April 1st and 2nd, 2010 Vientiane and Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng has a rapid, with mountains as backdrops. But visibility is often poor here because the local Hmong burn their fields after harvest.

7AM We arrived at the border, which was another 10 hours to Vientiane. The visa service here is horrible where they would bump up the exchange rate from 19,000 to 23,000 VNDs per dollar. Luckily, I had dollars and I had a picture (which is $1 if you don't have one). Many English travelers got mad here. The exchange rate then was 8429 kips per USD.

4:30PM I was supposed to meet my Couchsurfing Host Timothy at 4 but I arrived at the city, which was about 10 km away from the bus station ($2 and 5,000 kips), at 5. I missed him and stayed at this coffee shop with fully blasted AC for an hour and sent him a message. Thirty minutes later, he showed up to welcome me to his home, which was another animal. He had no fan and it was 40 degrees Celsius out. He warned me about lizards and that I was going to share the bed with him.

8PM We go out to find some cheap food. Tim is a teacher and he is actually from New York City. I told him my story in Vietnam as well. The food was around 20,000 kips for each of us but Tim ate on credit since the owners know him. I showered in cold water, had another coke, before I forced myself to sleep.

1AM I woke up in intolerable heat and mosquito assaults. After an hour of struggling, I just could not take it any more. I tried not to wake Tim but he leapt up, thinking that someone was going to rob him, which is the reason he kept windows closed in this heat. I hope he gets a fan soon. I went outside but there were many mosquitos there as well. I spent another hour moving from spots to spots and finally found a cool spot on the street, there weren't that many mosquitos there, only a handful of ants that can be easily managed. I managed to squeeze 10-15 minutes of sleep there and had to wake up from time to time because there were still cars going around. Finally at 5AM, two people came and gestured that I should not sleep there. I moved and it was finally 6:30AM and I got my stuff and left for good.

8AM I walked to the Phra That Laung Temple, about the only thing worth seeing in Vientiane. It was about a 4-5 mile walk from Timothy's home and it took me 2 hours with luggage. I had some noodles before it opened at 9AM. The scale of it was much smaller than I had imagined from pictures. There wasn't much to see inside. For 5,000 kips, it didn't offer much. You cannot enter the temple because the bones of a buddah is guarded by monks and there was no real museum even though they called it that.

Phra That Laung Temple

The Monk and I

I had this delicious bowl of Lao noodle (10,000 kips) just before the temple opened at 9.

10AM I left on a local bus to Vang Vieng (30,000 kips and 5 hours) before getting there at 2PM.

2PM I took a tuk-tuk (motos are not popular in Laos) and found a guest house for 5 USDs. I then proceed to do what people do here, tubing.

3PM I rented a bike. The tubing place was about 3 miles away but it was not too bad. There were slides and swings here. Unbeknowst to me until I got to Luang Prabang is that 4 have died here just this year. This is basically a town littered with tourists from the UK and Australia that have come here to party.

Monks crossed the bridge.

You get to get on these if you buy a beer or anything from the bar since they own it. I bought a shake (10,000 VNDs) and they painted my nail blue to show the gatekeepers.

The swings drop about 8 meters. My mouth bled after a couple of drops.

11PM Between 8:30PM and 9:30PM, the buckets at the bucket bar were free! I slept for a few hours after having to return the bike at 7PM and missed it. Still, it was only 20,000 kips for a bucket and I bought one. The party moved from the bucket bar to the rocket bar and to something else. After the party ended at 2AM, I had an omnlette sandwich for 10,000 kips and it was delicious.

Tubing River