Leaving Laos
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2003
1
36
169
Trip End
Jun 02, 2007
Vientienne,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Thursday, September 11, 2003
The last few days in Laos were fairly relaxed. We swam, shopped at the local market - I got a CD/MP3/VCD player. On our last night we were trying to find a nightclub that was in the Lonely Planet. Half way there it started pouring with rain so we took shelter under a garage and played some cards. There were some local children on bikes also sheltering and they were very interested to watch us play cards and they all posed beautifully for us to take pictures of them. I was feeling a bit irritable and ended throwing a tizzy when we couldn't agree on what rules we were playing by. Luckily by this time it had stopped raining but we'd found out the nightclub was closed. After eventually finding out where another nightclub was, Charlie and his Angels (aka Peter, Mascha & me) jumped in tuk tuk and headed off, Hamish decided to go home. When we got there we could hear music but we couldn't see how to get in. A member of staff eventually led us in through the bar so we didn't have to pay. I Will Survive was playing when we came in but it sounded like Mickey Mouse was singing it. The club was full of locals, we were the only Westerners there! The music didn't get much better and I was still not feeling 100% so I decided to head back. Unfortunately I only had 4,000kip and all the tuk tuk drivers refused to take me for so little. I had no idea where I was. I went into a hotel to ask for directions and the guy at the desk, called Sayphone, was really funny. He wanted to know where I was from, how long I'd been in Laos and where I was going. He was very upset when I told him I was leaving the following day. I walked out the front of the hotel into a huge puddle up to my ankles. I had to walk all the way back to the guest house with wet feet. It really wasn't a good day.
Thursday 11th September - Vientienne
This morning I felt lots better and I went to have a massage. It was very similar to the Thai massage I'd had and was very good. I was walking along the street afterwards feeling very chilled and tripped over a cracked paving stone and badly bruised my toe, I later banged my head on the toilet door. It turned out not to be too bad a day considering. We went to the Revolutionary Museum which explained all about the history of Laos. Laos is one of the poorest countries in the world and has a very troubled past - it's the most bombed country in the world. The Mekong River is the 12th longest in the world but it's the most untamed, until 1993 there were no bridges spanning it's 4,500km length. It's also the 10th largest volume wise. After a couple of hours we began to have difficulty taking anything in so we left. We headed back to the guest house where we had to say farewell to Peter, before being picked up and taken to the bus station to catch the bus to Hanoi.
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