Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam to Vietiane, Laos

Airports.  In three days I have been in 5 airports, a couple of them multiple times.  Today wasn’t so bad, yet another day spent in transit going from one place to another.  I had to transit through Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  I wasn’t the only transit passenger laughing at the absurdity of that one.

We landed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia we had to get off the plane and they loaded us all into a bus and took us to the terminal. Those of us that were to go on to Vientiane were give a transit pass and shown up the stairs to the departure lounges. I had time to walk to the other end of the terminal, if you have not been here the terminal is not really all that big, walk down the stairs to my departure lounge. I had time to listen to one song, yes that is right one song on my ipod and it was time to board the plane.

So out we all went onto the bus that took us to the plane, the plane that half of us had just gotten off moments before and sitting in the very same seats that we had all just gotten out of. You gotta love this part of the world!

Arriving in Vietiane was great. It is a tiny little airport but since there was only about 20 of us arriving, and no other planes it all worked like clock work. We were bundled off the plane, no bus, no please follow the line to the terminal, no guides just get off the plane and walk to the terminal. I have never seen that kind of trust before, at least not at an international airport. The ‘que’ inside for customs took all of 2 minutes to get through!

The hotel I’m staying at, Settha Palace, is great. Wooden floorboards, four poster beds, pool with a poolside bar, free cocktail in the lobby bar…. very nice… I’m not sure I’m going to want to leave!

So there I was sitting down in the lobby bar drinking margaritas, writing in my diary, listening to music… it is very pleasant.

As for Vientiane, I’ll find out tomorrow!

Vientiane

I woke up early again today.  It was 0600 when I checked the time and that was when I reached the point where I could not stay in bed any longer.  In the positive side breakfast started at 0600 so that at least gave me something to do.

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Vientiane

I had a relaxing day today my last in Vientiane at least until it is the end of my trip and its time to go home.

I went to see Haw Pha Kaew today, it was a Royal Temple built in 1565 ordered by the king to house the Emerald Buddha.  Of course it was destroyed in 1828 and rebuilt, supposedly to the original plans though there is doubt regarding this, in 1936.

Today Haw Pha Kaew is a museum holding many Buddha sculptures and other items.  It was interesting to walk around but for the first time there were bus loads of tourists rocking up and doing the rounds of the temple with their respective guides.

I Went for a walk to see Wat Si Muang, it looked like a short walk on the map, it did not turn out to be all that short still it was a nice walk but I think I’m becoming all Wat’ed out and this is only the start of my trip.

Still there is a couple of things left for me to see when I return to this city.

I asked the receptionist at my hotel were the bus station was so I could book my bus to Vang Vieng and he looked at me and said he could book me a private car.  Now knowing what type of hotel I’m in I knew that it would be expensive but I was curious so I asked him how much he thought it would cost.

He looked at me and thought about it with a very serious expression before, and I have to give the man credit he kept and absolutely straight face and told me it would cost $200 USD.  For my part I laughed and asked where the bus station was he gave me directions then asked if I wanted him to arrange the private car.

I said ‘No thank you I’ll take the bus.’

Now under the circumstances I thought the thank you was a nice touch.

I took myself off to the bus station which I found without much of a problem and the busses are a little, um, run down.  Still the price was about $2 USD.  There was a sign thanking people for travelling with Lao bus….. the bit at the end was what caught my eye it said “....... good luck!”

You know that really inspires me with confidence in the busses in Laos.  I ended up booking the Tourist bus which they assure me has air conditioning and for the massive sum of $5 USD they even throw in a bottle of water.

I’m down on the banks of the Mekong again.  Predictable perhaps but it is such a pleasant way to end the day.

Vientiane to Vang Vieng

I was picked up as promised at my hotel by a tuk tuk and   taken to the bus.  It really did have air conditioning as promised and they gave us all a bottle of water as promised.

The trip to Vang Vieng was uneventful which I guess is a good thing.  Vang Vieng is in a beautiful spot surrounded by mountains with a river running through town.

This place really is not all that big but I still ended up walking from one end of town to the other looking for accommodation.  The first place I tried while everything was open including the reception there was no one in the office which made it a little hard to ask if they had any room.  So of course the next place I decided to try was on the exact opposite side of town.

While it was a beautiful day tramping around town with a pack on it gets a little warm.  Thankfully they had room at the next place I tried.  I’m staying in a bamboo bungalow.  It is a little basic, mattress on the floor of the bungalow a fan and a mosquito net but this place has a stunning view with a small stream running down the side and behind with a row of mountains curving around the front.

This town is a little weird though.  I read one section on the town and it said you could listen to several different episodes of Friends at the same time because they play it in several of the Restaurants.  I laughed when I read it because I thought they were joking.

They weren’t joking.

So here I am in Vang Vieng, Laos sitting eating my dinner and watching Friends.  Strange.  One has to look on the bright side though.  At least I like Friends and they are playing the last season at the moment which is kind of cool since I missed the end of the series when it was playing on TV.

Vang Vieng

Well the last two days have been fun in an odd sort of way.  Yesterday I went down to the river with a whole bunch of travellers and generally we all pretty much sat around, ate, swum in the river and talked travel.  As you do.  The evening turned into a massive party at the river bar, great night.

Today I went on the river, I was number 65 so you could say there was quite a few of us, on a tractor tube and floated down the river.  Left just after lunch.  It is kind of fun and there are bars, ok places where you can buy Beer Lao, set up about every 20 meters down the river.

It is a strange sight to see whole bunches of travelers floating down the river sipping on Beer Lao.  One of the stops they were pumping out music from the 70’s and it had a tower.  At the top of the tower was a cable with a handle attached.  So of course you kind of have to climb the tower to the platform and jump off swinging across the river, let go and fall the rest of the way into the water.  Of course people are having a great time before you reach this point because there are about 3 pit stops before you get to this one and Beer Lao bottles are not all that small.

It took me a while to talk myself into it but up I went, it was a little hard to change my mind when I started up the ladder because there were a whole bunch of people climbing up the ladder after me.  Thankfully I didn’t end up doing a belly flop, from that high it hurts by the bruises people were sporting and the expressions on their faces when they surfaced.

One of the guys was so embarrassed, he got all the way up the tower, onto the little platform, was holding the swing then he chickened out and went all the way back down the ladder.

As strange as it sounds it was great fun and with all the stops on the way took all day to get back into town.