The rest of Laos
So, after almost 4 months of travelling together 24 hours a day, Erica and I decided we needed a little ‘away time.’ She can tell you about her experiences a little later. I went to Vien Vang. It was kinda surreal. There are restuarants (several of them) that show nothing but Friends episodes of big screen TVs from the moment they open until they close at night. There was one that showed Family Guy. There is a bar imaginatively called the Jack Johnson bar that plays, you guessed it, Jack Johnson music nonstop all day. All these places serve happy tea and pizza. The seats are more like little beds. People stay for days and weeks. I also went tubing there. That was great fun. There are bars all along the river. They have people with long tow poles standing on the banks ready to pull you in for a beer and a try at their giant swings over the water. It was like tubing the Guadalupe, but shorter and with bars instead of a cooler of beer.
From there I went to Phonsavan. It was a six hour bus ride down winding mountain roads through thatched villages. The bus blared Asian pop music, the passengers puked, and the bus workers climbed in and out of the moving bus through the windows unto the roof. The man in front of me casually rested his hand on the stock of his AK 47 the whole trip. This I did because I wanted to see the jars. Yes, jars. Big, old, stone jars. In a field. They are so old that no one knows what they were used for or why they are there. They just are. All over the place. There are only three sights that have been cleared of old mines and unexploded bombs, but arial photography shows there are over 100 sites in total. Large mysterious jars. That was neat. And the town was blissfully quiet in comparison to Vien Vang.
Then it was off to Vientenne. I found it rather unremarkable. There is one really cool wat that is gold and shimmery. It is on the cover of the Lonely Planet Laos. Otherwise I was not too impressed. I spent two nights there and took a marathon 17 hour bus ride down to the Thai coast to go to Ko Samet.
The beach was a nice break from Laos. I stayed in a cheap little guest house outside of the park. I swam and napped during the day and went out at night. Full of tourists both Thai and western, but very relaxing. After three days there I met Erica in Bangkok and we headed down the Thai peninsula to Krabi for a some more beach time.
Tags: Travel
November 8th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I don’t think I’ve ever spent that much time with one person, non-stop, except maybe my mother when I was a new born, and I’d wager that there were a few times she would have been tempted to toss me out the window. Besides I can’t really remember that far back, so I have no real point of referrence. All this to say that a few days apart was probably much needed by then.
Blessed be,
Michael
November 8th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Has no one ever annalysed the jars to determine what might have been stored in them? Are they neatly lined up or anything? My first thought is that they may have been urns.
Amazing how with all of our modern scientific knowledge we still haven’t figured out so many of the ancient mysteries, like how the pyramids were built and what not.
Or this one in our own back yard, so to speak: http://www.coralcastle.com/
Blessed be,
Michael