This is my experience in Laos.
I spent four days there. I was supposed to travel Saturday 7th May to return 14th May but I missed my flight. The next flight was for 10th May. I cried the whole way back home. Anyways, Tuesday came and I didn't miss my flight, on the contrary, I arrived there pretty early! Waved byes to my brother and friend who dropped me off at the airport and soon enough, I was on my way to Laos. It's a pretty nice country. Its not as architectural or developed as most of its surrounding countries, but the air is clean, the people are warm the food is oh! Sooo good, you're hooked! Everyone there was shocked and surprised to see me there. From what I gathered, they don't get to have black people (women most especially) around there. People kept tapping themselves in surprise as I walked the streets of Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
My Friend, Khany, couldn't make it to the airport because she had to work. Therefore, she sent her friend to pick me up, of which I met when she came visiting Malaysia. A little run down on memory lane on how I met Khanny, she came touring alongside 2 of her friends - the one she sent to pick me up from the airport and her brother - in Malaysia. We then had a mutual friend in Lolita and Teofil, my Spaniard friends whom I also met in Malaysia.
Anyways, khany's friend names Kum took me round town. First, she took me to this coffee house, kind of like Starbucks coffee and I felt right at home. Okay this one's for jokes; I ordered my meal and when I asked for the price, the tender replied, 48 thousand and I was like what??? I asked for the exchange rate to find out $1 is only 8,000Kip. How embarrassed I felt as I was making a scene already with others present, saring in amusement. After I was done feeding, she showed me all the nice things in Vientiane as we passed them on her motorbike and talked about the hot spots for tourists like myself. It was then she told me about Vang Vieng. Glad she did cos I absolutely loved every minute of my stay there. She said there were many touristic places in Laos but if I were to tour, I should start with the common ones - Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang. I saw a picture of Luang Prabang and it was absolutely breathtaking! But since vang vieng was common for tourists, I decided to take the next days' bus headed there. I could come another time and tour Luang Prabang, I figured. Glad I did because I never would have met the people I did meet in vang vieng.
Spent the night at Khanys'. Next day I was on my way to vang vieng on the 10am bus bound for Vang Vieng. It took about 4 to 5 hours to get to vang vieng. Actually, there are two kind of buses that are headed Vang Vieng; the 'VIP' bus and the normal towns' bus. The VIP bus actually wasn't so much of a VIP bus but because its Laos, I'll give them an upper hand.
I happened to sit near this Kiwi girl who just graduated as a Biologist from a top University in Singapore. Strange eh? I asked her why she left New Zealand to study in Singapore. She said cos its cheaper and the education standard in S'pore is quite good! We talked the whole way through. It so happened she was on vacation with her friends, a group of biologists touring Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam(sweet!).
Upon arrival, I felt like I was in an aussie community. Vang vieng is swamped with Australians amongst others, but they take the lead in the population. Vang vieng is actually a place populated by tourists more than the locals themselves. I found that quite interesting. There are usually advertisers as you disembark the bus who would do anything to sell their guest house to you. Oh yes! You rent guest houses or you can stay in a hotel but guest houses are the best! You get a whole apartment to yourself for about $5 per night, more or less.. The bungalow I rented was super super nice!! I had air conditioning; free coffee and water at my disposal; the bicycle i didn't have to rent, I used for free; the hosts were super super nice.. it was a haven.
I stayed two nights in Vang Vieng. The day i arrived which was Wednesday, I spent it walking around the streets of Vang Vieng taking pictures and I even got me an anklet! I spent it walking 'round town with the Singaporeans, the sweethearts! We as a group, booked for a tour package which included caving, tubing, kayaking (thats right! We went kayaking) and it included our lunch. While taking a stroll later at night, and I met this Irish guy who says he's been in Laos for 12months, that the following day would make it his 12th month in Vang Vieng, Laos. When I asked what hes been doing there, he said he was just 'chilling'. I was perturbed! He walked me home, even bought me a cold bottled water (lol!) Then he asked if I could have a drink or two with him, I declined. Didn't want some creep around me, yeah! I was creeped out. Maybe I was a little too harsh, I'd leave you to be the judge of that.
The next day I met this Finish girl travelling alone like I was, she was on my tour group alongside the Singaporeans. She was cool too.
Just as we went tubing, my camera and mobile phone decided to take a swim and off it went! The wet bag I was given seemed not to have been covered properly and so water still got in anyways. As sad as it sounds, I don't have any pictures of me kayaking nor tubing nor anything done that Thursday and the next. I was so sad the whole time but I had to keep up a smiling face. Oh yeah, to make it worse I almost drowned! After kayaking to a bar in the middle of nowhere (Where of course aussies rocked and partayed hard ) there was this really high point where you hold a rope, swing until it reaches its maximum and then dive into the water. I did that. I fell into the water and thought my feet would touch the ground or rock or something so I just let myself to keep going down and then I realized, shit! I really am drowning and then I found my bearing but by then, some French hawttie came to my rescue. Too bad he was touring with his girlfriend who happened to be a sweetheart! My bad. I was invited to dine with them later in the evening were they payed for my dinner and we had a beer or two afterwards at a club for tourists run by the aussies (Aussies! Lol).
There, I met this Spaniard who was completely taken by me. He loved the fact that I was a nerd (really!!??) and I got to find out he has his masters in Computer Engineering! As we talked into the night, he kept on looking at me with such augustness and kept saying how much he was liking me as the minutes rolled by (some romantic.. hmmph!!) I may never see him again as I wasn't with my phone nor a pen/paper, neither was he. He asked around but; who takes a pen and paper to a night club? Stupid! He's got me in his camera though, he just kept taking pictures upon pictures of me and yeah, he loved my blue eyes. (The silly goose..) He recorded my Facebook account name unto his camera so hopefully it works and he'd be able to contact me once again. I left the next day for Vientiane as my flight back to Malaysia was Saturday evening. I must confess, the VIP bus back to Vientiane from vang vieng was so much better than that from Vientiane to Vang Vieng. I sat close to this Australian who's lived most of his life in London and had Nigerians as close buddies so he had no problem interacting with me. The oldie, says he never married and ended up passing up his email address to me that I should mail him. Still trying to figure out why and if I really should. Well, he might come in handy someday and age never played the lead role in friendships (I hope just that). While walking down the street market in the evening that sunny Friday, I met this trio, one of them was from Amsterdam, the other two from Lebanon and Syria respectively. Chatted for a while and then I waltzed away as my friend called for me.
My friend and her other friends took me to a karaoke bar at night where we totally went insane singing off our lungs.
There's something about karaoke. Even though your voice is as sweet as a birds', there's a way it kind of makes you feel incompetent as you hear yourself singing terribly to your favorite songs. It rained all through the morning of Saturday and I just had to take the liberty of walking around in the rain just cos I had my rain coat with me. Silly me! I got to a place and found out it was a morning market where you can buy almost anything for half its normal price! I bought my souvenirs from there, bought a shirt for myself that says; "I went tubing in Vang Vieng". I think everyone who goes tubing should have this shirt. Funny! I found out there's a boutique with some creepy name, only Nigerians and a few other Africans would understand this:
At about 3pm, my friend took me to the airport and we waved our goodbyes after i checked in. There was a delay in the flight and so we left pretty late. I arrived in Malaysia at about 9pm Malaysian time.
I felt kind of sad leaving Laos which I now refer to as my little Haven, but it felt good to be back. Just as I got in, I realized my visa was valid for 2 months and I was like eh? Why didn't I see this any earlier?
~ ketybrown.
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