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Friday, 30th December, Vang Vilay Hotel, Vang Vieng, Laos, 7:45am

James and I are beginning to wish we’d spent a month in Laos and only two weeks in Vietnam. This country is incredible, and it still feels relatively untouched. Vietnam was so commercialised and, in all honesty, a bit boring. We’re not the first to think this . Everybody we’ve met who’s done Vietnam then come into Laos agrees that it’s really lacking spirit and culture. Their culture is about getting our culture’s money, and that gets old fast when your holidaying. Vietnam was nice, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t incredible (aside from specific moments, like Ho Chi Minh City and Halong Bay, and parts of Sapa). We had fun, we had a lot of fun, but coming into Laos…Laos is just amazing.
First, let me also emphasise that we left Vietnam on a real low. We were bored shitless in Sapa, just wandering around the two streets all day, moving from café to café. Finally we got on our bus and went to the train station. In our carriage were a Dutch couple, who were very friendly. The bus was much smoother than the one up to Sapa, so I got at least a little bit of sleep. We were all hoping the train would get in at least an hour late, but no, this one time the train decided to be on time. So there we are, at 4:30am, with nowhere to go. A guy was touting for his hotel, though, so we decided to go with him, pay a half day and sleep there for a bit. But on the taxi back, James checked out Laos tickets, and suddenly panicked. Despite the sticker on the front of the ticket saying 16:20 flight, the rest of the ticket had a red imprint of 8:20am!! And we couldn’t find out until 7am which flight was correct. We napped for a couple of hours, then James went down at 7 to ring the airport. Five minutes later, he was thumping up the stairs yelling “Ange! Let’s go!!”. So I jumped out of bed, got dressed in two seconds flat, got our bags, raced downstairs, paid everything that needed paying, James got a lift on the guys scooter to an ATM, then we jumped in the taxi and we were off, feeling slightly dazed and scatty.
It was 45 minutes to the station, and we had an hour. The most annoying thing was that this lack of time in Hanoi meant not being able to get a new lens for James’ camera. But the good thing was that we were leaving Vietnam, which was exciting. By this stage I was more than ready to see new countries and experience new things.
The taxi sped most of the way, which was nice of him, but he did dump us at the wrong terminal (unintentionally), so we had to run across half the airport. We arrived at our gate with about five or ten minutes to spare. Phew! But we hadn’t had time to change our Dong into US currency, and we knew that the visa on arrival place in Laos only accepted US, but we decided to worry about that when we arrived.
The flight was so quick. No sooner had we got up in the air than we were coming down again. The guy next to me kept hogging the armrest, though, and he had really long clumps of hair on his face, like Asians have when they’ve got a mole, but he didn’t have any moles.
As we approached the Visa desk, we knew the moment of truth was at hand. Our biggest fear was not being allowed into Laos, which is a bit dramatic, but you never know. We explained we only had Dong. She shook her head.
“Where can we change it?” James asked. The woman waved her hand in the direction of the foyer, past the passport checking desks. We stepped out of line. The lady still had our passports, and I remained where I was, with all our stuff. James just took the money. And he walked out, without anyone stopping him. Past customs, straight out past all the guards and people who stamp things, got the money changed, and wandered back, again without being stopped!
So we paid for our visa’s and got a taxi to a hotel that looked nice. But when we got there, the only room cost $18US, and we were too tired to look elsewhere, which, in hindsight, we should have, because the staff were arrogant, personality-less young men like at the Sunny Hotel. But we got to our room, which was a rip-off, but we just wanted to sleep, so we did. Later we wandered around Vientiane looking for lenses. Now, I’m not going to talk too much about this first day, because I was in a tired, bad mood, so my perception of Laos wasn’t what it should be. I found it a bit boring and unexciting. But the food was incredible. We had Indian food for lunch which was so divine that we kept talking about it for the rest of the afternoon. Then later that night, we ate traditional Laos food, which was also exciting and delicious.
Vientiane is amazing, though. It’s so laid back. And finally, finally, nobody anywhere was trying to sell us anything. You can walk up and down the street, knowing nobody is going to hassle you. It’s right on the Mekong River, as well, and you can stand on the bank and see Thailand right across the way! It’s very strange. James and I waved and said “Hello Thailand!”. There’s a wall going along the bank, though, so I don’t know how easy it would be to just swim across and climb over. Not that getting into Thailand is exclusive enough to necessitate such behaviour!
The city itself isn’t so remarkable. It’s not particularly pretty, but it’s so quiet that you can’t help but feel immediately relaxed. We saw quite a few hippies strolling around, so we were thinking the worst of Vang Vieng, our next stop, which is meant to be hippy central. There’s also not a lot to do in Vientiane, and once you’ve eaten and walked about, it’s easy to get a little bored. So we only stayed one night there, and the next day we took the 2pm bus to Vang Vieng. But even in our day in Vientiane, we noticed the remarkable differences in people’s attitudes here. Nearly everyone will go to the effort of saying “hello” (sabaidee), and if you ask for help, people will try to help you without expecting payment (unlike Vietnam).
James wasn’t keen on going to Vang Vieng, but I convinced him to go for just one night. Today we’re facing our third night here. The bus trip was cramped, and I spent most of it chatting to the girl sitting next to me, Yolande, from Sydney. She told me a lot of “interesting” personal details about her life. But it helped make the trip go faster! We went past a lot of small Laos villages. The houses were made from bamboo and woven mats, and were mostly on stilts. Kids played soccer in dirt fields. We didn’t see hawkers anywhere. Everywhere in Vietnam you see stalls with hats and sunglasses, and other pretty unnecessary gear for the locals. In Laos, you only see what is necessary, and in the specifically touristy shops, they don’t call out to you and chase you down the street to come inside. It’s wonderful!
We arrived in Vang Vieng around 5:15. We walked around a few hotels, looking for a room. Finally we came upon a hotel close to the river (but not too close to be constantly attacked by mozzies), where an 8-year-old girl was working behind the counter. She had long, straight hair down to her waist, and she spoke very good English in an American accent. We took a room for $4US, which is the cheapest we’ve paid all holiday. It has only got a fan, but it’s a more than adequate fan. It’s not ridiculously hot here anyway, although yesterday we both sweated quite a lot when we went for a midday walk.
After settling into our room, we went for a walk around the four streets that make up Vang Vieng. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant that was elevated on stilts, and had reclining seats that you kicked your shoes off and sat in like a lounge. There were episodes of Friends playing, and we drank and watched and laughed and relaxed. Even at this stage, though, James was wanting to move on the next day. But I insisted on one more night, so we could go tubing.
The next morning, we wandered town, got brekky, and went for a brief walk through some farmland towards a cave. We didn’t go into the cave, though, because we wanted to be back by 1pm for tubing. We got back at 12:45, changed into bathers, and then went to register for tubing.
Now tubing is strange, because it has a reputation for being quite dangerous. A few people have died doing it. It’s just a rubber tube that you sit in and drift down the river in. You get a tuk-tuk to the starting point, and then you go! As we were drifting peacefully down the river, I said to James “how on Earth can people die doing this??”. It is so slow, and takes about three hours to do what took the tuk-tuk 10 minutes! And that’s without any stops. And there are stops. Every 100 metres or so is a makeshift bar selling Beer Laos and Pepsi. And others. So by about halfway, it’s extremely easy to be completely drunk, stoned or both. That’s how deaths occur. I imagine. But it’s also hard to resist a few drinks, because it’s so slow and boring otherwise. You need to have something, but within reason. It’s also the dry season at the moment, so there’s little current, and no rapids, so having a few drinks at this time of year is okay. I wouldn’t want to during the wet season! So I imagine the people who died were very drunk, very high, or very both, and probably not very good swimmers either.
So we sailed (drifted, more like) until we reached a bar that was quite heavily populated. When you indicate that you want to come in, men standing by the side throw out large bamboo poles and we hold on as they pull you in. At first your legs feel atrophied, so you always get stupidly wet trying to get to shore, but then you just chill out with a drink, and chat to fellow tubers. There was a huge tower that you could swing from into the water, but James and I didn’t have the guts. We also met up with Aidan and Goulang, from Sapa! Small country. They’d taken the bus to Vientiane, and, as we’ve heard numerous times, it was hell. So we’re pleased we chose to fly!! It cost us $100US more, but saved us a lot of time and anguish.
As we continued down the river, James admitted that he really liked Vang Vieng. We’d also heard (from a Canadian teacher who was with a Laos…prostitute? The teacher was young, though, and he lived in Laos, so maybe she was just a friend. A very slutty friend) that Luang Prabang was a bit of an old woman’s town, and the place to be for New Years was Vang Vieng. We heard this again several more times, so we’ve decided to stay here for two more nights, tonight and tomorrow, so we can celebrate New Years in style. Vang Vieng is a party town, but James and I haven’t seen that side of it yet. We’ve been too busy going to bed early! How wussy are we?
Our second stop was at a bar right next to a cliff. We stopped here because the guys were calling non-stop, and they were putting so much effort into having us over that we couldn’t resist. Not long after this, a group of English people we’d been chatting to as we drifted also joined us. They were made up of two couples, Jim and Mick, and Izzy and Dan. I thought they were all travelling together, but later discovered they’d only just met. They were a really nice group, very chatty, a bit drunk and stoned (courtesy of Happy Shakes, the delicacy of Laos, a milkshake with God knows how much pot in it. We’ve heard, again, mixed stories. Some people say it messed them up, and some people say it had little to no effect).
So on we drifted. We stopped once again, but it was a mistake, we should have kept going. James became entranced with tiny frogs, about the size of half a thumb, that we scooped into our hands and admired. But when I jumped back into the river, James’ thongs broke, and he lost his tube, and the rocks were too slippery for him to get it. Thankfully I’d noticed, so I got Jim to grab it as it went past him. Then we all stopped at a bar beside the river, climbed out, and walked back to the tubing place to return out tubes. All in all, the trip had taken us about 4 hours to do.
James and I went home while the others went to have a sauna. After we were showered and in dry clothes, we wandered to the sauna. James kept going on about the tiny frogs, and I was getting a bit bored by it, and then I saw a frog flattened on the road, and pointed it to him with the cruelty of a small child. Then I apologised, and said it was okay for him to be excited over seeing tiny frogs. They were tiny, and terribly cute. I just didn’t realise how much he loved frogs. I feel like I really am dating my parents! Back in Sapa, James picked up a rock and showed it to me. I took it and said “Thanks, Dad” (the joke may be lost on most. My parents are members of a Lapidary Club, and they collect rocks, and they have also just built a frog pond in their backyard).
Anyway, we didn’t go into the sauna. It was too hot, even standing outside it, but we said hello to Jim and Mick, and told them we were going to eat dinner, if they cared to join us. They did join us, as did a few others we’d met over the past couple of days, but James and I were too tired to continue partying. So we were in bed, again, by about 9pm! We’re turning into such pikers. But it was my fault. I made James drink my beer. I was too full to finish more than a glass of it! So he was bloated and drunk and tired. Tubing is hard work! You have to paddle yourself along most of the time, otherwise you just go way too slowly. I don’t know if we’ll do it again. Today we might go see a cave, then maybe get a traditional Laos massage, and then tomorrow we’ll maybe do a half day of kayaking, and then we’ll party the new year in! Happy New Year!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2006 at 8:50 pm and is filed under Travel, Laos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.