From Hell to Hanoi

Day 346
Our alarm went off early and we almost overslept. Only our desire to get to Hanoi got us out of bed.

There wasn't time for breakfast and we picked up some oranges and butter cookies for the road. The pickup truck bus thing left just after we had climbed aboard. The women on the bus spit over the sides constantly. It was so gross. One old woman stroked the fabric of my pants.
I guess she'd never seen synthetic quick dry fabric before

.

We were dropped off right at the border crossing. Getting out of Lao was easy. After a ten minute walk we came to Vietnam. This took a bit longer because there were more steps, but there wasn't a line. After two days of trying we were in Vietnam.

Here the real fun started. Our original idea was to cross the border further north. However, our guidebooks said that transportation only ran every few days. Also, if we did that we would have headed straight to Sapa for trekking, I wanted to give my foot a few more days of rest. We picked the Nam Neo border because it looked like the best one on the map. We never bothered to read about it until it was to late. This is the most remote border crossing of all. There is basically no transportation on the Vietnamese side and tourist are often forced to pay about 10 times the actual rate of getting to Hanoi.

I think that there is the easy way, the right way, the hard way, and then the way that Nicole and I insist on doing things.

As soon as we got into town we saw a mini bus for Hanoi. They wanted to charge us $35 each to get here. Most people in Vietnam don't make that in a month. Luckily Nicole had dollars on her (don't have any) so that wasn't a problem. We just didn't want to be that ripped off. We offered them $25 each and told them that was all that we had. They were really nasty in demanding more. This gave us added reasons to not give in. The driver might have also been smoking up. I kept telling them that we couldn't pull money out of our ears, but they didn't really speak English and didn't understand.

Eventually they left without us. We couldn't believe that they would give up $50 and decided to call their bluff. Nicole managed to cry a bit and I pulled out a book. About 30 minutes later they came back and accepted the $50 offer.

The seats on the bus were broken, but we each had our own row. There were about 6 half naked men on the bus who were passing around a potent smelling alcohol and were all very drunk. I suspect that the driver was now both high and drunk. Getting in that mini bus went against everything I know, but it was the only way out. The driver took blind curves at break neck speed. Nicole and I said our goodbyes. There was a sharp drop to the road and no guardrails. This was my scariest ride to date.

We buried ourselves in our ipods to try and ignore the fear. One of the drunk men tried to sit next to me but I made him leave. I didn't pay that much money so that I could sit next to a smelly dirty drunk guy. After a few hours the drunks got off and the road got smoother. At one point we stopped for a break and the nasty woman who took our money and the bus driver motioned for us to eat. We showed them our empty wallets and pointed to them.

Now, I might have felt bad about this knowing how poor this country is, but these people were just so terrible I couldn't. They were also well dressed and clearly not lacking. We stared at them while they ate and did our best to make them feel bad. The thing was, we didn't have any dong and we weren't about to pull out the dollars we had to pay with. There wasn't any place where I could exchange the Euros or English pounds that I have either.

Around 7:30 pm we were transfered to a much better bus and arrived in Hanoi about 3 hours later. By the time we found a cab driver who understood that we needed to stop at an ATM (a cab driver who ripped us off) and found a hotel it was about midnight. We both then showered and went straight out for food. All we had had all day were some manky oranges and bad tasting butter cookies. Luckily we didn't have to wander to far to find a place that was opened. Afterwards we went straight back to the hotel and fell asleep.

Do Not Pass Go

Day 345
After 12 hours on the bus Nicole and I were exhausted and hungry. There wasn't any time for this though. At the bus station in Xam Seu we were directed to the smaller station. In no time we were over there. Here we found out that there was only one bus a day at that it left at 7:40 am. The man who told us this thought that it was hilarious that we had paid to get out there and would have to pay to get back into town. I was in no mood for this, but I have learned that yelling gets one nowhere here. Instead I told him calmly that we had been traveling for about 30 hours straight and that I found his laughter to be rude and upsetting. He stopped.

Back in the town center we quickly found a guest house and took desperately needed showers. We then found the only restaurant in town and got some buffalo steaks. Here we were entertained by a little boy dancing with silk flowers.

As there is nothing to do in Xam Neu we headed to the internet cafe and tried to get caught up. Me with the blog and Nicole with her mass email home. We couldn't stay as long as we had wanted though because we were running out of kip and there weren't any ATM's around.

We killed a few hours reading in our room before heading out. We tried to find a different place to eat, but there wasn't any. After dinner Nicole wanted to go to the only nightclub in town for a beer. I am so sick of Lao night clubs. They all have bad sound systems and play bad music, but agreed to go for one drink. I was really greatfull for the 11pm curfew in Lao and collapsed in my bed as soon as we got back.

Limbo

Day 344
We got up at 6 am so that we would have light to pack in and still be able to make it to the 8am boat listed in our guidebooks. When we went to pay for our hut there was some confusion. Most families here have a few huts they rent out to tourists. The three here were run by the wife in the family. She spoke limited English, but wasn't anywhere to be seen. Instead we had to pay her husband. I handed him the money (120,000 kip) and told him that we had been there for 3 nights. He then looked at the money and told us that it was 40,000 a night. I said that I know and that's why I had given him 120,000. He then said ok, ok, fine fine. I think he thought that we were trying to bargain with him. In the end we just had to leave, we didn't' want to miss the boat.

When we got to the ticket office we found out that the boat didn't leave until 9:30. We sat down at a nearby place to have breakfast and continue writing. Three days of limited electricity was just about as much as we could handle and we were ready to go. The boat this time only took an hour. Once at the pier we found out that we had 15 minutes to run up the hill to the bus stop to make the bus that we wanted. This was a big hill, but we were determined.

The guy at the ticket office told us to come back and buy the ticket at 12:30, we would have two hours to kill. We grabbed snacks at a nearby place and kept writing to pass the time. At 12:30 I walked back to the bus station, I was now told that the bus had gone and that we would have to wait for the night bus that came between 7 and 8 pm. This was really irritating and basically killed our ability to be in Hanoi the next night.

A nearby hotel had some small rooms that they rent out to watch movies in. With no other options we went there and watched Hancock and Borat. Around 5pm we had some dinner and headed to the bus stop. There was no way we were going to miss this one.

There were a bunch of kids hanging out there and we seemed to be their evening entertainment. Nicole and I played Uno while the kids watched. They wanted to play as well and we let them, this was pretty hard though as they all just wanted to put cards in the pile and not play by any rules. Eventually we gave up and taught them the chicken dance and played rock paper scissors for an eternity. One by one the kids were called home until there was only one left. She kept asking us to give her money.

During this time we had different people tell us different times for the buses. One said 8, one 9, another 11 and one guy said that it would come tonight. Great. We passed the time chatting about anything we could come up with and with anyone who wandered by. A creepy local guy with his zipper down hovered around us for a while and asked for money. We held our bags close.

Around 10 we had begun to lose hope. The town had shut down and we were sitting in the dark. All of the guest houses had closed for the evening. We had no place to go. At 10:30 the bus arrived, we had waited for 5 hours. The bus was full and we ended up with middle seats. This meant no seat backs for 12 hours. The people here are short, most of them shorter than me, even the men. Despite this they felt the need to have their legs out in the isle, taking up what little space we had. The guy on my right hand side seemed to think that my hip bone was his arm rest. It took a huge amount of wiggling to make him stop. Eventually I gave up my desire to not be touched and just laid down.
There was a box a few inches shorter than my seat that I was able to rest my head on.

After a few hours annoying arm rest man got off and I got his seat. Not too much longer Nicole got a seat as well. My seat mate kept opening the window no matter how many times I shut it or how loudly my teeth chattered. Nicole's seat mate didn't like the way she was sitting and smacked her on the bum a few times. When the bus was emptier she told Nicole to find another seat. How rude!

Tube Infinity and Beyond!

Day 343
We were up early again and headed out for breakfast with our journals. Both of us were very much behind. Our plan had been to spend a day here just writing and doing nothing, however, with our crazy Vietnam itin we decided to try and get a day back by combining two things today.

After a few hours of writing we headed to the tourist office to learn about renting tubes for the day. We had wanted to get dropped off a few km's further upstream and then drift down. The only way they would do it though is if we had someone follow us in a boat. About 40 minutes later we were dropped off upstream at the next village. Right away a bunch of naked children sprinted down to the beach and tried to take our tubes, they backed off though as soon as we said no.

The current is very strong in front of Moung Ngoi and we had expected it to be the same everywhere. This simply wasn't the case. There was almost no current where we were dropped off. We ended up swimming and paddling quite a bit. Both of us thought that there would be a current if we just got around the bend. Two hours later we were still looking for the current. At one point we got out on a beach and walked for a bit, this was much faster.

The scenery was amazing. I have a dry bag that you can take pictures through, but I don't want to chance it with my camera. Nicole has a picture phone that she doesn't mind if it gets ruined, so we brought it with us and took loads of photos. I just won't be able to see them until she goes home. For the most part we had the river to ourselves. An occasional fishing boat or water buffalo passed us by. We even saw some pigs.

Eventually we grew bored of paddling and had the boat driver start the engine while we held on. This cut out about an hour of floating. It wasn't too long after this that I got way to cold to stay in the water any longer. He pulled over so that I could get in the boat. Nicole kept floating to the end.

We had spent about 4 hours floating and in the end we were glad that the boat was there. We would have never made it back by dark if he hadn't been there. Apparently every time we get in a tube something goes wrong.

After showering we brought our journals out to dinner with us and spent the evening writing. We were visited by some hungry cats, a soon to be mother and a kitten. They didn't like each other so we gave them bits of Nicole's left over fish separately.

During dinner we met a very giggly Lao guy who convinced Nicole, and therefore me, to go to the one bar in town with him. We taught them how to play Uno, but when the lights were cut we headed back to our hut. We were careful to blow out any life threatening candles before falling asleep.

We Didn't Start the Fire

Day 342
We were up early and wandered down the road for some breakfast. We also managed to order baguette sandwiches to go. Nicole ordered chicken and got some bread with bits of chicken, I ordered cheese and yam, thinking it was ham, but it was cheese and jam.

It didn't take us long to find the trail we wanted to spend some time exploring. We followed it through a small school yard. About 15 minutes later we came to the place that we had to pay an entrance fee at. We met an Israeli couple here that raved about a place to swim in the nearby cave. We went exploring but gave up when it got to the point that we would be in pitch blackness and up to our knees in water. We later found out that they had to go quite a bit further to find the swimming hole.

The trail wasn't too bad, but there were some tricky areas. My left foot isn't quite back to normal so I was very careful with it. At one point we had to take off our shoes and wade across a few inches of water. The scenery was beautiful, but as it is the dry season it was had a burnt quality to it instead of being lush green.

Everyone else on the trail seemed to have a guide. We wondered if we had made a big mistake, or if we were the smart ones. We managed to make it to our goal, the small village of Huay Bo, on our own, so I guess we were the smart ones. We ignored the first restaurant and followed signs to one at the other end of town. I don't think that people often make it here. When Nicole ordered fried rice and veggies they had to run out to either pick or buy the veggies. Lunch was really good and filling after the long walk.

At this point we could have carried on for another hour to a waterfall, but we were both a bit tired and decided to just head back. We passed some crazy French women who were both wearing heels! I wonder if they made it?

By the time we got back to Moung Ngoi we were both sweating. We picked the most difficult path to the river and Nicole jumped in. The current was too strong though so after a bit we walked the long and easy way back to our hut through the village. We did the best to wash the dust our of our clothes and ourselves.

For dinner we picked the most well lit place we could find, we had some planning to do. We are traveling with different guidebooks and we compared the places they both recommended in Vietnam. Quickly Vietnam went from a place to spend two weeks to a place that we would need visa extensions for. It was just daunting.

Around 9:30 we headed back in the darkness and tried not to scream when the dogs barked at us. We lit a couple of candles and chatted for a bit. We were both pretty exhausted and soon fell asleep. Only one candle was left at this point, and just the end of it.

A few minutes later I woke up to a strange noise and saw that flames were falling from our make shift plastic candle holder to the things we had piled below it. It took me a second to access the situation and I woke up Nicole. We both stayed in our beds and tried to blow out the small fire from there. It wasn't until I realized that this wasn't working that I got out of bed and blew out the flames.

The next morning we were able to survey the damage. Our candle holder had caught on fire and some of the wood of the beam below it was also burnt. I must have got it out just in time. I guess this is why you should never fall asleep with a candle burning.

Middle of Nowhere

Day 341
The alarm went off at 6:30 am and I was tempted to just turn it off and go back to sleep. This wasn't really an option though so we got up and packed our few remaining things. At the bus station we were a bit shocked to find that we would not be in a bus, but rather in the back of a pickup truck with two rows of seats. A few people had to sit on wooden children's chairs in the middle. This is not a comfortable way to travel. Luckily I ended up next to some nice people from Montreal and I chatted with them for most of the ride. Even luckier was that they actually stopped for a bathroom break in a place were there were some woods to hide in.

About 3.5 hours later we arrived to Nang Khio. I was rather sore from the trip and happy that we had a couple of hours to kill before our boat left. Nicole and I were headed to a place called Moung Ngoi, a village only accessible by boat or a long walk through the woods. The boat was very small and full. Everyone had to spend an hour and a half with their knees around their ears. Luckily we didn't get wet though.

Moung Ngoi is the most remote place I have ever been, I think. There is only one street and they only have generator powered electricity for 4 hours a day. Forget the beaten path, we had really found the road less traveled. There aren't any real guest houses here. Most families have either opened small resturants or put up a few simple bungalows in their back yards. Our bungalow had an attached bathroom, sorta. It was a squat toilet and then a faucet about 4 feet on the side of one wall. There would be no hot water. This was just what we had wanted.

After showering we went to check out the town, well, the one road. It was all homes or small resturants and the occasional shop. We picked up some candles and water before picking a place for dinner. As there is no refrigeration our options were limited. They were also cooking everything over one small fire, so it took some time for the food to arrive. We had figured this would happen and had come prepared with books.

Around 9 pm we headed back, we wanted to be able to get ready for bed before the electricity was out. We were out of luck though as they had it turned off earlier where we were staying. We lit a few candles to cut the dark and then crawled into our mossie net covered beds.

As we were basically camping and it was still really early we decided to tell ghost stories. The French couple next door yelled at us to keep it down in a very rude manor. It wasn't even 9:30pm and we weren't being that loud. It had been a really long day though and we soon fell asleep anyway.

The next day we found out that the French couple had not been prepared for there not to be 24 hour electricity and were very rude to the family who owned the bungalows. They left on the first boat the next morning. I guess some people just can't hack it.

Dirty Mountain

Day 340
Nicole and I were up early and determined to see Luang Prabang so that we could get the heck out of there. It was way too full of tourists for us. On the way to breakfast I picked up some postcards and wrote them while I ate my morning sandwich. I'm actually getting tired of these.

We wanted to visit the history museum but it was closed. Instead we walked to the end of the peninsula to see Wat Xieng Thong, built in 1560. The complex was beautiful. There were shinny mosaics over everything. I sat in the garden for a few minutes while Nicole prayed.
While we walked to our next stop we found a school with a sign inviting in tourists. The kids were at lunch, but we spent some time chatting with one of the teachers. We both left a small donation before moving on.

More western food was on the menu when we stopped for bagels at the Scandinavian bakery. We didn't want to go to our next destination until sunset so after eating we headed down a few doors to an internet cafe. One of these days I will actually get up to day with the blog. Well, I hope so anyway or it will be traveling long after I have stopped.

Around 4:30 we climbed up 190 steps to the top of Mt. Phousey, yes really. We had first heard the name from a local in Vang Vieng and it had us in stitches each time. Apparently we both need to grow up. After checking out the panoramic view of the city we found a good spot for the sunset. To pass the time we made up jokes to go with the name of the hill. The sunset was amazing and we spent quite a while taking pictures of its progress.

On our way back we grabbed dinner at a roadside vegetarian stand. It was really very good. Nicole and I had decided that we were going out a bit too much and picked a destination where there would be no place to go. We would need to get up really early to get there and decided to just stay in. This didn't stop us from chatting half the night though.

Wheels on the Bus go Nowhere Fast

Day 339
Around 6:30 am I woke up to a huge amount of noise from the kitchen next door. I managed to sleep a bit more, but by 9 we were both up. Nicole and I had already decided to leave as early as we could and packed quickly.

The cost of the home stay was 30,000 kip, or about $4 each. We decided to give 50,000 kip each instead. The family had been very kind and we wanted to thank them for letting us stay. The mother of the family tried to give us half back, but we were able to motion for her to keep it.

As Sayaburi isn't really a tourist destination it took a long time for us to find a tuk-tuk. Due to the popularity of the festival buses were leaving as they filled up. We figured this wouldn't take very long. We bought our tickets, and I tried to find us some easy to eat on a bus food. We ended up with chips and some rather mankey oranges. We figured that we would be back in three hours so there wouldn't be a problem. I gave Nicole my ipod to watch while I took a nap. The bus didn't fill up until around 1 pm and didn't leave until 1:30. We had gotten to the bus station at 9:30. This was highly annoying.

At the river crossing there wasn't much of a line, but the ferry must have been on a break because we waited for about an hour. We were both really hungry at this point and had two food choices. Rodent on a stick or river washed chicken. We went with river washed chicken and tried not to think about it. One woman had hard boiled eggs and threw the shells on the floor of the bus.

Once we were across the river the bus seemed to stop every two feet. Really, people would yell to give off, the bus would pull away and then two houses down someone would yell again. As the ride went on it got dustier and dustier. There was no way to avoid being covered.

By the time we got back it was almost 5:30, the day was shot and we were completely covered in a rather thick coating of dust. We didn't care much what the tuk-tuk to the guest house cost. We were just happy to not only get to take showers, but to have hot water.

Our day was shot and we decided that we really needed some western food. Just around the corner was one of the nicest places I have eaten at for this whole trip. It wasn't even very expensive. We both got pizza. This wasn't quite enough though, ice cream was needed as well. For this we went to a place just across the street from where we were staying.

Nicole is the only other person I have met who is traveling with Uno cards. We sat there for some time playing while we got funny looks from the staff. They must have thought we were nuts. When the place closed at 11 we headed back to our room and went to sleep.

Communist Dance Party

Day 338
We were up early and soon had a tuk-tuk to the bus station. Luckily we got there early and got real seats. The people who were late had to sit on stools in the aisle. We were headed to Sayaburi for an elephant festival.

Towards the end of the ride we had to cross a river on a really sketchy looking ferry. While we were waiting our turn we watched a woman wash her hair in the river and another clean out a chicken just a few meters down stream. Across the river the traffic was so bad that we were not even on the road. A few large stones blocked the way and a couple of the passengers got out to move them.

Around lunch time we arrived. There had been a very oddly dressed man with a colorful and pointless pointy hat. We ended up sharing a tuk-tuk with him and found out that he was French. He asked the time and when Nicole responded that it was half past noon he didn't understand, I then said that it was 12:30 and added that Nicole doesn't speak English very well. (We spend a lot of time teasing each other and arguing over who speaks real English) The French man very slowly and clearly asked Nicole what her first language was. We tried to explain the joke to him but he just didn't get it.

We were dropped off at the tourist office and soon we had the address to our home stay. We had been warned that the conditions would be very basic. Due to this we decided that we would keep our room in Luang Prabang so that we would only need to bring small overnight bags with us. We didn't want to show up with all of our stuff when our hosts had nothing. A huge percentage of people in Laos only have one room homes. We expected to be sharing a room with the family.

It turned out that wasn't really the case for us. Our hosts had a two story house and then a separate building with a kitchen and bathroom. There was a small storage room with two beds for Nicole and I. We even had mossie nets.

Right away our hosts insisted on making us lunch. The mother of the family cooked over a fire while shooing away chickens. The food was good, veggies and rice, but we struggled to eat it all.

We were about to leave when Moonse, the eldest daughter, came to chat for a bit. She was overly and strangely apologetic saying that their home wasn't nice and that they only had a squat toilet and no hot water. Most people living in Sayaburi bathe in the river. They were clearly much better off than most of the town. I felt really awkward, but did my best to show how much I appreciated the chance to stay with them. It's really a wonderful thing to be able to do home stays on occasion and really see how the locals live.

As I mentioned earlier the reason for coming to Sayaburi was for a 2 day elephant festival. We thought we would just go for the second day, but later found out that the first had been much better. We had a printed schedule with a map but nothing seemed to be happening in the spot that was indicated. There was meant to be a roundup and a circus. All we saw were elephants giving tourists rides.

Our host family had invited us to dinner and we got back in time to take showers. It was really hot out. Earlier we had been asked what we liked to eat and had replied chicken. We ended up with chicken soup that had every bit of the chicken in it. Western manners dictate that you eat all of whatever your hosts offers you. Surly there must be a line drawn at chicken feet?!?! Luckily dinner came out of a few communal bowls (that you used your own spoon to dip into) and we were able to easily stick to veggies and rice without being noticed.

That evening Nicole and I headed back out to the festival for the music bit. We had a bit of time to kill and managed to supplement our dinner with some donuts of varying quality. We then found a bar/restaurant that we could easily see the stage from and sat down with some other westerners.

The music was really weird. There was some traditional dancing but most of it was a group of men and women in army uniforms dancing to very communist sounding songs. The crowd was even weirder. They didn't clap or even laugh when the comedy act came on.

When the music was over we had a hangeron American guy who neither of us liked. He wanted to follow us to our home stay and we didn't want him to know where it was. We ended up at a campervan bar for a bit. There weren't any tuk-tuks around. Eventually a group of locals were leaving and Nicole and I negotiated for Alex for them to take him to his hotel. He really didn't want to go, but he must have picked up on how annoyed we were and finally left.

Nicole and I then headed around the corner to our homestay. Everyone was asleep and they had locked the bathroom door for the night. Who the hell does that? Both of us needed it and had to think fast. Next door there were some younger guys hanging out drinking. We went over to introduce ourselves and then after a bit asked to use their toilet. This worked and soon we went to sleep.

V Day

Day 337
The night before Nicole and I had decided that we would sleep in the next day. We had had several early mornings and needed a break. I woke up around 9 and saw that she was still asleep, so I went back to sleep. She did the same thing. This happened a few times until we realized that it was almost 3 pm. Hmm, two people who can sleep forever traveling together doesn't bode well. We then chatted and took our time getting ready and didn't actually leave until 5pm. Luckily we had bought some Laughing Cow and some baggetts the day before and had something to nibble on.

When we did leave we didn't go very far, just around the corner for some chocolate cake. It was already too late in the day for the sites on our list. After the cake we went to an internet cafe for some time. I'm really behind with blog so it was good for me to have a few hours to try and catch up.

For dinner we went to the Lao Lao bar. The service was terrible. They forgot half our order and took over an hour to bring us the first bit. When we were done we were still hungry and went down the street to Hive bar. We ordered pizza there, but when it came it had olives on it, we had ordered the Hawaiian pizza. Neither of us eat olives so they gave it to another table for free. The kitchen was closed so they wouldn't make us another one. They also took away the free beer that came with it!

Valentines day was really a bust so we just cut our losses and headed back to the guest house.

Very Long and Winding Road

Day 336
We were up early for a long ride to Luang Prabang. Nicole and I had decided to spring for a mini bus that would cut about 3 hours off the ride. We lucked out as it wasn't full and we each had our own row.

What we and not counted on was how winding and bumpy the road was. It twisted and turned to no end. Both of us were feeling pretty bad because of it. One of the other passengers was a man with his toddler daughter. She was sick, a lot. I felt really bad for her. The bumps were so bad that we were constantly thrown around on the seats.

During one of the side of the road bathroom stops Nicole and I asked some people if we could use their outhouse. There wasn't any water, but at least we got to pee in privacy. We stopped for lunch, but no one could eat. We all just took advantage of the upgraded bathroom situation.

Nicole and I paid the mini bus driver a bit more to take us right to our guest house of choice. Luckily they had a room with two beds in it. We quickly took showers and I dropped off my laundry before we headed out for lunch. We didn't go far and planned our next few days in Luang Prabang, the most historic city in Laos.

After lunch we tried to head to Wat That, but it closed. Instead we found an internet cafe, but the connection was so slow that I couldn't do any work on it and I left. Nicole got lucky and her computer worked a bit better. I spent some time reading in our room before she came back.

Around 9pm we headed out to the night market, but it was shutting down. We managed to get some dinner from one of the last stalls opened. It was just chicken and fish though. Afterwards we headed to a pretty relaxed place with a fire and a lot of people. It was in the process of closing, but they let us stay for one beer.

The only place opened after 11pm is the bowling alley. Nicole and I negotiated with a tuk-tuk driver and got in. Just as week were about to take off an Aussie jumped in, not even asking where we were going. He then turned to us and said "sabadee," or hello in Thai. Right away we knew that he wasn't the type of person we wanted to chat with. He then continued to brag about how in touch with local culture he was and that he had the best way to travel. We paid when we got out and he tried to bargain a different rate with the driver. The driver looked at us and we told him that the Aussie wasn't with us and went inside.

All of the lanes were full so we ended up just t chatting and drinking some beer before heading back to our guest house.

A Secret War

Day 335
We were up early but there wasn't anything to eat for breakfast. We ended up having a few of the oranges we had left over from the day before.

In 1960 a neutralist military faction seized Vientine. Rightest forces, backed by the US, forced them to retreat. Fighting continued between the two sides. From 1964 to 1973 Laos was a battlefield in the war between North Vietnam and the US. This was against the Geneva Convention and was therefore kept very quiet. Laos was saturated with bombs. 580,000 bombing missions were flown over the country leaving craters all over the place. Even when the missions ended the explosions continued. About 40% of the ordnance dropped didn't explode. They have turned up in rice fields, next to homes, and basically everywhere. It wasn't until 1994 that the US started to send supplies and manpower to rid Laos of the UXO's. At the rate they are moving they should be done in about 150 years. This isn't really due to lack of money , but rather due to the difficult terrain and the slow pace they are forced to move.

Our tour was headed to the Plain of Jars, one of the hardest hit areas. We had to be very careful about staying on the marked paths so that we didn't accidentally step on anything.

While our guide was organizing our permits to enter the site we had some time to check out a plethora of deactivated bombs and read about the region. That's where I got my little history from.

The first stop was the Plain of Jars Site One. This is the largest site. The jars are of ancient origin and are all different sizes. Most are in good condition, but many have been destroyed by time, bombs and vandalism. No one has figured out their purpose. The leading theories is that they either once held human remains or perhaps stored wine and food. Nicole and I thought that some giants had a big party and left their beer glasses all over the place.

We followed the path past bomb craters and into a cave. It's purpose is unknown. The path then lead us up a hill for a view over everything before heading back down to the car park. Our next stop was site two. This was quite small, but set among trees and very pretty. We also got a great view of the country side.

The third site was small and took some effort to get to as we had to walk across a rickety bridge and then some rice fields. We were a bit bored of jars at this point, but managed to get some good pictures in a partially broken one.

Our lunch was a simple chicken soup. They use all of the chicken here, so it was a bit gross and I couldn't force myself to eat much of it. After lunch we took a quick look at an abandoned Russian tank. The nearby houses were more interesting to me.

Out last stop of the day was a whiskey making home. Every house in Lao has a bottle of the stuff at all time. We had been given a shot after lunch and everyone had laughed at the face I made. When I went to try a shot this time everyone had their cameras ready to capture my grossed out face. There was a little boy checking us out. He stuck out his tongue when I took a picture of him, but giggled a lot when I showed him what he looked like on my camera.

Back at the hotel we showered and then managed to find the place we had wanted for dinner the night before. We had to walk through an unlit lot to get there, but luckily had a flashlight with us. When we got there it looked terrible and we headed back to the main street to pick a different place.

After dinner we joined Aire at a snooker hall. We don't know how to play and the guys working there managed to find regular pool balls for us. Neither of us are good players, but we were terrible on the extra large table. Soon watching us became the evenings attraction. Several of the men bought us beers. We tried to explain that we already had plenty, but they each insisted that we drank theirs first. After a bit we left with Aire to go to a nightclub. I quite like the early curfew in Lao. I was back and in bed before midnight.

On the Road Again

Day 334
I woke up early to shower and pack. I have been very spoiled recently and haven't had a cold shower in some time. Nicole and I met for breakfast and were able to get our guesthouse to make us sandwiches to go.

We walked to the local bus stop and it wasn't long until a tuk-tuk driver tried to tell us that we were in the wrong place. We found a woman who spoke English at a nearby restaurant and were able to confirm that we were in the right place. He just wanted money off of us. She also said that the bus arrives around 10, 11 or 12. We had been told 9:30 at our guesthouse. Isn't Lao time grand?

We got lucky and the bus showed around 10:30. The roads were horrendous and neither of us could read without getting sick. We entertained ourselves by singing Disney songs and eventually any song we could think of. I don't think we amused those sitting around us though. Eventually we both put on our ipods and I fell asleep. Apparently I hit my head quite hard on the window during one bump but slept through it.

One very annoying thing about bus rides is the toilet. In Thailand, and everywhere else I have been, they stop at roadside restaurants with private, but squat toilets. Here they just pull over on the side of the road, often in a space with no foliage. I was desperate and managed to get up a bit of a hill and walk a few minutes on a trail. No one from the bus could see me, but I think I provided some entertainment for the neighborhood kids.

Around 5 pm we arrived in Phonsavan. We took the free transport offered by a guesthouse to save some cash. We then set up tours for the next day.

Once we had both showered we went looking for dinner. We were both pretty hungry and when we couldn't find the place in our books we decided to just go for some Chinese. After dinner we managed to find a locals only club (we were the only tourists) with a really bad sound system and karaoke. We also ran into Aire here, the guy who ran our guesthouse. We had met his two little girls earlier as well, the oldest was named Katie. He was having a going away party for his sister and we were invited to join in.

I was pretty tired after the long day and headed back before Nicole. Well, the bad karaoke might have been what drove me away!

Recoup

Day 333
There are a lot of caves around Vang Vieng and I had really wanted to see them. The paths were a bit rough going though and I really needed to stay off of my foot. My stupid left foot.

I told Nicole to go though and she headed off on her own after we had breakfast. I was really happy with the new movies in my ipod so I went off to get some more. While I waited I did some work on the blog and got caught up with my email. The internet is painfully slow, making this a very difficult process.

When I was done I grabbed some lunch and then headed back to my room to watch the movies. I was just drifting off for a nap when Nicole returned. For dinner we picked an Indian place. The food was ok.

Earlier in the day Nicole had met some Lao guys who were staying at our guesthouse and in Vang Vieng for a teachers conference. They had invited us to have a drink with them. We showed up with some Beer Lao, but they weren't there. When we were done we once again tried to watch a movie, but headed back when we saw the room was occupied.

Day After Yesterday

Day 332
Nicole and I had gone to bed quite late and decided to sleep in . I woke up a very sore person, not only was my foot swollen in two places, but the rest of me ached as well. Around 11 I headed to Nicoles room and we headed down the road for breakfast.

We decided to make it a day of rest. I got some new movies uploaded to my ipod and then went back to my room to watch them. Nicole spent sometime on the internet.

In the late afternoon we headed to one of the restaurants that played reruns of Friends. We sat there until closing time and then headed back to our guesthouse. We tried to watch some movies in the tv room, but it was in use so we just called it a night.

Are You Alive?

Day 331
There are a lot of different reasons to come to Vang Vieng. You can go trekking, there are loads of caves and then there is tubing. Nicole and I decided to spend our first day floating down the Nam Xang.

Around 11 am we headed out along with loads of other people to pick up tubes. Once we had signed our lives away we were taken a few kilometers upstream to the launching point. Well, it was the first bar. That's sort of the draw. You spend the day floating between bars and using the crazy swings and zip lines that they have set up. We had decided in advance to split one beer between us at each bar and to stay away from Lao-Lao, the local whiskey.

The first bar had a huge trapeze swing and there were lots of crazy people jumping off of it. Neither of us were brave enough. I'm not a very strong swimmer and Nicole, who is a life guard in her real life, thought that the water was a bit too shallow for the 7 meter or so drop. When we finished our beer we floated about a minute before being dragged in, literally, they used string to pull people in, to the next bar. They had a monkey tied up in the sun here. Had we seen it, we wouldn't have stopped. I decided to be brave and try to do the not so high zip line here. Once I climbed up to the top it looked really high and I just climbed right back down. Apparently I hadn't had enough liquid courage. Nicole had no problems doing it though.

When we left the bar I put my tube in the water and jumped in, right on a rock. Of course I hit my still not healed left foot. I reinjured whatever I had done to it in Indonesia and I knew that I would be limping around for a bit again. When we got to the next bar I surveyed the damaged and was unhappy to see that I had also managed to cut my ankle. There wasn't much we could do about it at this point so I decided to just buck up and carry on. I just can't believe that I didn't do any of the dangerous things and managed to hurt myself just getting into the stupid tube!

At the third bar we stayed put for a while. Nicole started trying to bring people in for fun at first, but when the bar owner started paying her in beer for her work we stayed a bit longer. I did a bit of swimming around, but didn't go too far. Nicole had a great time swimming against the current. The last bar we went to had a big slide on it. Once again, I didn't do it, but Nicole did. It wasn't very well built though and everyone was stopping before the end and having to jump in.

We had been having a lot of fun and had met a lot of people. During the day we had been ahead of the crowd so we didn't think anything of it when we left the last bar. Both of our guidebooks told us to just float back to Vang Vieng and get out at the Smile Bar. This is just what we did. We just didn't expect it to grow dark so quickly and for there to be no one else floating around us.

Eventually a couple of Aussie guys caught up with us. They were far more drunk than we were. In fact, we were mostly sober because we had shared everything all day. It wasn't really scary. There was quite a bit of moon light and there were four of us together. Plus, there isn't anything dangerous in the water.

One of the Aussie guys fell behind and the next thing we knew his tube bumped into us. We were only in 6 inches of water so we didn't think anything of it and just kept floating on. When we were too far to see anything any longer we started to hear yelling. "Damion, where are you, are you alive?" We were too far away to go back to help and had to just keep floating. The yelling went on for about 30 minutes. I don't know if we got too far away to hear or if they stopped yelling. We held each others hands and tried to block out the noise and get back faster by kicking. We just weren't passing anywhere that we could get out of the water.

After some time we heard some yelling "ozzi, ozzi, ozzi" behind us, we replyed with "oi, oi, oi." When the guy caught up with us I thought that I recognized him as one of the Aussies from before, but he said that it wasn't him. I figured that it was just too dark to be able to tell. Shortly after he caught up with us we found a place to get out by some rather posh looking homes. A man here called us a tuk-tuk. It was a cold wet walk back to our guesthouse, but we were fine. We had been floating for about 9 hours. Later on we found out that there was a bridge we were meant to have crossed at the last bar, but because we were one of the first groups to leave no one else was on it and we didn't notice it.

That evening we tried to find out what happened to the Aussie guys but couldn't find them anywhere. Eventually we just gave up. We were both exhausted from our very long day.

Update: Just so you don't have to wait as we did. On our last night in Vang Vieng we ran into the Aussies. They had been so drunk that they hardly even remembered us. Basically Damion lost his balance, fell off and then wandered up a hill full of trees. How he did this drunk I have no idea, he seemed sketchy on the details as well. He then found a tuk-tuk and then made his way back. When his name was being called he was no where to be seen. This is the story he pieced together after the fact, he said he didn't remember much.

Also, tubing was a lot of fun, up to the part after the last bar. So if you give it a try, for goodness sake, get out of the water at the bar with the slide!

Misdirection

Day 330

I got up early, but it took me longer than expected to pack so I ended up catching the 9 am instead of the 8 am bus. I paid extra for air con and was really upset when it didn't work. The windows didn't open and it was so hot that I felt like I was cooking in my own sweat. The road was really windy and the driver was going really fast. This all combined made for the highest level of motion sickness I have had on this trip.

Even worse, they didn't stop where I was told they would. I caught the mistake about 40 miles past Vang Vieng. The driver didn't understand what I wanted but luckily a girl at the restaurant we stopped at did. I asked her where the bus stop was and she drove me down there on her motorbike. I tried to give her some money but she refused. She also made sure that I got on the right bus.

After waiting through that buses break for about 40 minutes it was another 30 minutes before I got to Vang Vieng. From the bus station I grabbed a tuk-tuk to the hotel that Nicole was staying at. I didn't have to worry about having a place to stay because Nicole had reserved a room for me. I found her hanging out at the restaurant when I arrived. I was there about 3 hours after I should have gotten there and in desperate need of a shower. An hour later I was ready to go.

Nicole and I spent some time comparing itineraries. It turned out that we both had the same ideas of where we wanted to go. For dinner that night we went to a place that played episodes of Family Guy. We sat there until they closed. Our plans for the next day required us to wake up at a descent hour, so after watching a movie at the hotel we called it a night.

Waiting Game

Day 329

I was up early and headed straight to the company that would process my visa. Next I headed to the Scandinavian bakery. Here I was able to get a bagel, chocolate chip cookies that tasted right and a cinnamon roll. I went over board, but I hadn't seen these things in a while. I took everything back to my room. I wanted to write in my journal and watch tv for the day. There really wasn't anything else for me to do.

When I grew bored, and hungry again, I headed out to the internet cafe. I was able to confirm with Nicole that we would meet up the next day in Vang Vieng. I also worked on the blog a bit. Soon it was time to get my passport back. I had been a bit worried about it working because they didn't ask me to fill out any paperwork. Everything was good though. It's too bad that I didn't know that for sure, I could have headed straight for Vang Vieng that night.

Instead I picked up a sandwich and headed back to my room to watch more tv. I got a bit lonley after a bit and went to a nearby pub. Laos has some rediculous curfews though and it soon closed. I went back to my room and went to sleep.

Next!

Day 328

I was up early and got the 7:45 am bus to Vientiane, Laos. I slept through most of the ride. Crossing the boarder was really easy. I'm really glad that I got that visa in advance, the lines were crazy long! Luckily it is a requirement to have an advance visa to take the bus so everyone else got through quickly as well.

When I got to Vientiane I met an English girl riding around on a bike who told me that everything was full. A few minutes later I found out that she was right. I managed to get a room for about 3 times what I had been paying in Thailand. I did have air con and a tv though with channels in English! I think it's good to treat myself on occasion.

I then had to get some kip. This took some time as none of the ATM's wanted to take my card. Eventually I figured out that I was hitting current account when I should pick checking account. I had wandered around for nothing.

Laos was a French colony. The language seems to be gone (although I think Laosions over 40 might still speak French) but baggetts and cafe culture has stayed. I had a lovely bagget sandwich for lurch. While I ate I checked out my guidebook. There wasn't anything I wanted to do here. I had know that from the beginning, I was really just here for a Vietnamese visa anyway.

When lunch was done I headed to the Internet cafe to check out my visa options and to let Nicole know that I was in Laos. We were planning on meeting up in the next day or two. I couldn't find anything online that guaranteed my ability to get a visa anywhere else in Laos, and none of my friends seemed to know either. I had to get it here to ensure I would have it. I then had to figure out if paying an extra $15 for expedited service would be worth it, if I didn't I would have to sit around for 5 or 6 more days as it was coming near the weekend to get it. In the end I decided on expatiated service. It was expensive to stay here and I would save money in the long run.

That evening I sat in my air con room watching movies. It was really quite a bit of a treat, I hadn't done this for ages.