The big relax

In BKK again.We traveled all the way from VV to get here, not without its mishaps of course…

Lauren and I got the ‘VIP’ bus from our hotel, the journey to Laos’ capital city, Veitienne, is only 3-4 hours so we settled in for an easy ride. Unfortunately we didn’t have any Laoutian kip -the most useless currency in the world- as you can’t change it back into Baht. This means that we couldn’t get any water/food and spent the first three hours feeling pretty hungry. We arrived in Vietienne late, our bus to Bangkok was due to leave at 17:30 and we arrived at 17:25. This lead to much panic between Lauren and I and we jumped off the bus asap and attempted to devise a plan. Luckily, a fellow westerner, a Londoner called Darren, was also getting the bus to BKK. Just some info about this bus;

1/ There is only 1 bus a day to BKK from Vietienne and that was it

2/ The ticket was fully non-refundable

3/ Everything Lauren and I had heard about Vietienne was negative, expensive guesthouses, expensive food, boring city.

We had to get that bus.

The plan ran as follows, Lauren was going to run ahead and find the bus and use her womanly charms to make it wait. I would wait for our luggage to be taken off of our first bus and find Lauren, carrying my backpack, Lauren’s backpack and my day bag. Lauren took off, and Darren followed her (although not in the sinister way that that sounds.) As Lauren and I were among the first on the original bus it meant our bags were last off. I stood impatiently waiting before scooping the bags up in a most awkward fashion (remembering that Lauren’s bag is a full 14kg of make-up, hair straighteners, and hair-care products.) Along I went, trundling down the street that the bus driver of our original bus said that our bus to BKK was waiting for us. I got to the end of the first block, Lauren wasn’t about, no worries, it’s a straight road that the driver pointed me down, maybe Lauren is at the next block, so off I went. At the next intersection I fail to spot Lauren again, so I continued down the straight road, not veering off course. The next intersection and again no bubba, the road I’m on is significantly running low too, as I notice I’m approaching a T junction and a very tough choice. I keep moving, scanning around and trying my best not to swear at the dozens of cabbies and tuk-tuk drivers that are trying to get me to use their service. I reach the T junction, Lauren is still nowhere.

Then the rain falls, a heavy, monsoon rain that is both warm and very wet. Sympathetic faces look at me as I pass them for the second time, having turned back on myself. I come to the previous interchange, still no Lauren. I’m beginning to panic now, but keep my cool ‘cos otherwise this could turn into a real problem. I get to where Lauren and I were dropped off, she’s still nowhere to be seen. I think for a minute, unfortunately my mind has chosen this time to shut down in terror, I felt like when I was a kid and lost my mum at the swimming pool, I had absolutely nothing in me to work out how to get around the problem that Lauren and I had lost each other in a city we knew nothing about, and worse, I knew I had both mine and Lauren’s wallet/purse.

Thinking for me, my feet took me back up the road again, again I got to the end, the T junction and still no bubba. We hadn’t seen each other in about 30 minutes now, quite a long time considering we were both meant to be on a stretch of road only 5 minutes long to walk. I turned back on myself, content to do this all night until I found Lauren. Then through the rain we saw each other. It would have been quite romantic had it not been for the fact that thanks to the combined weight of both of our backpacks I thought I was going to die. After much relief, Lauren explained that she had held the bus up and that Darren, the friendly westerner, was stopping it from going. The bus was just around the block, ever so slightly out of visibility in the monsoon. We ran to it, Darren was a charm, he had put his backpack on the bus, but was standing, arms folded, outside the door and refusing to get in. What else could the hapless driver do but wait?

We bundled in, amongst some very angry looks from both the driver and the other passengers. Lauren and I barely noticed, we were just glad to be together again.

Crossing the boarder at the Friendship bridge was the same amount of hassle as it was going from Thailand into Laos. Lots of unnecessary checks and filling in forms, although I have started a new page in my passport now so thats something. We got on another VIP bus from the border to BKK. It really was VIP, comfey and all that, indeed, Lauren swears it’s the best sleep she’s had yet.

So now we head south, we went to the same travel agent that we booked our Laos trip to (Unseen Travel’s – about 15 minutes walk from Kao San Rd.) We leave for Ko Tao – Thailand’s scuba-diving mecca – at 19:30 tonight, Lauren can’t wait to be back on another VIP bus, I can’t wait to go diving, we both can’t wait for a beech. Then we’re booked into accommodation at Ko Pahgnan (SP!) for the full moon party on the 18th of July. So it’s island hopping until then.

All in all we are sad we didn’t stay in Luang Prabang longer, it really is as good as all that, but at least now we get beeches and, hopefully, some pretty good weather.

As a side note, I taught Lauren to play Texas Hold-‘Em poker. She wants to buy a book and become a professional player now. I for one think that this is definitely something she should abandon her dreams of becoming a journalist for. (kidding, kidding!)

Tags: Laos, Poker, Thailand, Travel, Vietienne, VIP

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 am and is filed under Laos, Thailand, Travel. 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.