As the bus was rolling down the highway, towards the end of an 8 hour turned 10+ hour bus ride from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, a herd of cows decided to run across the road causing the bus driver to hit the brakes. On a scale of 1 to 10 with India usually running at about an 11, I'd give the Laos road cow factor a rating anywhere from 0 to 3. Anyway, the driver avoided hitting the cows but something within the break system broke. Fortunately the bus was able to limp along until it conveniently gave up in front of one of the numerous open air bar restaurants found all over Laos. It took very little coaxing in Debs part to get me to join her for a large bottle of beer on an empty stomach.
Breaking down wasn’t so bad after all. Several others got the same idea when it became obvious we would be there for awhile. As we sat drinking a lovely bottle of Beerlao, while breathing the smoke of burning plastic, a fellow passenger joined us. Deb and I were the only two westerners. Oh, one a scale of 1 to 10 with India usually an 11, I’d give the burning plastic smell a 5. Anyway, the passengers name was something that sounded like Don and he teaches secondary English in Luang Prabang but is originally from Vientiane where we were headed. His English was ok but not great. Good enough to teach secondary school though. So, we ordered another beer and continued to watch some guy try and fix the bus.
As is usually the case in third world countries buses get fixed with some kind of miracle mystery part and a little creativity. Sometimes faster than you expect. In my haste to get money out of my pocket to pay for the beer my flimsy chair feel backwards due to the weight of my daypack hanging on it. When I sat back down I landed square flat on the concrete. In this particular instance drinking on an empty stomach worked in my favor as I felt no pain initially and was a little puzzled by what happened. The locals had a good laugh and I took a bow knowing I’d be sore the next say. Remarkably I wasn’t.
Back on the bus we got and fortunately the creative repair held good enough for the bus to limp into the station at Vientiane. A lady who had been carrying two chickens in two separate tattered bags joined us for a tuk tuk ride to the city center. Vientiane is basically a visa run for Debs Vietnam Visa. We obtained one for her effortlessly through the guest house we are staying at. They deal directly with the embassy in Vientiane. All she had to do was provide one passport photo and her passport. No paper work or anything. She got it within hours. The bonus is that it cost less than anywhere else.
Let me go back in order to catch things up. From Luang Nam Tha it was a full day’s bus ride to Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is a beautiful place, set next to the Mekong River, where a traveler could easily lose track of time and stay longer than planned. Although it’s quite touristy and full and westerners it still retains a very nice appeal. We spent two full days in Luang Prabang with one on the Mekong as we traveled with an Australian lady up to a village that her son had stayed at 4 years prior. While there we visited a local family that her son stayed with. The day turned out to be a story in itself but not for this post.
From Luang Nam Tha we passed on the exceptionally scenic limestone cliffs and rivers of Vang Vieng due to reports of hashed out river hippies floating on inner tubes and opium laced fruit shakes. Obviously there’s more to Vang Vieng than that but the town just wasn’t appealing to either one of us so it was a long day to Vientiane.
The overwhelming highlight for me in Vientiane was the Buddha Park. Some guy back in the day built all kinds of large Buddhist and Hindu cement sculptures on a park like property next to the Mekong. The most prominent piece is one of an exceptionally big reclining Buddha. It's quite a bizarre and eccentric kind of place but really cool and interesting. Other than that Vientiane is nothing particularly great. It’s a fairly basic large capitol city near the border of Thailand. It’s quite European in certain ways due to the French influence of days gone by. Yesterday was warm and humid but today turned cloudy and cool with a passing front that turned the skies cloudy with morning rain.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) we’ll start making our way towards Vietnam due to our interest in spending time along the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment