To Laos and Back in 7 days— Day 1-2

Today I'm back in my home sleeping in my sister's abandoned room as we get our house renovated. 

Seven days ago I was in Laos. Here are some stories of my adventure in the land of thousand elephants. 

08 August 2011. Day One.

The Van to the Border

An Air Asia delayed flight from Bangkok to Udon Thani got the three of us to our destination. We decided to go straight into Vientiane to take our chances. The van cost 200 baht a person and soon we were cruising toward the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge. 

In the van a Laotian woman suggested places for us to visit. I found out my slow boat from Vientiane to Luang Prabang was imaginary— it's used through a different border in Thailand and we had to change plans quickly. 

Mr. Kongkah. What a nice man.

Another man sat next to me and was a lesson to never judge people by their covers....

Kongkah was a thirty-something-year-old man reading a comic book. I naturally thought about how nerdy he was— it gave me flashbacks of Japan. However, only after listening to our failed attempt to get a boat, he was very kind to offer us a free ride to VangVieng, a place between Vientiane and Luang Prabang. He was a Thai engineer working in Laos at a nearby dam. It's acts of kindness like these that let me hang on to my hope for humanity. He gave us a lift into Vientiane and helped us find a hotel. We made plans to meet in the morning and parted ways.

Our hotel the first night. 

"Kob Jai Durrr"

We got our 500 baht hotel near the center and walked to a recommended local restaurant legend. It was called "Kob Jai Durrr" which meant "Thank you very much." It was full of people. We ordered food, hoping to find some local favorites, but quickly find out that Laotian food is a version of Thai food. 

That LaoGria was a huge mug.

I have heard that this place served "Laogria" which is a local version of the Spanish favorite Sangria. It came in a much bigger mug than I expected. At first taste it wasn't too strong, but the aroma and its sweetness won me over. My dad even had a few glasses. We ended up finishing the whole jug together. 

Light Packing

Afterwards we walked along the Mekong River back to our place. My hotel has a water bucket for some reason, which aided me with my laundry. I decided to go as light as I could on this trip, weighing in only at 4 kilos for the whole week. This meant I had to do laundry multiple times, but I wanted to see how far I can slim down to. 

My first observation about Laotian hotels is that they provided a toothbrush set as well. This is neat. 

I semi-dried my clothes and tucked in having listened to the most magnificent sneeze from my hotel-mate. I'm definitely excited to be in Laos, the room service will wake me tomorrow and a full day of adventures it will be!

09 August 2011. Day Two.

Morning Departure

The room service didn't wake me up. 

My sleepy face.

We didn't get breakfast in time the van picked us up.The van needed to pick up one more person and run a quick errand so it was an opportune time for us to grab a quick bite on the street. We found a place that sold a Lao's version of Pho. It was adequate at best. They also didn't know how to make a hot milk tea, because it took three people to figure it out. Then it was way too sweet.

Laotian Pho

Laotian Love is in the Air

I've fallen in love with many Laotian women. They are quite beautiful. Maybe it's a Grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side thing, but I am in love, with a few of them. Updates about my infatuations in later entries.

The Road to VangVieng

We were finally off. Take a combination of the roads outside of Bangkok and the roads in Sri Lanka. Multiply that equation with a thousand pot holes, and you have roads in Laos. 

Driving took us 4 hours and we averaged around 20-30 miles an hour. It's not fun. The view was spectacular however my parents are complaining of back pain.

The roads are terrible here. Terrible. 

VangVieng First Impression

Back Window Foggy view of VangVieng

We settled in at our hotel and the owner introduced me to her daughter. She was cute, but might have been too young. I'm not quite sure how to tell with these girls. 

The town was empty a this time of day and we found a restaurant overlooking the river. The food again was mediocre. That's what we've found throughout our trip. The food is just mediocre all the way around. The restaurant had Stalin and Marx's photos on the walls. 

Boat Trip

Who's having a good time!?

We hired a river boat to take us down the river and sightsee. It was a really small and rocky boat, a bigger than a three people canoe. We rode against the current to see an amazing landscape. It reminded me a bit of Khao Sok National Park, but the river was much more muddy. 

These riverside bars were just... off.

As we rode upriver we saw a few people floating down with tubes. The tubing culture with foreigner is the thing to do here in VangVieng. It looked really fun and equally dangerous. 

We kept going upriver and started to see on the river banks these bars that were set up equipped with all the water activities like tubing, kayaking, rope swings, sliders and even a fixed wooden water ski. The bars were playing party music while all the tourists get drunk, play around, and occasionally some of them would drown. There were about twenty bars total with the same setup. It baffled me that these people came all the way to Laos to do this. We turned around and quickly through the rain got back to our place. 

These tube things are so scary. 

VangVieng Nightlife

Lottery tables near the market.

I had a can of Beer Lao here. It was nice.

We took an hour nap. Got up really hungry and walked back into town. This time it was much more crowded. The walking part of town had at least 30 Roti Pancake shops. It was an incredible surplus of supply. Another odd observation I had was these restaurants that had lounging areas and they had flat screens playing either Family Guy or Friends. There were about 15 of these or more in town. The vibes I got from these places were extra weird.

Because I've been bored by Laotian food, I've been craving more American food and European food here. I had a burger and spaghetti. Alongside of that was a can of Beer Lao. It was smooth but a little flat. The fact that I was drinking it in Laos made it an okay beer. 

My mom really wanted a Roti, so we got two. I fed one of the stray dogs some. He seemed to enjoy it. 

I enjoyed how many people in town came together to play some sports. I saw people playing a serious match of volleyball (they also used feet) and another game of football. The Laotian people look fit, because everyone is working and active. Little children run around together all the time, and I saw many groups of them jumping into the river naked and swimming like kids. 

Night is over

My mom shoes broke, the internet doesn't work, and we were all tired and worried about my sister in England. The riot was going on and she was nearby. Hopefully we can get a hold of her soon. Luang Prabang awaits tomorrow and this time it's 7 hour drive through one of the most scenic routes in the world. But it's a 7 hours+ ride and we hear the landslides could make it 10. Let's hope for less back pain tomorrow. 

I love Typography. Not Topography. That's different. Here's a dosage of Laotian language.

Pete