lurking in laos (part 2)

Evening bugs

After a stressful wait for the bus to Vang Vieng, we were finally collected from our hostel and boarded another creepy local bus. We both were given odd and probably dangerous fold up seats right next to the driver, who drove like a crazy person and loved to use his horn. There were a few occasions where he almost tipped the bus over!

we stumbled cross a nice hotel where we bartered the price to around £5 a night! we had a big balcony, huge double bed and a single bed.

 Vang Vieng is a very relaxed, smallish town in keeping with the lurking culture of laotions. There are some nice bars which we enjoyed on our 1st night. on this night we  were persuaded to cycle the 7km to the blue lagoon by someone who claimed it was a "lovely ride". it was in fact a treacherous journey, along very bumpy roads in the searing heat. holly also sustained an injury en route which started out as a small cut but became very infected later on.

The blue lagoon itself was very pretty and we enjoyed swimming and sunbathing here. we did however treat ourselves to a tuk tuk home.

During our time in VV, steph also sustained a nasty injury on a motorbike, resulting in an ugly burn which also got infected.

On our 3rd night we had a brainwave to sublet our single bed to a friend from our first night, thus saving even more money, however he decided to inform the hotel of our scheming nipping that plan in the bud :(

we had another night out at the only club in town and somehow ended up having a gathering in our room (404). All the bars and club shut really early here much to our annoyance. A french lady complained to us about the noise even though it was only 1am and we werent being loud! she then preceded  to inform reception there was a pa rty in 404.

We arranged to go tubing the next day with our new friends which was really fun however due to a government crackdown only about 3 bars were still open on the river, thus we bought our own alcohol. A bottle of vodka here cost about £1 which was very beneficial to our money saving.
we both fell out of our tubes at various points, getting more injuries. the river was quite shallow at some points and we had to lift up our bums!

Our next stop is Luang Prabang in north laos which requires an overnight bus.

Lurking in Laos

sorry we have been off the map for a while we have been busy; lurking in loas.  after some poor planning, all tourist busses to laos  were fully booked' thus we decided to get there ourselves and navigate the thai bus network. we ended up in many odd bus stations with many hours of waiting and significantly annoyed all laotions on the local bus by making them wait ages for us to get our visas! we finally arrived in Vientiane and checked ourselves in a hostel due to the promise of free vodka and breakfast. unfortunately we were put into a 16 bed dorm which was full of creeps, smelt like the unwashed and was choc a bloc with inconsiderate ingrates who loved nothing more than getting up at 6am and turning on ALL main lights; not the "reading light" as the hostel suggested.

vientiane was not our fave place as there was not a great deal to do and full of what we call, lurkers; as people tended to just sit. to fill our days however we hired bikes nd using our amazing skills learned during cycling proficiency navigated the crazy capital.

we went to an awful mall which was more like an inside hovel filled with lurkers. the night market was also disappointing as there were ugly clothes and nothing of cultural significance. an interesting find was the cope museum - about americas evil bombing of laos during the Vietnam war. there are still many of these uxos or bombys littered over laos which often blow up people and/or a limb off. cope gives these people false limbs. to cheer ourselvs up after the horrors we had witnessed/to contribute to new limbs for others we bought an ice cream, to share.

we went on one night out and at a nice rooftop bar made some laos friends who then took us to a night club. apart from a fat white man with his thai bride we were the only westerners in there so subjected to much staring as eacb laos person seemed to lurk around tables and didnt really dance. 

our second night we drank our free vodka  at our hostel and just sat and talked and lurked until we were told to end the meeting  by the hostel owner.

notable food highlights included a lovely breakfast (eggs benedict and a real fry up), a nice curry and many pancakes which steph enjoys to drown in condensed milk.

next morning we were off early to vang vieng, yet were forgotten about by the tour company and again boarded a creepy local bus where we had awful seats - one next to the driver and one literally in the door of the bus!


laters lurkers