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Its officially a week since I became a full-time traveller/ bum and I've already got bits of string tied around my wrist, some colourful mosquito bites (they love me) wild hair like Monica from Friends on that holiday, and have sipped cheap cocktails from a kids plastic bucket. I have well and truly embraced the culture of South East Asia.
So it turns out that rainy season here lasted a little longer than we'd anticipated, which curtailled our plans to go South to Ko Chang island in Thailand.. instead we decided to escape the torrential rain and go North into Laos. Had a lovely day sightseeing in Bangkok first though, taking in the Grand Palace, a lot of Buddhas, swapping cheeky smiles with the monks who are everywhere and mostly somewhat fascinated by us it would seem, bartering with street vendors and tuk tuk drivers, some more temples and lots of yummy street food.
Along the way to Laod several 'firsts' have been added to our ever-expanding list; we saw some Ladyboys leaving our hotel early one morning wearing the clothes from the night before, clutching handfuls of cash.. nice. Also we did our first long long (14 hours) bus journey from Bangkok, which at one point almost got stuck when we drove through a flooded town - a river had just burst its banks and people were waist-deep in water, which was flowing rapidly through the streets. In typical fashion, our bus driver was unconcerned and ploughed straight through the murky waters, leaving us exchanging worried glances with the other sleepy backpackers. We pulled over in the middle of the night at a restaurent (well, a roadside shack which served gelatinous meat in oil) and had our first experience of a squat toilet. More worried looks and lots of giggles from us and the nice girlies we met on the bus. Massages have become just about our favourite thing and we figure if we acrue three 'firsts' we can treat ourselves to a massage. So far we're getting quite a long list :)
Having arrived in the Laos capital, Vientiane, I was thrilled to discover that its French influence extended to the food - croissants, hurrah! Western food here is generally pretty grim, expensive and tasteless (had a disgusting 2inch deep pancake yesterday) but the croissants were delicious. We treated ourselved to a nice hotel in the middle of town and explored. It took about 20mins - for a capital city Vientiane is tiny! But lovely; Laos people are so nice. We feel like we're making new friends everywhere we go; the lady who runs the guesthouse we're staying in at the moment seems to have taken a shine to us, although we feel a bit like naughty schoolgirls sneaking in after our 11:30 curfew - her family live on a sort of veranda in the entrance so we have to be very quiet as she sleeps outside! Not uncommon apparently - some girls today said that they are sleeping outside under mosquito nets at their hostel - I'm not quite ready to go as basic as that just yet! En suite is still a must for now..). It's very relaxed and friendly here, which was good after the neverending hassle in Bangkok. Photos to follow of us sat grinning by the river, very pleased with ourselves that we found some sunshine.
Another first for me - in Vientiane the tourism trade is still fairly immature, so little kids and schoolgirls would stare at us on the street! They giggled when we said hi, and generally stared (very politely but somewhat incredulously) - making us feel a bit like celebrities! Having enjoyed a very 'friendly' hour long massage for the princely sum of about a pound, we had a gorgeous Laos meal and planned our next move... and here we are in Vieng Vang.
Vieng Vang is a small town along the main road leading from the South to the North; its essentially a backpacker haven now, mostly made up of guest houses, relaxed bars where you can lounge on cushions enjoying smoothies, and stalls selling fake Havianas. After finding a bargainous but lovely room (about one pound fifty each per night) we headed out to sample the local nightlife. And found ourselves surrounded by English people, wearing fisherman trousers and drinking out of buckets. Well if you can't beat them, join them.. Several buckets later we'd made a bunch of new friends and agreed to go tubing the next day.
Tubing is a genius money-making idea; you need one reasonably slowly-flowing river, some tyres, a lot of cheap booze and some silly Westerners. You hire a tyre and get dropped off at the top, drift along the river to find a host of very cheap and friendly bars - the staff throw ropes out to catch you and reel you in. It was hilarious! The river and countryside here are just gorgeous, really lush and green. We met lots of nice people, literally joining a group of about 20 all joined together making a giant raft. Shattered now after a hard day's paddling/ drifting, but have enjoyed a yummy Laos meal and now headed out to Backpacker Bar Central.
I'm considering keeping a section on this blog for charicatures of the different types of traveller, so far we've met a fair few Eternal Travellers, Stoner Couples, Hippies and Gap Yahs. Will try to keep track of their characteristics and give some updates, as we're finding them all hilarious. Cords is horrified by the chav-wear of English men in the sun - footie shirts and trainers. I'm more upset by the dreadlocks...ugh.
Headed to Luang Prabang, further North in Laos, tomorrow to make our way up to the Gibbon Experience. Will blog more soon (hope you're all still awake after that monster post). Anyway we're both fine and enjoying ourselves, fingers crossed we'll get a tan soon and will start posting up photos :)
xx
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