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The journey from Vang Vieng wasnt too bad considering the mixed reports we had heard from various people. We got dropped off in the middle of the city, having a couple of minutes to find our bearings we headed towards where the majority of guesthouses seemed to be. We tried a couple but didnt really like the look of the rooms, bit dingy and dark with a funny smell. Then we came across Mixay Guesthouse, seemed really nice and we got the last room. I'd recommend that guesthouse to anybody visiting Vientiane. That afternoon we had a wander around the city, not that much to do really which is why we booked a bus to Konglor Cave for the following day. Later that night we found a really nice restaurant and had a 'treat night' as we like to call them.. i mean some nights we feel like we're sat in that cafe from the apprentice.. anyways the night consisted of Pizza, wine and beer.
The following morning we got told our bus would pick us up from our guesthouse at 9 - 9.30am, so we got up, packed our bags (yet again), grabbed a crossiant for breakfast and sat waiting.. and waiting.. and waiting.. 9.30am arrived and Peter finally decided to look at the reciept of where we booked the bus and noticed the bus across the road that had been sat there for a good 30 minutes was the same company.. Yes we nearly missed our bus and our connecting bus from the bus station as that left at 10am.
5 hours on a local bus (which are very different to our local buses at home) For one at home you dont have people coming on and trying to sell you chicken legs, chewing gum and biscuits do you? Two you dont see anybody catching the bus with baskets of fish and three it was more like a disco with local music blarring out. Apart from all this which at the time we thought were hilarious the bus journey wasnt that bad.
We arrived in Konglor villiage, there was about 9 tourist all together and nobody had a clue what was happening. There was nothing in the villiage and people were just stood there waiting for each other to make a move. It wasnt until the two of us got onto the phone speaking to a local for directions to the only decent guesthouse in the village, we set to and everybody followed.. what would they have done without us??
The guesthouse was nice but very basic, with just having mattresses on the floor and a tiny resturant.. we couldn't complain.. we were in the middle of nowhere!!
Up bright and early the next morning and got to the cave for about 8am, when it opened. We hired a boat with a driver, flashlights at the ready and Peter's flip flops taped to his feet with duck tape.. looking like a silly billy if i do say so myself. What makes this cave so special is that it is 7.5km long and when we entered the cave it was all natural.. none of this over the top with lights to make it look like santa's grotto. I seriously dont know how they manage to navigate so well in pitch black conditions with just a flashlight on their heads. At some points we had to get out and walk because the water was to shallow for the boat. On the otherside its complete peaceful wilderness.. and then we had to go back.
After making our way back to the guesthouse to collect our bags we arranged for a tuk tuk to take us to the nearest town so we could catch the local bus back to vientiane.. only we couldnt catch the bus from the town.. we had to take another tuk tuk to the main junction.. 2 whole hours in the back of a tuk tuk isnt the comfiest way to travel. We got to the junction and flagged the first public bus down heading north.. what a mistake that was!! We have never in our entire lives seen anything so bizarre. The majority of the seats were taken up with ceramic tiles, mattresses, plates etc .. as tho they had all been for a day out at Ikea. Every stop took at least 20 minutes as they had to unload all there shopping. The journey was made worse with the driver thinking he was Lewis Hamilton, must not have realised he was in a shed of a bus.. must of been making up for lost time.
We then had two more nights in Vientiane, one involving a mad dash to an internet cafe at 11.30pm practically in our pj's to make an international call to who we had booked our flight to Hanoi with, as at 11pm Peter finally decided to check his emails.. good job he did as our flight time had been moved. The second night we had a nice relaxing Lao massage.. far better than the thai one we had. We also arranged for a tuk-tuk man to pick us up at our guesthouse at 9.30am the following morning to take us to the airport...
Wednesday 7th December, the day we were flying to Hanoi, the tuk- tuk man stayed true to his word and wasnt only there for 9.30 am .. he was only bloody there and waiting at 8.50am .. Off to the airport we went.
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