Laos

Ten Days in Lao Lao Land

08.21.2007 - 08.30.2007 0 °F
View The Big Trip on tommydavis's travel map.

To view full size photos and captions click here:
http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/users/tommydavis/

First of all, thanks to anyone who still reads these updates. I know the SE Asia trip has been quite long, pictures similar and the novelty of me in oppressive communist countries worn out. I'm back in Bangkok again and about to go to Japan, so expect a change of pace.

Anyway, the bus that was supposed to take me from Hanoi to Vientiane in Laos turned out to be a scam and it dumped me and about eight other (mostly American) suckers at the first small town in Laos to fend for ourselves. I sat with my head down, puking and hot from a fever at a dusty bus station while some of the others ambitiously setup a back-of-a-pickup / local bus combo that got us to Vientiane after a total of thirty hellish hours.

Most of the time in Vientiane was spent wandering around sick and trying to find a sad looking hospital. Thank science for antibiotics, which made me want to live again after only a day or so.

A few hours on a bus with surreal scenery and conversing with Megan from Seattle about traffic engineering brought me to Vang Vieng, aka Oakie Paradise. Picture this: sitting in a tube down a dirty river while various makeshift bars compete for your service by trying to one-up each other in massiveness of their rope swings (even Tony would appreciate this.) The trip included some Beer Lao, attempted back flips and a nice new scar on my stomach from a submerged rock. From the sickness and just being out here for so long, I have lost about fifteen pounds, which is actually quite nice because I find myself climbing mountains and rock hopping through caves with a lot more spring in my step than before.

The last stop in Lao was Luang Prabang, an old French town setup amidst green mountains and the maroon Mekong River. I actually stayed here about five days, meeting some of the most interesting world travellers yet, doing some mountain biking, swimming in some waterfalls, etc... I used a lot of the free time here to work on my photography and I might get an SLR for South America and start taking some gallery-quality photos to show off with Dusty's art in San Fran.

Tom

Laos Landscape