April 4th, 2010 Leaving LP

Monk before the Fall

8AM I wake to be taken to the Kuang Si Waterfalls for 40,000 kips. I believe that wasn't such a good deal since the ticket was 20,000 kips. The deal for 45,000 kips with the travel agency in a van is a better deal. But I spent a good 2 hours there.

It is kind of rocky inside Kuang Si Waterfalls. I could not get all the way in. Actually, I was not even supposed to stand here. I was brave, though.

Swing at a Lower Pool of Water
Jump Off of a 6 Meter Fall

12PM I exchanged for 31 USD at the Lao Development Bank and received 261,110 kips. However, after buying the ticket to Vinh, Vietnam for 180,000 kips, I only had 31,110 kips left. So I went back to the woman that worked there and explained. She thought I bought something, which I had time for. When I insisted I did not, she gave me back 50,000 kips. This will forever remain in my memory as I do not think it would happen anywhere else, which makes me place the Hmong and Cambodians amongst the kindest people I have ever met.

3PM I had a Lao massage for 30,000 kips. It was that impressive but then again, it was my first time having a full body massage so I have no idea what is good and what is bad.

Last Supper at Laos: Yellow Noodle with Mekong Fish 18,000 VNDs at Coke at the mini-mart next door for 4,000 VNDs. I actually paid 5,000 first and got 1,000 back after seeing it printed on the bottle.

4PM I had dinner next to the Mekong river and walked to the bus station, which is about 3 miles away. To make time, I paid a driver 5,000 kips to take me 1 mile closer and walked the rest of the way. I was almost out of kips and I knew I needed to keep some for liquids later.

6:30PM We leave for Vinh, Vietnam. The full fare is 175,000 kips so the lady at the agency was really nice to me, only earning 5,000 kips. But next time I would just go to the bus station and buy it myself.

3AM We stop as the bus was having issues. The lady manager cooked instant noodles for everyone. Another Vietnamese lady who was about 60 and worked for a Chinese man as a translator asked me if I wanted any and I said okay. But then that manager wanted 10,000 kips for me. I was awfully bothered by this as it was free for everyone else. A Lao or Cambodian would never do this. I think the Vietnamese and the Chinese are the only ones who would do somthing like this. I refused.