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Sunday
After a nice lie in and me having a funny conversation with the other half who in being 7 hours behind was a bit drunk from a night out. I was set up in a great mood for the day and we packed our stuff up before setting out to go for a walk along the riverside. After a visit to a little coffee shop we found a shop selling English books. I'd finished my book Charl had bought me, 'The accidental husband' and went for, 'The woman who fell in love for the week' - usual romcom type I like and then a spiritual one since I've been missing my Buddhism reading out here (despite being reminded of it everywhere in the culture), called 'Awakening the Buddhist heart'.
We said goodbye to our hostel and headed for the airport which was extremely close. I was annoyed I'd left my Nivea suncream which I'd not long bought. It was a tiny bottle that had cost £11, I should know this being a frequent flyer but I didn't think the same liquid rules applied out here as they never checked anything the last two times we flew (mistake not to be made again). We boarded the plane (vietnam airlines) and it was a much bigger one to the last we'd been on in which there were only about 10 of us on it. I was really content reading a magazine about things to do in Cambodia when we were told we were going to land. I looked at the time and we had taken longer than expected already anyway.
What Lauren and I experienced next was like something out of a horror film. I've experienced turbulence before quite a few times however it's always been when we could see what's going on and in daylight. I felt the plane immediately jolting and we both kept being thrown out of our seats. Looking out of the window, it was thick cloud and all I could see was the wing which I was sat in-line with wobbling up and down, it was pitch black but then the plane kept being lit up, which was when I could see heavy rain falling. It wasn't until 2 minutes later I realised we were in the middle of a storm and it was lightening highlighting the plane and the sky all around us. The flight driving wasn't calming but getting worse and the cloud was so thick I didn't know how close to the ground we were. I began to panic and looked at Lauren and kept asking what was going on, thankfully she adopted the mother role and took my hand, started stroking it and told me to look at her and was telling me it would be ok but I could tell by her face when she looked past me out of the window that nothing was becoming clearer. I kept asking if she could see the ground yet. About 10 minutes of jolting around later (which had felt like a lifetime of my eyes being closed taking deep breaths), we broke through the cloud and out of the storm. I glanced back out the window and could just see the whole sky being lit up and still felt shook up. Even when the wheels touched the ground the place was sliding around. Both Lauren and I couldn't have been happier to step off it, and the pilot was even stood in the doorway discussing with his copilot and the flight attendants.
When we were trying to sort our visas (which Lauren was annoyed was all being dealt with very inefficiently) I spotted a bag which had just been left in a corner. Still shook up from the plane I had visions of this being a bomb. I start asking if it is anyone's and then tell the people behind the visa desk who said to just leave it and I went on my way wondering how long it would be before someone dealt with it. Next was a crazy tuk tuk ride where which was quite fun apart from when he was going the wrong way up a tight hill one-way street in rush hour.
We got to our hostel 'Happy house 19' (they were playing the premier of the hunger games mocking jay part 1, we were devastated it was near the end) and were led to the 5th floor which was 8 flights of stairs up. The room which wasn't very comfortable, I had a fan on the wall next to me I kept hitting in my sleep and the wifi didn't work upstairs. I will say thought that the staff were very friendly and they had a massive DVD collection downstairs which had good seating for lots of people to watch.
I already felt happy to be in Cambodia as within a couple of hours of being there the people were very smiley and friendly - something I had experienced in Vietnam but we seemed to have missed in Laos.
To do a short summary on Laos:
- The Gibbon experience was a real tester on my health which proved I'm extremely unfit and need to get back to a gym. Our motto whilst hiking however was, 'if David Attenborough can do it, we can' despite us failing to see any wildlife.
- I also felt very emotionally exhausted for this experience and about a week after whilst recovering so I'm sorry if anyone wanted to give me a slap reading any of the blogs because reading them back, I wanted to slap myself....
- I got used to kip quicker than Vietnamese dollars, 12,000 kip to the £
- End of Buddhist lent was my favourite time spent in Laos and the pretty city of Luang Prabang
- Shocking sight - how long the locals nails are...
- Where I'd have like to have gone if we had more time: 4,000 islands down the south part
- I ate more western food here and less street food which I felt a bit bad about but it is what the main availability is wheras Vietnam wasn't like that
- I've missed using chopsticks as they use cutlery more, again more western influenced
- I loved meeting all the wonderful characters of the beasty hearts and will miss being called 'Steve' which I now naturally respond to.
- The weather was beautiful and I got lots of relaxation time here
Thanks for having us Laos xxxx
- comments
Doreen Thomson I'm glad your keeping up with your reading in between adventures ! OMG wen you told me about your flight I was horrified! You must hav been terrified .. Still you made it phew! .. I saw the naughty nick Photos lightweight lol .. Looking forward to your next blogs in Cambodia .. Love and miss you will be there with you before you know it. Big hugs ❤️❤️❤️Xxx