Rally to Vientiane
I bought a ticket for a “VIP” bus to Vientiane from one of the many travel agencies in Luang Prabang for 110,000 kip. I specifically asked what the VIP bus was and was shown a picture of a nice, purple bus with a toilet and nice seats. I asked for a seat up front and was told I had seat number five. The next day I got on a bus with about forty satellite dish dishes strapped to the roof, a truck tire in the isle, and about a dozen bundles of stuff taking up the aisle. Every seat was taken and four people were in the aisle standing or sitting on the bundles of stuff, and it was first come first serve for seating. The a/c then quit after an hour.
The road from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng is very twisty as it winds its way down the hills and mountains. The hills and mountains here do not have jungle on them as they have all been slashed and burned and have only light vegetation and a patch like appearance. The bus careened down the narrow paved road with the brakes squealing the entire time. It would have been great fun on a motorcycle or in the Batmobile, but on a bus it made me a bit nauseas.
Hours later we made ti to Vang Vieng and dropped off some people. Then it was a rather flat and straight road to Vientienne with the driver honking at everything and passing everyone. At the end of the trip I got on an over priced as usual tuk tuk with a bunch of other people and went the two miles or so to the Mekong River. I met a German gal by the name of Johannah and we walked around block after block looking for some decent and cheap rooms.
Johannah settled for a dirty room in a dirty building for 60,000 kip and I went and took a room at Joe’s guest house for 80,000 kip without a window or bathroom. Joe’s is run by this older, bald gentleman who speaks excellent English (Joe?). The rooms and the place in general is absolutely spic and span and he promised to move me to a single room (I was in a double, the last one available) for 50,000 the next day.
We planned on meeting up for dinner later, but I didn’t see her again. I walked around the river front feeling a little ill and saw some type of French-Laos music show on stage before finding a little restaurant for dinner.
Early today I took out my Lonely Planet guide and went through most of it’s walking tour route in reverse. At the local market everyone kept talking Laos to me and I just smiled. I saw a bunch of gold smiths working their craft with one man using several D cell batteries to electroplate something in a bowl of water.
It’s noon now so I’ll take a little siesta to read and cool off before trekking to a site overlooking a city. I would take a tuk tuk, but they all overcharge, so it’s good old “beat feet” for me. And I haven’t found a really fast computer place with decent computers to upload pictures yet, sorry. Overall though I like the feel of Vientiane. It’s big enough to not get hassled by everyone and with a lot of places to walk to. But I’m surprised housing is as expensive as it is.
