This weekend (Friday-Tuesday) we were lucky enough to get some coworkers to cover our classes while Sheena and I headed across the Mekong River into Vientiane, Laos. Sheena rightly so, suggested that we just stay in Luang Prabang... a mere 10-12 hour bus ride to the north of Vientiane, located ultimately in the center of Laos, instead of doing a mini whirl-wind tour of Laos as I probably would have done..
Everything was planned pretty much last minute.. and I think I only told my parents I was leaving the night before. Bus tickets would apparently have to be purchased on the run. There are no online sites I'm aware of that allow you to purchase these bus tickets ahead of time... slightly nerve wracking but a good experience for someone who probably has minor travel OCD.
We left mid-day on Friday for the Friendship bridge, which connects Thailand and Laos via Nong Khai and Vientiane. I was expecting utter chaos, rudeness, and annoying summons from tuk-tuk drivers imploring us to take their ride for a mere 100 Baht.... Why would I spend 100 Baht, or about 3.5 dollars, when I could take a bus for a mere 20 Baht, about 75 cents.. Honestly. (Yes I realize I'm going to have a shock and a struggle when I get back to the US and realize the actual price differences. Luckily I don't really remember how much things cost in America anymore...) The cross over couldn't have been easier for me happily, although the currency exchanges for Sheena turned out to be pretty aggravating in terms of red tape. Still we made it through in no time!
The first thing that caught my attention was all the soviet flags hanging everywhere! Tons of them! I know you're communist but get your own party flag guys... After crossing over, we went straight to the bus station where we had about 4 hours to kill. We attempted to eat at the restaurant across the street... and managed to get some sort of soup.. mystery meat was determined to be chicken neck... Although Sheena rudely suggested that it was cat meat due to the very large number of cats wandering around the restaurant. Ironically a chicken escaped from the kitchen as we were served our food and strutted around the restaurant for a bit while we began to eat his relative... I knew this trip was going to be an adventure already!
The bus, supposedly VIP (whatever that means here) turned out to be just a regular crappy bus, without a bathroom! We stopped every once in a while for passengers to relieve themselves. We didn't realize why we had been stopping before Sheena asked about a bathroom. Promptly the bus pulled over and let her get our, after which almost the entire bus got out and stood basically in a line next to the bus peeing in unison - Men, women, old ladies.. you name it. A sight to see let me tell you!
The bus ride, which was supposed to be one of the worst in the world wasn't that bad to me. I even successfully ignored the sounds and smells of other people vomiting as the bus turned 90 -180 degree turns about every minute to 30 seconds for probably around 4 hours. The bus ride back, on the actual VIP sleeper bus was pretty much the same deal in terms of the vomit, but the ride was a heck of a lot better. There were three rows of bunk beds on the bus, and a toilet on board as well! Needless to say we got a lot more sleep on the ride back!
Arriving Luang Prabang at 6am with 30 minutes of sleep between us was not the greatest of feelings but the Lao Sandwich I ate right away, a baguette with chicken, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, maybe an egg, and some other things I don't know was a lovely welcome to what turned out to be an incredible picturesque and charming town!
We napped for about four hours.. not gonna lie.. and walked around the entire town in pretty much 4 hours. We checked out the museum, the temples, the river, as well as the yummy restaurants we planned to eat at. Although it is supposedly best to travel there in rainy season, when the river and waterfalls are at their prime, we did get a chance to see and walk across the bamboo bridge that they take down when the river gets too high. That night we checked out the night market, ate another baguette, and headed to a really cool place called Utopia (fitting with all the soviet flags) right on the water. We enjoyed some wine, and caught a free movie across from our hotel/guesthouse.
The next day we had to get up super early in order to feed the monks! Yes this is what it sounds like. We got some rice and other things, and lined up with everyone as 200+ monks passed by, opening their special buckets for us to put food into.. I was wondering how they felt about everyone touching all their rice before they ate it, but how western of me! It was nice to see that the monks also took some of their food and gave it to orphans who were sitting on the side of the road as well. Right after we hiked up mount Phousi (you may pronounce that however you want) and got a great view of the town and surrounding area. The next day we went to some temple caves via a boat, stopping by a whiskey village, all the while enjoying French inspired food and failing to really see a difference between Lao and Thai food.
Our last and final day turned out to be one of my favorites so far this year. We caught a tuk-tuk up to these waterfalls about 30 minutes outside of Luang Prabang. They were beautiful, falling gently into cool milky blue ponds/lagoons that you could swim in. There was a bear sanctuary as well, and we hiked up a 100 degree or so (it felt like) path in order to get a good view. Swimming in the ponds felt fantastic in the heat, and we went back into town to pack and get dinner with a Malaysian film crew who had interviewed us at Isara.
All being said, we were let back in to Thailand, tired but having had a wonderful and yummy weekend! Today we finally got to help out the recycle center and it felt good to do some useful manual labor. Must say it feels good to be "home," and I'm gearing up for another week of teaching! My first class on my own is today...!
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