Amazingly, after the previous days hellish travel we actually had a great nights keep despite sleeping in a bungalow with a tin roof. We woke up feeling much more refreshed and so after chilling out on the two hammocks on the porch for an hour, we went off in search of the small harbour where a boat would take us back over to the mainland so we could catch a bus up to pakse. On the boat we sat with two lads who we had met in china and along with the two young Canadian girls, formed a good little group for our onwards trip. At the bus station we were once again hoarded into a van which was such a tight squeeze with everyone inside that poor shell had to sit on the wheel arch, I did swap with her after it started to burn her bum though! A few minutes earlier we had paid an extra 20 dollars each for a night bus journey to take us onwards to Vientiane meaning we should have around 6 hours in Pakse before moving on yet again.
After three hours the van pulled into pakse but we felt instantly that things seemed a tad strange. Four guys who were apparently on the night bus too were dropped off first but the driver took us on and dropped us outside a restaurant in the middle of town. Upon arriving, a girl who we think was the contact for the company told us, no jokes here, that our night bus had crashed during the night and that her husband, presumably the driver, had been taken away early in the morning by the police. All of this, after being scammed, conned and laughed at for the past few days nearly pushed us over the edge. The four of us stood there demanding answers from anyone who we could collar before the driver of the minivan made a call and we were picked up to leave for yet another location, this time the bus station. After being led around on amerry old goose chase for two days we were then miraculously presented with two tickets, both with bed numbers, things were looking up just to make things even better, a large green night bus with the letters VIP were inscribed on the side! We felt ecstatic.
Leaving at 8pm the bus was unlike the others we had been on so far in the trip. It only had two rows of beds which were themselves doubles. We settled down, watched a film on the laptop, ate crisps, it was bliss! Thing is though, when it came to sleeping it was impossible. The double shocker of poor Laos roads and a girlfriend who spends the whole night shuffling around meant that as we pulled into Vientiane at 6am, neither of us had had a second of sleep. not a sausage.
As the bus piled onto a giant tuk-tuk we were taken to the centre where half the bus got off and went straight on to vang vieng, a place further north, without actually seeing anything here in Vientiane, the Laos capital.
Whether there was anything to see in Vientiane was a different matter. For us, tiredness had completely overcome us so we sat down, had some breakfast ( unbelievable coffee and croissant's in vientiane, another French gift to the region). I then left shell to go and find is a room and after an hour or so had found us the last room in a cheap hotel. Dumping our bags we went off into the city to explore, noting almost instantly that for a capital city, this place us as mellow as mellow gets...
We saw various ornate monasteries and a replica of the arc d'triomphe that was both impressive and hideous. It is almost an exact replica of the one in Paris but has distinct griminess about it that makes unmistakably Asian. It also has an inscription on the side of it in both Lao and English which read something like, 'this concrete was donated by the Americans to build an airport runway, we decided to build the arc d'triumpth instead. We know it's awful, you know it's awful but let's forget all that and focus on the view from the top'. It's something we are definitely picking up in Laos, just how mellow and self deprecating they can be.
Anyway for the rest of the day we sat around in some of hundreds of coffee shops and ate cake, thinking about how we are going to get to Thailand, our choices are another 24 hour journey by bus and van or an expensive but short 1 hour flight to chiang mai. Decisions decisions,
That night we booked onwards tickets to vang vieng, a 'backpackers' enclave famed for it's 'tubing', riding an inflated tractor inner tube 4 kms down a river lined with a shocking array of bars and dancing youngsters on bamboo dance floors. Although we are keen to check it out I've got to be honest here (even to myself) that this just isn't me. I don't think shells too up for it either. It's supposedly one of those places you will either love or absolutely despise. Vang vieng itself, or at least the surroundings, look beautiful. Which is why we may just book a room away from the carnage and take time to relax after being constantly on the move now for nearly three weeks.
But hey, we haven't been to vang vieng yet so we will make our minds up when we get there, you never know, we could be downing shots on a riverbank with the mushties before you know it!
Much love, Tommo xxxx
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