Having suffered from an evening of nibbling at the hand of whatever creatures frequented the medieval beds in our downgraded hotel the day was to start with a new house hunt. Thankfully the 3 hours wandering on arrival in the dark was not necessary this time round and with my new appreciation for the layout of this small and relaxed city, I was able to find a replacement hotel within 30mins within the same price change and , cross fingers, devoid of bed bugs.
With the new hotel room key in hand I returned to the old digs (which also smelt of wet dog) picked up sleepy Alicia, and we headed down to the civilised bakery from the previous day for coffee and banana cake. Having checked in our bags we were just about to head off for some more exploring when we spotted some Mark and Lucy, some travelling buddies, at reception who had booked in to the room next to ours 10 minutes after us!. Now, I know this may not seem like a particularly interesting point in today's blog, but when you consider the circumstances of the meeting, it it actually deserves a mention.
We first met Mark and Lucy in a bar in Luang Prabang two weeks earlier and ended up getting very drunk and staying up till the wee hours of the morning with them. Although we got on very well, we were unable to make any plans to meet them again due to my illness and, at that stage neither of us new where we would be going next. We then randomly bumped in to them on our first evening in Ponsavan six-ish days later and three days after this in Vang Vieng were we went tubing with them. Neither of the last two times did we organise to meet them but ended up bumping in to them anyway. So you see, for them to check in to the room next to us, on the same day, in a Guest House with a 100 rooms and in a city with 1000 Guest Houses is rather a coincidence.
Once the shock of this chance encounter had subsided, we made plans Io meet them both for dinner and Alicia and I continued on our wander , which as mentioned in the previous blog means not really seeing very much. Needles to say we ended up at the strip your skin off chlorinated "Olympic" pool where we spent the day swimming whilst feeling your eyes bleed and sunbathing.
The late afternoon and evening heralded a day of True Blood season 2 watching (we had been carrying around the DVD in our rucksacks for two months waiting patiently for an opportunity to watch it having become well and truly addicted in Hong Kong) courtesy of the Guest Houses DVD player we rented.
4 episodes and a little sleep later it was time for dinner with Mark and Lucy. Following a long indecisive walk around town we ended up at the Indian restaurant from the following evening where gorged on yum yum spicy Indian food that would give any Brick Lane curry house a run for their money!!! The evening was concluded with a few bottles of crap/cheap red wine, music, good chat and cards back at the hotel room before retiring at an outlandish 3am!!!
Monday, 29 March 2010
Vientiane, Laos - 5th Feb 2010: Public pools and bowling alleys
Our first proper day in Vientiane turned out to be a lot better than expected! Initally, when you look at what to do in Vientiane you realise that, actually, there isn't much to do here. It's a small capital city, with few landmarks, some restaurants and lots of government looking buildings but not much else. Over breakfast at Jom Cafe (nice scandi bakery that seems to popular in South East Asia), we decided to firsly go out and buy our plane ticket to Hanoi for the following day. Unfortunately, seats on all planes were full so we had to stay one more day in Vientiane before we could head off to Hanoi. Once we got the ticket sorted, we decided to check out the local swimming pool, which I think was also the pool they use for national sporting events! It wasn't much to look at but it was 25 metres long and very heavily chlorinated, so at least we didn't have to worry about catching anything in the water! While we were sunbathing and swimming, we got chatting with a couple in their 50s who came from Chesterfield of all places, and the gentleman loved talking about how much they enjoy eating roti canai in KL. It was great to have some pool time, as it seemed to get hotter by the minute in Laos! Next stop was the local bowling alley, which looked like an alley that you'd find in a 60s film, quite old but pretty decent lanes and mainly frequented by local guys and girls. We donned our bowling shoes and Leon taught me how to bowl properly, at the age of 26! It becomes a much more exciting game when you actually start knocking the pins down(!) so we ended up playing 3 games and I think I even almost reached 100... almost...
After 3 games we thought that enough was enough, our arms were starting to hurt, so with our new-found energy we decided to walk down to a market in search of a headphone splitter! Once we were there we entered the labyrinth that was the market which sold everything from jade figurines to toasters, refrigerators and yes, our splitter. With our task fulfilled, we headed back to our hotel (a new one, as we needed to move to save money!) and had a rest before dinner. We ended up in a great Indian restaurant which was cheap, authentic and pretty spicy! To end the day, we took in some live music in the centre of town where we met another couple who were also on a round the world trip. It seems that this travelling thing was a band wagon that lots of people our age were jumping on, and after exchanging some stories over a few bevvies, we headed home, satisfied that we had actually been fairly active that day!
After 3 games we thought that enough was enough, our arms were starting to hurt, so with our new-found energy we decided to walk down to a market in search of a headphone splitter! Once we were there we entered the labyrinth that was the market which sold everything from jade figurines to toasters, refrigerators and yes, our splitter. With our task fulfilled, we headed back to our hotel (a new one, as we needed to move to save money!) and had a rest before dinner. We ended up in a great Indian restaurant which was cheap, authentic and pretty spicy! To end the day, we took in some live music in the centre of town where we met another couple who were also on a round the world trip. It seems that this travelling thing was a band wagon that lots of people our age were jumping on, and after exchanging some stories over a few bevvies, we headed home, satisfied that we had actually been fairly active that day!
Vientiane, Laos, 4th Feb 2010 - Broken seats and sushi!
The morning after the night before and I remembered dancing around in the bucket bar and almost having a pancake on the way home. Yup, we were feeling a bit rubbish and as a result, decided to take the afternoon bus down to Vientiane and spend a few precious hours in bed for some much needed sleep.
Once the headache subsided, Leon and I got our stuff together and headed down to the ticket office where the bus took us to ANOTHER travel agency and made us wait for an hour for the bus down to Vientiane. As always, you never know what you are going to get with the so-called VIP buses, so when our decent looking bus arrived, we both let out huge sighs of relief and got onboard. Not so fast.
Even though we were the first people on the bus, we also managed to secure possibly the worst seats - well I did, as Leon's was actually functioning properly. It seemed that the 'seat' part of my chair was broken, so everytime we went over a bump I would basically fall off my seat and practically skim the floor! Much to Leon's amusement, and to those around us, this happened pretty much the whole way down to Vientiane, which was about a 5 hour journey! On the way we also stopped off at a restaurant which charged us about 4,000 riel to use the bathroom, which Leon was rather angry about (and subsequently has requested that I put this into the blog).
By the time we got to Vientiane it was approaching early evening, so we knew that we had to find a room quickly to beat the crowds that were undoubtedly drafting in on other buses from south Laos and the like. And so we walked. We must have walked into about 10 different guesthouses that were all full, and quickly our spirits were lowering as we realised the downfall of taking an afternoon bus. given that I'm not as strong or as big as Leon, I was feeling the pain of carrying my backpack around and so I took a seat in a cafe while Leon kindly went around Vientiane in search of a decent place to stay. Now Vientiane isn't a large city, in fact it's rather small, but when you are very tired from a long bus journey, a simple task takes a lot longer than usual. Thankfully after about another hour(!) or so, Leon found a room to stay in which was a little over budget but had aircon (yay!) and there weren't any obvious creepy crawlies in sight. After a pretty horrendous few hours, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner in a Japanese restaurant with sushi, california rolls and miso soup etc and it was divine! It was by far the nicest meal we had in the last 4 days and needless to say, we were both very stuffed and extremely content after dinner. With full bellies and big smiles, we retired to bed for yet another early night in front of the tele, since having a TV was of course another luxury that we usually couldn't afford!
Once the headache subsided, Leon and I got our stuff together and headed down to the ticket office where the bus took us to ANOTHER travel agency and made us wait for an hour for the bus down to Vientiane. As always, you never know what you are going to get with the so-called VIP buses, so when our decent looking bus arrived, we both let out huge sighs of relief and got onboard. Not so fast.
Even though we were the first people on the bus, we also managed to secure possibly the worst seats - well I did, as Leon's was actually functioning properly. It seemed that the 'seat' part of my chair was broken, so everytime we went over a bump I would basically fall off my seat and practically skim the floor! Much to Leon's amusement, and to those around us, this happened pretty much the whole way down to Vientiane, which was about a 5 hour journey! On the way we also stopped off at a restaurant which charged us about 4,000 riel to use the bathroom, which Leon was rather angry about (and subsequently has requested that I put this into the blog).
By the time we got to Vientiane it was approaching early evening, so we knew that we had to find a room quickly to beat the crowds that were undoubtedly drafting in on other buses from south Laos and the like. And so we walked. We must have walked into about 10 different guesthouses that were all full, and quickly our spirits were lowering as we realised the downfall of taking an afternoon bus. given that I'm not as strong or as big as Leon, I was feeling the pain of carrying my backpack around and so I took a seat in a cafe while Leon kindly went around Vientiane in search of a decent place to stay. Now Vientiane isn't a large city, in fact it's rather small, but when you are very tired from a long bus journey, a simple task takes a lot longer than usual. Thankfully after about another hour(!) or so, Leon found a room to stay in which was a little over budget but had aircon (yay!) and there weren't any obvious creepy crawlies in sight. After a pretty horrendous few hours, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner in a Japanese restaurant with sushi, california rolls and miso soup etc and it was divine! It was by far the nicest meal we had in the last 4 days and needless to say, we were both very stuffed and extremely content after dinner. With full bellies and big smiles, we retired to bed for yet another early night in front of the tele, since having a TV was of course another luxury that we usually couldn't afford!
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Vang Vieng - No Tube Necessary.......!! 3rd Feb 2010
The third day of our Vang Vieng tour arrived with the combined sounds of simultaneous sctatching coming from the roof of our new accomodation,(a bamboo bungalow away from the defening din of the bucket bar which although VERY basic, was quiet and cheap at $3), and the clucking of what sounded a rooster being hit with a big stick. Thankfully both these irritable noises waitied until 8am to present themselves and we took the free alarm call to make for an early wake up. If truth be told I had a nervous/apprehensive/excited feeling for the day of Tubing ahead of us anyway so sleeping any longer was out of the question.
We atarted the day with a breakfast from the generic Vang Vieng menu which was a little heavier than usual to line the stomach and made our way to Friends Bar no17 at around 11am to meet some travelling buddiees we picked up in Luang Prabang who were to share the days fun and frivolities with us. Although 11am sounds a little early to start a day of drinking and floating, we ahd been assured by many previous participants of the sport that a start any later would be a waste of valuable Tuebing time and with this advice firmly lodged we made our way to the Tube Shop.
The clue being in the name, this shop sells, or should I say hires only one thing, that being old overinflated truck inner tubes for 5GBP day (inclusive of transfer to the first bar of the river run). Being the only place in Vang Vieng offering this service and with in excess of 200-300 customers a day, Alicia and I concluded that the owner of the shop is likely to be the richest man in the WHHOOOLLLLLEE of Laos. We parted with our cash, had a number scribbled on whatever piece of bare flesh was showing to signify our tube number for the purpose of deposits, (again we reckon at least 40% of participants dont make it back in time to return theri tube thus making more money for the King of Vang Vieng ie...the Tube Shop owner) ,stuffed ourselves 16 strong on to a Tuk Tuk designed for 6 at most,and made our way to the first bar on the river. The time was now 12pm.
The next still as yet undertmined amount of time were spent drinking, swimming, drinking, diving in to the river, drinking, swinging off impossibly high swings in to the river, drinking, playing mud volleyball, drinking, tubing from one bar to the next, drinking, flying down zip wires in to the river and er , you guessed it, drinking. As the day unfolds the bits inbetween the drinking ie, the zip wires, swings etc.., get even more hazardous and you can see where and how all the injuries happen. All in all(we think) we had a fun afternoon quickly settling in to the vibe which was unlike anything I had ever expirieced and which thankkfully was not the 18-30 crew does Costa Brava I was expecting. Thankfully neither of us sustained any battle wounds bar banging headaches the next day and, we also managed to get abck in time to recieve our deposit.
As way of some advice for future tubers, there isnt really any need for a tube, given there are about 20 bars within walking or swimming distance of one another, if anything they become cumbersome to look after a few choice beverages and the most likley injury you will sustain is being hit in the head by one of the many lines the bars throw in to the water to pull you in.. The hardcore tubers (including one guy we met who was on his 100th day of tubing........mentalist) dont bother with tubes after the first or second visit.
Although we thoroughly enjoyed our Tubing time neither I nor Alicia has any inclination to participate again. We figure that as we both managed to evade even a scratch on our first visit, we wouldnt be taking the chance again!!!
We atarted the day with a breakfast from the generic Vang Vieng menu which was a little heavier than usual to line the stomach and made our way to Friends Bar no17 at around 11am to meet some travelling buddiees we picked up in Luang Prabang who were to share the days fun and frivolities with us. Although 11am sounds a little early to start a day of drinking and floating, we ahd been assured by many previous participants of the sport that a start any later would be a waste of valuable Tuebing time and with this advice firmly lodged we made our way to the Tube Shop.
The clue being in the name, this shop sells, or should I say hires only one thing, that being old overinflated truck inner tubes for 5GBP day (inclusive of transfer to the first bar of the river run). Being the only place in Vang Vieng offering this service and with in excess of 200-300 customers a day, Alicia and I concluded that the owner of the shop is likely to be the richest man in the WHHOOOLLLLLEE of Laos. We parted with our cash, had a number scribbled on whatever piece of bare flesh was showing to signify our tube number for the purpose of deposits, (again we reckon at least 40% of participants dont make it back in time to return theri tube thus making more money for the King of Vang Vieng ie...the Tube Shop owner) ,stuffed ourselves 16 strong on to a Tuk Tuk designed for 6 at most,and made our way to the first bar on the river. The time was now 12pm.
The next still as yet undertmined amount of time were spent drinking, swimming, drinking, diving in to the river, drinking, swinging off impossibly high swings in to the river, drinking, playing mud volleyball, drinking, tubing from one bar to the next, drinking, flying down zip wires in to the river and er , you guessed it, drinking. As the day unfolds the bits inbetween the drinking ie, the zip wires, swings etc.., get even more hazardous and you can see where and how all the injuries happen. All in all(we think) we had a fun afternoon quickly settling in to the vibe which was unlike anything I had ever expirieced and which thankkfully was not the 18-30 crew does Costa Brava I was expecting. Thankfully neither of us sustained any battle wounds bar banging headaches the next day and, we also managed to get abck in time to recieve our deposit.
As way of some advice for future tubers, there isnt really any need for a tube, given there are about 20 bars within walking or swimming distance of one another, if anything they become cumbersome to look after a few choice beverages and the most likley injury you will sustain is being hit in the head by one of the many lines the bars throw in to the water to pull you in.. The hardcore tubers (including one guy we met who was on his 100th day of tubing........mentalist) dont bother with tubes after the first or second visit.
Although we thoroughly enjoyed our Tubing time neither I nor Alicia has any inclination to participate again. We figure that as we both managed to evade even a scratch on our first visit, we wouldnt be taking the chance again!!!
Friday, 26 March 2010
Vang Vieng- A cycling we will go.. 2nd Feb 2010
Unfortunately, hard as we tried to avoid it, we still managed to find a guesthouse where you could hear the rubbish trance music coming from the Bucket Bar on the island down the road but Leon and I were determined to carry out our day's plan, despite the lack of sleep. We found some semi-decent bicycles in the centre of town (they had two wheels and the brakes worked, which was good enough!) and set off on our explorations. The thing is, we seem to make a habit of sightseeing during the hottest part of the day, so even 3 minutes into our journey Leon was sweating buckets and I definitely had more than just a glow going on! Nonetheless, there were too many caves in Vang Vieng calling out for us to explore them so off we went, across the river to the other side, where all the caves were located. This involved cycling through some villages where the roads consisted of a lot of red earth and stones, so you can imagine how sore our bums were feeling by the time we made it to the first cave. We gingerly cycled through a massive field to Cave number one (I was still paranoid about cycling over a hidden unexploded ordnance), where we were greeted by a bored looking girl and two huge dogs in a little hut with a sign overhead demanding that we paid a fee. It seemed like everyone was out to make a buck in Laos, but dutifully we paid the fee (it wasn't a great deal of money anyway) and off we went. We were gone for about 20 seconds before we were stopped by a Laotian man who asked us if we had a torch with us. Ah, no we didn't. So much for being prepared for all eventualities. However this was the answer the man was looking for, as he produced two very old looking torches from his backpack and again for a bit of money, we could now actually see what we were doing in the caves!!! It was a bit spooky as we were the only people at the first cave, which was incredibly dark (of course) and actually had a few tunnels in it which you could carry on crawling through to do a bit more exploration. I, however, was too much of a chicken to go much further than 5 metres so instead Leon and I sat outside and took in the quietness and the fresh air. We decided to go to the second cave which was 5 minutes down the road and again, we were the only people there! It seemed like everyone else in Vang Vieng was tubing... Cave number two was larger, more impressive but again, being the only people there, and without a guide, we decided to cycle back and have some lunch. We had it to a peaceful restaurant on the river side with great views and OK food and this was where I encountered my first HUGE lizard in Asia. It was walking past me, brushed my foot and I literally stood up, did a little dance and screamed like a little girl, much to the amusement of Leon and the 20 other people there who didn't seem too fussed about the lizard at all. It was about 50 cm long so I'm not too embarrassed about my reaction! After a leisurely lunch, we decided to head back for a rest and wait until the weather was a little more cycling-friendly. Around 5 pm we headed back out towards the caves and watched the sun go down over the paddy fields with the hills in the background, which was very beautiful indeed. Although there were more caves to be seen, fatigue had taken over us that day but we were happy that we made it to two of them and also managed to get a bit of exercise on those bikes. With the sensible sightseeing done, we were ready to take on the tubing that was planned for day 3 in Vang Vieng!
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Vang Vieng - Friends anyone? 1st Feb 2010
Following the terrifying bus journey down from Ponsavan we opted for what appears to be the most popular form of mass(ish) transport in the mountains of Laos, a mini-van. And with the memories of seven hours of narrow windy mountainous roads still fresh in our minds, it is easy to see why this is the preferred mode of transport. Though we were crammed in, sardine stylee, with zero leg room it was still a vast improvement and with the fear factor down to a bare minimum, it was possible to finally appreciate the dramatic landscape that enveloped us for most of the journey. The rolling soft sided mountain jungles gave way to saw toothed peaks the closer we got to Vang Vieng and 5 ish hours later we arrived at the destination we hadn't intended on visiting, thanks mainly to the discouraging lonely planet review we had previously read.
Having being dumped at the bus station out of town (the tourist bus stations always seem to be just far enough out of town so you have no choice but to take a taxi or a Tuk Tuk) we had to take take a Tuk Tuk to the heart of the town via the now common detour Tuk Tuk drivers take to their mates guest houses. Having failed to find any accommodation within our budget price range - (we did try hard I promise!!!), we settled in to our rather luxurious, by travelling standards, guest house, dumped our bags, showered off and went off exploring!
Vang Vieng is famous for its surrounding limestone cliffs which rise vertically from flat farm land 100's of meters in to the sky, most of which house caves which carve deep in to the sides of the cliffs and, it is also infamous for "tubing" and the easily marketable and profitable hedonism that supports this local industry. As we stepped out of the hotel for the first time we were greeted by our first vision of a victim of tubing, a chap covered in mud and unable to walk without the support of his friends and who had clearly succumb to one too many opium pipes or a vast quantity of booze, either way he was in a bad state. Not wanting to interfere and as he had friends around him, we simply stepped over his muddy body, whistled as if nothing had happened and continued exploring.
15 minutes of wandering later we concluded that this part of Vang Vieng at least, is set up for people to drink/get high, go tubing, drink some more, get higher and then have hangovers. The shops of the town were either Internet cafe's, bars and restaurants weirdly all with the same menu one for food and one "happy menu", and video bar,. lots and lots and lots of video bars all blasting out Friends or Family Guy 24 hours a day. A first Alicia and I found the staff of these video bars a little frosty but it didn't take long to sympathise with their constant life of Friends on loop.
Despite my depressive and grown up initial musings on our new surroundings Alicia and I both new deep down that come two days time we would be at one with the town, making full use of the same same menus(the food and not the happy ones), enjoying the video bars and the tubing....which will be explained in more detail very soon!!!
As we had put the next day aside for mountain biking round the cliffs and for cave exploring, we put our heads down early, trying to block out the trance music from the "bucket bar" across the river, and quickly drifted off to slumber land.
Having being dumped at the bus station out of town (the tourist bus stations always seem to be just far enough out of town so you have no choice but to take a taxi or a Tuk Tuk) we had to take take a Tuk Tuk to the heart of the town via the now common detour Tuk Tuk drivers take to their mates guest houses. Having failed to find any accommodation within our budget price range - (we did try hard I promise!!!), we settled in to our rather luxurious, by travelling standards, guest house, dumped our bags, showered off and went off exploring!
Vang Vieng is famous for its surrounding limestone cliffs which rise vertically from flat farm land 100's of meters in to the sky, most of which house caves which carve deep in to the sides of the cliffs and, it is also infamous for "tubing" and the easily marketable and profitable hedonism that supports this local industry. As we stepped out of the hotel for the first time we were greeted by our first vision of a victim of tubing, a chap covered in mud and unable to walk without the support of his friends and who had clearly succumb to one too many opium pipes or a vast quantity of booze, either way he was in a bad state. Not wanting to interfere and as he had friends around him, we simply stepped over his muddy body, whistled as if nothing had happened and continued exploring.
15 minutes of wandering later we concluded that this part of Vang Vieng at least, is set up for people to drink/get high, go tubing, drink some more, get higher and then have hangovers. The shops of the town were either Internet cafe's, bars and restaurants weirdly all with the same menu one for food and one "happy menu", and video bar,. lots and lots and lots of video bars all blasting out Friends or Family Guy 24 hours a day. A first Alicia and I found the staff of these video bars a little frosty but it didn't take long to sympathise with their constant life of Friends on loop.
Despite my depressive and grown up initial musings on our new surroundings Alicia and I both new deep down that come two days time we would be at one with the town, making full use of the same same menus(the food and not the happy ones), enjoying the video bars and the tubing....which will be explained in more detail very soon!!!
As we had put the next day aside for mountain biking round the cliffs and for cave exploring, we put our heads down early, trying to block out the trance music from the "bucket bar" across the river, and quickly drifted off to slumber land.
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