asia. There are obviously huge differences between the countries but we have enjoyed all of them in different ways. We will certainly go back to Japan one day and, I hope, Laos. There's lots of parts of China that we would love to see too. While Vietnam is fascinating, I found it exhausting and frustrating much of the time and doubt we will ever go back. With such a large population it has some major problems to contend with which make it different from Cambodia and Laos although they clearly have their own problems. In SE Asia we have seen extreme poverty which is rather sobering though there are also many people living in what we would term poverty but seem generally happy with their lives. Ping, our trekking guide in north west Vietnam was clearly very intelligent and capable and could easily have made much more money by leaving her village and getting a good job somewhere. However, she was happy where she was and even preferred farming to doing her guiding job it seemed. We got the impression she was just doing it temporarily to earn some money for her young daughter.
We have one more night in Bangkok but we are moving out to the airport as our flight is pretty early tomorrow and we want an early check in with the hope that we can get some decent seats. It's a relatively short flight to Hong Kong but 12 hours from there to San Francisco (yuk!) which neither of us are looking forward to. We might try to do some shopping this afternoon but we've have managed to buy virtually nothing in our 2 months in SE Asia which is quite an achievement bearing in mind most of the opportunities come to you rather than the other way around.
H: The award for the best beer in SE Asia (and the rest of Asia from what we've seen) goes to Beer Lao (from Laos naturally enough). I'd heard good reports of it before and we were pleased that they were true. I think they should advertise it as 'Probably the best lager in the world' (unless someone else has beaten them to it...)
Other top beers from SE Asia:
Vietnam - Beer Hanoi
Cambodia - Angkor (not to be confused with Anchor)
Thailand - Singha
(another bonus is that Beer Laos is about 50p a pint in Laos)
We've heard bad reports about Gallo, the beer in Guatemala, so we hope they're wrong!
S: Our next blog will probably be in San Francisco but maybe even somewhere in Guatemala depending on availability of internet access. We're looking forward to being able to at least read the script and understand a bit of the language (& that's just in the US!) and in a couple of weeks we get to finally unpack our bags for a little while - can't wait.
Hope you've all enjoyed our very amateurish attempts to describe the places we've been and things we've done in Asia and hold tight for the next exciting instalment......
Lots of love
Sarah + Hugh xx
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jonathan
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I'll Say...
...we're enjoying your accounts. At least I am even if no-one else is. But as I said before, don't be too dispirited by the lack of people commenting. Are you aware of the number visiting your site? Mine has just passed 3000 - since 02/12! And you're certainly helping with my geographic profile. By the time you get back I bet I'll have one of the most widely read b logs around. Really looking forward to your next few visits: Hong Kong and San Francisco - shopping and homosexuality, my 2 favourite things! Travel safely. J x