xin nian kuai le! happy chinese new year! sun.jan.30th.2006. in the aftermath of a chinese new years' eve poker game and 7-11 dinner, two plucky canadians had tickets booked for 2 glorious weeks of vacation in laos, and time permitting, cambodia. the anticipation of our holiday continued to mount as we boarded the plane and took to the skies. after a brief layover in hong king, we arrived in bangkok where we spend the next 24 hours before catching the train to the thai-laos border. upon arrival @ the border, quickly got our visas processed and were across, within vientiane in an hour and a half. our first impressions of laos, the secret sweetheart of southeast asia, were the pace of things which was noticeably slower, how rural it seemed and how dusty as the roads were dirt. driving past the beerlao plant(more on this later) we settled into a guest house quickly and ate well for cheap....if you can get a steak, vegetables and a beer for $4.50 US i would like to know where. took in some sights, took a nap and that was that.
spent the next day checking out a few more sights and the talat sao market, which has some amazing silk and silver crafts on offer. took another nap (we were on hoiday after all) and were just getting ready to turn in when gus shows up, ready for fun. so, after regaling us with tales of his travels up to the minute, we each had enough beerlao to prime us for a night on the town. things close up pretty early in a communist country so by 11:30 we were left out in the cold, wondering what to do next. we jumped in a tuk-tuk, bought a bag of green and sped off to an all-lao, late-night eatery. being the only farang there was a little daunting at first, but we soon settled down to some flied lice and more beerlao. a quick rooftop smoke and bed.
leesh and i set out the next day for vang vien, renowned as a backpackers haven. we had booked the seats the day before but were late arriving to catch the bus so there weren't any regular spots left. the solution? plastic patio chairs for a 4 and half hour jaunt. jostled and jerked about, we were elated when we finally arrived. another quick tuk-tuk ride throught the dusty roads of vang vien and paradise awaited. small bungalows on the mekong river and stunning mountain vistas. went to get something to eat when we noticed the "happy" menu. happy in laos means it has marijuana or mushrooms in it, so we tried a couple of happy lassee's and that was the rest of the day.
the enxt day, we ventured into town to get some essentials and food. vang vien is only 25,000 people and most of those work in the surrounding areas so all you could see were white faces amid dusty avenues. on the walk back, stopped @ a shop where we bought a few things and a nice litte, green bag. you can imagine how the rest of the afternoon went. gus showed up after getting his luggage @ 6:00, then out to another night on the town.
the next two days are a blur. in a nutshell, beerlao, smoke, tubing, garlic bread, happy shakes and watching friends in various t.v bars. it was a life of leisure for almost a week, but like all good things, it had to end sometime. leesh and i were bound for the north and gus, back to bangkok to catch his flight. catching our minibus to luang prabang took around 6 hours until we were in the former national capital. we only had a night and a day to explore, but it was worth. it is understandable why L.P. is an UNESCO world heritage site. luang prabang was everything vientiane wasn't. although nice, vientiane lacked the grandeur and stateliness the L.P. possessed. sidewalk cafes, riverside restaurants, crumbling french-colonial architecture and one of the nicest night markets i've had the fortune to visit. if i've one regret about our holiday, it was not enough time in L.P. no use crying over spilt milk, so we hopped on a night bus all the way back to vientiane. about two h ours into the trip, someone behind elisha's seat tossed his cookies. the smell of hot sick, consisting of beerlao and rotten dairy, soon permeated the air, without a window to be opened. welcome to travel in southeast asia. at our next stop, everyone got off to get some air and cleanup the mess.
after everything was scoured and scrubbed, back on board where sleep became impossible. the roads were in such a state of disrepair with potholes more like craters on the moon. finally arrived back in vientiane, booked into a guest house and passed out.
after the much needed rest and hot showers, spent the remainder of the day waiting in vientiane to catch our bus/train combo back to bangkok. good trip back to civilization, although a little confusion when trying to meet up with the always warm and welcoming, Heather Burtch. we were very happy to be her guests in her and Rin's beautiful home and had a delicious dinner thanks to his culinary skills. after catching up and a little .v, it was bed. back to the airport on saturday and home to taipei.
and there it is, our vacation in a nutshell. all in all, an an excellent romp through asia. here is a summation of the point of the holiday.
HIGHLIGHTS
*the raft bars w/locals playing the "beerlao" theme song
*beerlao
*tubing
*night market in L.P.
*Wat Tha Phra
*Royal palace
*happy shakes
LOW LIGHTS
*28 hours in bus travel
*24 hours in train travel
*lack of ATM's
*loud europeans
*wild-eyed, austrian, martial-artist doctors duped up on methamphetamines
alrighty folksm, time for me to go and get some sleep. she's back to the grind monday...sigh, only another six months and more holidays.
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