Laos

We seemed to do a whirlwind tour through Laos which is unfortunate, but necessary due to lack of time (we wanted to make it back to Thailand for the full moon party on the 1st of May). We had a very fun and relaxing time in Vang Vieng. It is easy to see how many travelers can get stuck there for ages. The town is full of bars and restaurants playing DVDs of various TV shows or movies. For instance, there was a restaurant playing continuous 'Friends' episodes, another with 'Simpsons', 'Family Guy', and some with different movies. These restaurants not only serve your usual, everyday foods, but many also have an additional 'Happy' menu. This menu contains 'happy' (aka marijuana) pizza, garlic bread, opium tea, mushroom shakes, and so on. All the more reason why people come for a meal and an episode of their preferred television show and end up staying for the shows entire season. There is much to do in Vang Vieng, and we took advantage of them. One day we rented bicycles and biked out to the Blue Lagoon where we also explored the cave there (there are tons of lagoons and caves around that area). The lagoon was really 'blue', and there was a tree you could jump off of or swing off the rope hanging from it into the water. The cave was a hike to get up to, but was worth it to explore. I would recommend, however, to bring more than 1 flashlight as we had 5 people and only 1 head torch making it difficult to maneuver through (it's completely dark once inside). We enjoyed the lagoon so much that we rented motorbikes that Tovah and Paul drove, with Anna and I on the back, back there. I have to say, despite my fear of motorbikes, Tovah is an excellent driver and I really felt safe...well at least as safe as possible (the dirt roads are covered with rocks making the ride really bumpy). Vang Vieng has a long river for which we spent a lazy day tubing down. Basically you get your tube ($3) then are transported to the top of the river and off you go. As you drift down you pass endless bars that reel you in if your feeling parched. All these bars also have a zipline, or tree swing for those needing to cool off in the river. I tried both and must say that the highest swing is so intimidating that it is almost necessary to have a drink or two in you before entertaining the thought of jumping off the platform with only a trapeze bar to hold onto. However, there is a threshold, and if one has too many drinks they run the risk of a premature release of the bar causing a hard and painful smack in the water and the unison "owww" of the many onlookers. After you have had enough of one bar you get back in your tube with your drink and float down til you find another one you like the look of. Again, we had so much fun that the next day we decided to forego the tubes just took a taxi to the bar we liked most. We met a lot of great people in Vang Vieng that we spent our time with and even got to catch back up with one, Cosi (Germany) at our next stop Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is a cute little town that clearly displays its french influence. It has huge nightly markets, great street food like the $2 all you can eat vegetarian buffet, and beautiful topography ( i.e. Mekong Delta, massive waterfall). We spent time with the local children that came to our guest house to sell their crafts as they tried to teach us one of their card games. It's a shame that these kids are working day and night to make money when they should be at school or in bed or just playing and being a kid. We visited the big Wat there (Wat Xieng Thong), and even went bowling for the first time in a long time with the girls (Tovah, Anna, and Cosi). From Luang Prabang we took a bus to Phonsavan where we had to get a connecting bus to the Vietnam border. However, that bus doesn't run everyday and so we had to spend a few days in Phonsavan which turned out to be a good thing. On our bus we met Charlie from England, and Tom from Switzerland who ended up traveling with me, Tovah, Anna, and Paul for much of SE Asia. Phonsavan is a small town that does not seem to be affected by tourism like the other places we had been in Laos. For example,when we arrived we got taken to a guesthouse and were told that there was no water in the whole town. While at first this may seem like a hassle, it ended up leading to an awesome experience we otherwise would not have had. Due to the lack of water,one of the guys that ran the guesthouse loaded us all up in his van and drove us to the river where all the locals, including himself and his adorable little boy, bathed. So for the two nights we were there we,and the other travelers staying there, bathed in the river with the locals. While there we also did a tour that took us to areas where we could see the craters, each made by an individual cluster bomb. To give you an idea, a missile that was dropped contained 750,000 cluster bombs. It really shook me up seeing these massive craters knowing that 1) my country, America, was responsible for dropping these bombs, and 2) that many innocent people were killed by these missiles that were never even intended to be dropped on Laos. In fact they were meant for Vietnam but since the border was secured they, due to 'safety precautions' that said it was dangerous to land the planes with the missiles still on them, dropped them at the site closest to where they were stationed to land...Laos. Now it is very eerie and unsettling to see that so many missiles were dropped that the locals use the missile casings for everyday things such as pillars to hold up the foundations of their homes, fences, for planting flowers in, barbecueing, etc. I guess its better they put them to good use, but made me feel sick that their town was littered with so many that it was necessary to find something productive to do with them. On our way to see the jars (ancient structures that were said to have been used to keep those that have died in), we were directed to follow a certain path as that path had been cleared of landmines. If you strayed from the path you ran the risk of stepping on one since there are so many that it has not been possible to clear them all yet. So many people there have lost their lives or have lost a limb or limbs due to stepping on these landmines. It is so unsettling that this happened to these innocent people and that it was not that long ago as the effects are still being seen and people are still being harmed by the unnecessary actions of the past. We left Phonsavan in the morning for Vietnam, and spent an exhausting 24 hours on numerous buses to get to Hanoi. On our way our first government bus that was traveling through thick fog along winding roads that hugged sheer cliffs in the rain, got into an accident with a truck. While it was not bad, it did take an hour to take care of and thus prolonged our anything but comfortable journey. Once at the border, getting through customs wasn't bad except that we immediately got on another bus that was going to take us to Vinh, and this bus was determined to make us go hungry. After being on a bus since 7 am, we were disappointed that when we finally convinced the driver to let us stop for food, he stopped in a town that did not have an ATM in sight and therefore we had no money to get food. Even if we did have money (their currency is Dong), there was only one place we found to get food and there we were unsure of what we were getting due to the language barrier. Needless to say I had a few bites of the worst rice I have ever had (yes, I have learned it is definitely possible to screw up rice). Still hungry and without local currency we got back on the bus to Vinh. On a good note, we met Mia and Lynette from Denmark on the bus who also continued to travel with us for most of SE Asia. Unfortunately, the rest of our ride to Vinh was full of local men spitting (the kind with the loud clearing of the throat and the releasing of lots of phlegm) on the floor of the bus, as well as chain smoking in the bus. The smoking was made worse due to the fact that it was raining and cold and so you didn't want to open the windows cause the wind was painful. When we finally arrived in Vinh around 10 pm in the rain we did not have the best greeting. First off, after not being able to go to the bathroom for almost the entire day, I was busting and ran to use the toilets at the bus stop. To my surprise when I got out the lady there wanted me to pay. I tried to tell her I didn't have any local currency but that I had Thai Baht or USD, but she didn't understand me. This caused a problem and she even called security over. Fortunately the others found a bus that was leaving then for Hanoi and so Anna came over and pretty much threw Baht at the woman, and we ran off to the bus. The transportation drama didn't stop here because as soon as we were on the bus we realized the man lied to us. He told us that if we paid to go on his bus we would be guaranteed seats with at least some room, as well as a stop at the ATM and for food that we were deprived of all day/night. Well instead, we got on a bus with no room and even had to squish in the back with most of our luggage and this trip was an overnight journey. So.....when we got off for the ATM we told him that we didn't want to take his bus and wanted the stuff locked in the back of the bus. After a slight argument and the guy's refusal to open the back, one of the boys got the key from the driver and opened it for us. While we got our stuff and went to the ATM, the bus was still waiting there for us. The man did not want to lose our business (after all, we were 9 people/customers). He even followed us for part of our walk in the rain towards the train station where we hoped to find a train for Hanoi that evening. Just when we thought we lost him, he showed up again with an empty bus saying that he would give us a discounted rate for this bus and that it would drop us for food before leaving. We agreed and that bus got us in really early the next morning to Hanoi...quite the introduction to Vietnam, huh?