It all started with a flight from Bangkok to Udon Thani, in Northern Thailand. Only an hour long, we were disembarking the plane when the guy decided he was going to try to get out first by pushing past everyone. I let it go thinking, "he must have somewhere really important to be". It turns out, that place was to once again sit beside us as on a bus ride from Udon Thani to the Thailand/Laos border. That's when he blasted the tunes from his laptop, at one point, handing it to me without saying a word. In my travels, I've had some interesting passengers sit beside me, including an old Nepali man who thought it perfectly ok to flip through my newspaper...while I was reading it...but this guy takes the cake. For the first 30 minutes, Meg and I were almost in hysterics...then it got old...then it got annoying...and finally the headaches set in.
Anyway, we crossed the border and it was only another 30 minute drive to the Laos capital city, Vientiane. Known as probably the most laid back capital in the world, Meg and I were loving the idea of going somewhere that was the complete opposite to fast paced life in Bangkok. Although there isn't a whole lot to see in Vientiane, we did check out the National museum (there were signs kindly asking that you not take the various machine guns on display - of which, anyone could have done quite easily), temples, and Mekong River. We met some interesting monks who were quite happy to converse with us, discussing their lives as monks and our homes in Canada.
The highlight of our trip came on Saturday, where we'd booked a private kayaking excursion down Nam Lik. It started with our guides teaching us some basics of 2-person kayaking, Meg took the front while I was in back. There weren't many rapids but there was one area that had a big dip and I rolled out the back. Thankfully, I was ok and having the river sweep me downstream was actually quite fun. Meg claims she didn't even know I was gone but I could have sworn she was laughing as she paddled away. :)
We stopped shortly after for lunch. Our guides cooked a fantastic meal over an open fire. Meg and I were both very impressed. Meanwhile, we enjoyed the wonderful scenery and swam in the river. Over lunch, I was fascinated as our guide told us about the bombings in Laos during the 60s-70s by the Americans. To this day, there are still thousands of UXOs (unexploded ordnance) throughout the country (primarily near the Vietnam border) and exploring unmarked paths is considered stupid - don't worry, we were careful not to stray from the roads. With our bellies full, we continued downstream for an hour until we came to a small village where mountain bikes were waiting for us. We proceed to bike through various villages for almost an hour. The children would get so excited, shouting greetings and waving. I would have liked to have stayed longer.
The next day, we explored more of Vientiane and had just enough time to grab a bite to eat at a nice restaurant. Unfortunately, we'd delayed going to an ATM and were without enough cash, fully expecting to use our Visa. However, the lines were all down, not even the ATMs were working so we hung our heads and gave them what cash we had, apologizing profusely. We were officially penniless backpackers. Eventually, we did find a working ATM and swung by the restaurant prior to leaving the city.
That evening, we had to catch a night train from the Laos/Thailand border to Bangkok. Meg has had the pleasure of riding the trains before, I had not, so we decided to give it a shot. It honestly wasn't that bad but there were some big delays and it ended up taking about 16hrs. Yikes!
For more pictures of our trip, check them out here.
