Four hours at immigration, we then managed to share a tuk tuk with 2 Canadians & a Yank into Laos capital city of Vientiane. Not quite sure how it is their capital, we were expecting something at least as big as Phnom Penh, yet all we saw before us were a few sparsely populated streets aligned with yet another murky river.
Traipsing around in the pouring rain, we looked at several shit to average accommodation options before un-earthing an out of season gem, described in our guidebook as ridiculously overpriced. A little bit of bargaining later and we were the proud owners of a nice little en suite room with fan & TV at the Dragon Hotel. One of the main reasons for taking this place was not only for its quality, price or location but because the hotels owner seemed so amazingly friendly, often answering any questions we had, offering up loads of useful Laos tips and also constantly topping up my new found love, coffee!
Being more expensive than we imagined, Vientiane was a transformation from our usual surroundings. Gone were the street stalls and conventional SE Asia shops, instead replaced with coffee bars, bistros and other trendy french inspired architectures.
With nothing apparent to do here we spent most of our time applying for a FREE 60 day visa at the Thai consulate. (5 days in total = 3 days waiting for the consulate to open due to Buddhist lent, 1 day that it took to apply for the visa and then another day to collect it.) and i thought Argos was bad! What a palaver.
Anyway, a trip to a nearby fountain, half a day by the pool and several hours of slow internet were equally balanced out with the all time classic "Joma Bakery", some nice falafel's and Jo discovering her new favourite drink - Spy Wine Cooler. No longer was she drinking 2 or 3 drinks to my 1. (Success!)
Eager to get to Vang Vieng for tubing, we boarded our impending 6 hour bus ride happy in the knowledge that our time here was not spent in vain as we had received a free 60day thai visa and had spent some much needed time relaxing and recuperating with our books.
VANG VIENG = AWESOME
No better way to describe our 2 nights here. Again, set in a cute yet lively surrounding, this part of Laos combined exactly what we liked about Hoi an with the exuberant nightlife of Bangkok. With constant Friends & Family Guy re-runs showing throughout the day/night, hours were spent lounging around bars on comfy sofa beds either eating large baguettes or picking up useful tips from fellow travellers.
Our main highlight here however has got to be Tubing. Scared by what she had seen the day before, Jo was a little dubious about participating in this water based pub crawl, but once we had signed her up and given her a life jacket, the horror stories she had been told soon faded away and upon setting out in our tubes we had soon made friends with some experienced tubing veterans.
Less than 5 minutes in and we were already hauled back out of the water and into our first bar. After my first drink at a little before 11am I was soon plucking up the courage to tackle the somewhat inappropriately named "slide of death" (yes people have in fact died on it, but god know how?). On my second attempt I finally managed to fly out of the end and into the water. Oblivious to my arrival, Jo even forgot to film it. Well it might have also had something to do with my life jacket getting caught the first time causing me to stop halfway down and then upon climbing back up the slide I was abruptly shoved back down at an alarming rate. Still girls hey! Typical!
In and out of bars 4 or 5 more times, each stopping to consume more beers and shots we finally reached the LAST bar. Warned that the remaining 30 minute ride into town along the river was often calmer and more boring, it was decided that we end our trip in style by slurping back a mushroom shake between the group. TRUST ME THOSE 30 MINUTES WERE NOT BORING AFTER THAT. Constantly laughing and in fits of giggles, Jo and I span down the river until we reached the end. Being pulled from the water by a group of Laos boys, we were unsure if it was in fact the end. With no apparent sign and a difficulty in language barrier, we decided to get back in. So much for the advice from the veterans to stop at the island! Seeing the town float by at a rapid rate of buildings per second, panic struck in and we were soon scrambling to our feet on a nearby shore. With nobody even batting an eyelid, it must be the norm round here!!!
To say this has been the highlight of our trip would probably be an insult but never the less, it was one hell of an amazing day, capped off by meeting a really great British couple that would accompany us on many more of our upcoming adventures.
Luang Probang. Drink like a fish for the price of water. After a much complicated mix up at the bus office, we were driven here by minivan, taking in the amazing scenery along route and at times literally with our head amongst the clouds. It really was beautiful. On arrival we found somewhere cheap to stay and scoped out our new uncharted territories.
Again, with not really that much to do here we went to the brilliant Kuang-si waterfall where we swam and saw bears. We also became entrapped by the night market here and took part in eating the great vegetarian buffet and on a few occasions buying more useless tat for people back home.
To say we drank here is somewhat of an understatement! We got pissed pretty much every night as the four of us (me, Jo, Leanne & Chris) devoured our way through towers of beer, endless bottles of wine and on one occasion even having a couple of table side BBQs. As the town itself closes at 12 midnight and bars closing at 11.30pm we soon sought refuge at the strangest of places for illegal/after hours drinking. Traveling by tuk tuk we arrived at the local bowling alley, strange i know but still a great way to end the evening. lol!!!
Due to a day long power cut and a few days of faulty atms, we ended up staying here a little longer than expected. However, it wasn't long until we descended on thai shores once more and after encountering a rather unpleasant 13 hour bus ride in which we stopped constantly to fix broken parts on the bus in shall I say less than shoddy DIY ways.
Oh well, our great time in Laos is over but after that bus journey, at least we can say we are still alive...
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