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Laos to Malaysia!
Yesterday we had made the journey from Luang Prabang back to the capital, Vientiane. We had booked a ticket to go on the 'Special V.I.P' bus in the hope that it would be in better condition than the bus that had brought us to Luang Prabang. This bus had broken down 5 times, extending the journey by about 5-6 hours to 11 hours. Even worse, was the horrendously scary and hair raising experience as we broke down on a section of road that had caved in and we had to free roll backwards out the way, the sheer drop chillingly visible!!
Anyway, this bus did look safer and even managed to depart on time (9am) with the added luxury of complementary bottles of water, not bad!! We had been told this journey would only take 8 hours but we were yet to be convinced considering the trip from Luang Prabang to Vangvien (the town in between L.P and Vientiane) was supposed to be this.
The bus didnt stop for at least 4 hours and it stopped for people to get food. These places are not exactly service stations, rather people's own shops with outdoor cooking stoves! Our bus entitled us to a free lunch/drink. Caz made a friend with a furry dog after she dropped food and he ate it! These stops really are an experience and I took a few pics to remember them.
The bus didnt stop again until we reached Vangvien, as we estimated 8 hours later. Quite a few people got off the bus here which allowed us to spread out over more seats and stretch out - we needed this after seating for so long!
We arrived in to Vientiane at 8:45pm and took a tuk tuk with other travellers to try and find a guesthouse. There was a group of French travellers who seemed to be having some trouble in communicating with the driver of our bus. We asked if we could help and found that they had actually booked tickets to take them all the way to Pakse (southern Laos near the Cambodian border) tonight, the connecting bus being in Vientiane. However there was no sign of this bus and the Laos seemed to be saying that it had already gone, they had missed it due to our bus being late and to get the one tomorrow. Those poor people - they hadnt planned on staying a night in Vientiane so had nothing booked (although neither did we!) but had no idea what time they were supposed to get the bus the next morning! It does sum up our experience here in Laos, the poor organisation and scheduling of things.
We tried to get a room at the Phonepaseuth guesthouse where we had previously stayed but they were full, and this was the case for the next 2-3 places. We were starting to worry slightly, I wondered whether we woud have to go and camp out at the airport for tomorrows journey! However we walked down a side street we recognised and found somewhere for 150,000kip (12pounds, expensive but we took it as there were no other options).
It was nearing 10pm and as there is a curfew in Laos we hurried out to try and get food before everywhere shut. We also had to quickly print off the flight itinery which we'd forgotton to do. On the way back to the questhouse we passed a hunched over women who was making some strange gargling noises. We scared each other by saying that she may be putting a curse on us and were imagining the grudge! We quickly made it back the guesthouse and the night attendent at reception saw tghe looks on our faces and started laughing, wondering what had made us like that. He probably thought we were the crazy ones as we pointed out the door. He went out to look and said he couldnt see anything which made us more scared but then he spotted the woman and said she was actually dumb and could not communicate properly?
It was an early start this morning, 6am, so that we could grab some breakfast and catch a tuk tuk to Wattaya airport, Vientiane. On the way to the airport we spotted a monk waiting at a bus stop with a fag hanging out his mouth?! And further along a motorcyclist had crashed into someone and spilled all her shopping on the floor causing commotion.
At the check in desk I was the first to put my bag on the scales. At Newcastle my bag had been the lightest at 13kg but it now came to 15.16kg - goodness knows how i've gained that weight? Mels whose bag weighed in at 19kg, now only weighed 13kg?? The check-in procedure consisted of a guy marking down on a bit of paper our booking and writing on a sticker our bag number against that booking, hmmm. Then when boarding was announced there was a huge stampeed to the gate, people were practically running down the corridor to get to the plane because seats had not been assigned. we found all of this hilarious to watch and tried to dodge the bags and pushing.
We flew with Air Asia, which someone had told us is our equivalent to Jet2.com. It was fine and the flight flew by.
We arrived into Kuala Lumpur at 13:40, it is an hour ahead of Laos time, making it 8 hours ahead of the UK. We had no problems at all getting through customs, it took literally a couple of minutes if that (a stark contrast to the Thai-Laos border which was over an hour). One of thefirst things we had all noticed was the humidity again. Laos air was warm but not humid or close which had been refreshing after Thailand, but here we were back in it again. As we left the arrivals area we fell into a McDonalds, really we did and so stopped for something to eat! The meat must be Hallal as there were many muslims also eating in there. It was a bit of a mission trying to get a seat with such big bags, negotiating the narrow lanes between tables.
We took a bus from the airport to the central station which took an hour. It gave us a chance to see the scenery. There are vast forests of palm trees growing coconuts which soon turned into row upon row of identical terraced houses that were all completely empty?
At the central station we followed signs for the monorail. A tourist guide had advised to go to either Chinatown or Bukit Bintang to look for accommodation. The monorail seemed like a good way to get there and take in more of Kuala Lumpur. We sussed out the line to take (looks very similar to the London underground pictures) adn bought a ticket then queued up on the platform for the train. We felt like we stood out like a sore thumb amoungst the crowd and a lot of people were looking at us, maybe out of curiousity, im not sure.
We got off at Burkit Bintang and got the map out to try and locate the direction to go. At this point a man came over who was Australian and offered us directions and where best to stay. It turned out to be one that I'd read about, 'Bedz KL'. We had a quick look at the dorm on offer and checked-in. Its a fairly new hostel and really nice, although the rooms are quite small. As we passed our passports over at the check-in, the guy exclaimed that I looked like Milla Jovovich, eek, glad I dont look like my passport photo anymore!
After settling in we went out to explore. The city is bustling and racing with activity and instantly raised our excitement. It reminds me of Tokyo with all the bright lights and advertisements everywhere. We laughed as we crossed the road when the green man flickered up because it was animated and looked like he was running, which you almost have to do here to get across in time!
This is terrible but we spotted a Topshop sign on one of the big shopping malls and went in to have a good look at the clothes and unfortunately made a few purchases that im now wondering how on earth they're going to fit in my bag....
As we came back out onto the street there was a huge crowd gathered around a band. It was a group playing the drums and didgareedoo and people in the crowd had joined in by street dancing! It was good fun to watch and a good end to the night.
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