by Real Traveler Soph
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The Country Time Forgot

From My Journey begins in Vang Vieng, Laos on Nov 19 '07

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relaxation

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. The first bar was pounding with music you could hear from miles away, in which we cheered for it was to be our first drink of the day.

The twenty four hour journey to Vientien was eased not by the fact I was going to arrive to the bordering country of Laos, the South East Asia version of Jamaica, but because I had met some fantastic guys on the bus, two Swedish boys, a Yorkshire lass and two North London boys, who I am still enjoying the company of. The crossing into Laos went smoothly, the bus, a little uncomfortable with bags filled with God knows what, (better not to ask) which we had to climb over to get to our seats, all part and parcel of the travelling though.

A trip where I chatted most of the hours which passed then all of sudden we arrive in the capital. Stopping off the bus in the blazing heat just outside the city centre we had to get the local bus to our guesthouse (tuk tuk) which is a small cart with a motorized bicycle attached to the front painted blue. The seats were two plants of wood lined vertically down the side of the transporter. As soon as I saw this I knew this would be a different country to the one I had just left. The centre was even stranger, even in the poorest; most destitute of places the capital is normally the centre of industry, buzzing with the flow of people coming in to work but it was the complete opposite. It runs along the river and is full of French architecture, cafes and hotels. The chilled out atmosphere rings through the streets which barely have more than twenty people on it at one time and everything closes at 11.30 every night, on the dot. It’s strange not to hear the beeping of the horns every five seconds or feeling the grabbing of your arm because you had looked and not bought anything. It’s strange but nice.

The longer I stay here the more I find out about the country (obviously). It’s such a chilled out place but with rigid law enforcement which you hardly see but which you can taste in the air and see in the people’s eyes, it almost borders on eeriness. Lao is a communist country which was previously a monarchy, the King being overthrown in 1974 and forced into exile. A country as I said before everything closes at eleven thirty, no exceptions, you have to manually flush the whole in the ground (toilet) using a plastic pot which floats in the plastic barrel situated next to the toilet, where Lao Lao, their local whiskey ends with the twitch of a neck is the most consumed drink and where children as young as fourteen can get married.

It’s a mix of contradictions, (which I am sure all the conservatives would say is the communist factor in all this) a truly relaxing place where everyone takes their time, but after eleven thirty you can cut the atmosphere with a knife sometimes with the fear of the police and where a child of 14 can marry and start a family but public affection is definitely a no no.

After creating our own little family where we get jumped on in the morning (Helen and I) everyone piles into the room to discuss whatever needs or doesn’t need discussing. We all moved to the small town of Vang Vieng, which is just two strips of bars, restaurants and shops all of which have a TV in where you can watch repeat of friends or a movie at your leisure, great hang over reliever. The town is more like a village, with a blend of the Spanish islands tourist tack, Jamaican coolness and a touch of Lao’s mountain compacted countryside. It is that beautiful countryside why you come to Vang Vieng, that and the million and one caves you can visit. But a main attraction is the floating down the river in the inner ring of an old tractor tire, stopping off whenever you feel like it to the number of mini bars which line the river, then after a beer enjoy the fun of the swings throwing you into the river. This being our family’s first point of call. We got in a tuk tuk after a full breakfast and made our way down the river for our 10km float. It’s not just good fun it’s amazing, the sun radiates your body with warmth; all you have is you and your tube floating down the river with the Rocky Mountains surrounding you. This and the company of fantastic people, brilliant, the only interruption is the manic

paddling, which from time to time you have to do to stop from going into the bank full of prickerly bushes or the rocks which pop up in the middle of the shallow stream, oh and the mini rapids which occur only once every so often, where the tactic of lifting yourself out of the water to save your back or bottom from being scratched. The first bar was pounding with music you could hear from miles away, in which we cheered for it was to be our first drink of the day. The music was mixed with the splash of people jumping into the river from the swing, which I attempted after a swig of my beer, and stupidly shouted that I didn’t want to let go when I actually was letting go and got a mouth and nose full of the water.

It continued like this for the next couple of bars, but that was to be my last and only swing. The most happening of bars was the last we visited as you can imagine, volley ball was being played, drinks being drunk and the swing in constant movement. The sun was starting to go down, so in we popped into our rubber rings and floated down river, we didn’t arrive until dark and we had to walk through the river the rest of the way, using the twinkling of village lights as a guide. Crazily brilliant.

The last of my days in Vang Vieng were spent chilling, if you want to relax this was the place to do it. The first day of doing nothing I realized how little time I have left and had to rethink my plans. Obviously because I spent all day thinking about how much time I haven’t got I spent the next day writing about how much time I haven’t got. Crazy how we do that isn’t it, like moaning really. No but really, as I sit in a restaurant where I’ve been for the last few hours, putting my life to rights I have had a bad tummy. I feel a little better but in need of a new town, and tomorrow I will be on my way to Luang Prabang, then I will take it from there as to what is next.

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