Life in the slow lane

Hello again,

Another note, probably a briefer one this time, as I'm passing time until my bus goes down to Pakxe. I'm now in Vientiane, the capital of the Lao PDR, and sleepy is an insufficiently descriptive word for the place. In the time since last I wrote, I've seen the madness of the final day of the Ban Sum Awk (sp?) festival in Luang Phabang, involving carrying lots of ceremonial boats made of bamboo and paper and covered in candles (I know, sounds like a recipe for disaster) down to the river, lighting the candles, and setting them loose to float down the Mekhong. All while fireworks and firecrackers go off all around you (with some of the local boys taking vindictive pleasure in throwing them right next to falangs). Ironically, the festival is supposed to celebrate the retreat of the rains at the end of the Wet season, so the monsoonal downpour that kicked in just as it finished up was guilty of slightly bad timing!

The rain then proceeded to play merry hell with the plans I had, together with Giles and Jane (an English couple), Lukas and Katrin (a Swiss couple) and Caroline and Marieke (the two Dutch girls I mentioned in my last mail) - all off the slow-boat I took into Luang Phabang - to go and see the Kuang Si waterfalls the next day. In the end, we did get there in the early afternoon, but only had about an hour there before the rain kicked back in, and the water was running very high (and very brown, due to all the silt being washed down), so the swimming holes were a real no-no. Bit of a shame. Though I did get to feed a tiger (who has an enclosure there after being rescued from poachers), which is something you don't do every day.

On leaving Luang Phabang, I headed down on the "Express VIP" bus to Vang Vieng. The quotation marks are because, unlike many of the VIP buses in Malaysia and Thailand, this one was below the standard I'd expect even of National Express, it had severe difficulties finding 2nd gear at times, and generally creaked along the road in a slightly unnerving fashion. The scenery on the drive was spectacular, though, as we made our way through the mountains of north-central Laos - mist-shrouded peaks and outcroppings, draped in emerald-green forest, with rivers snaking through valleys and gorges below. Gorgeous.

Vang Vieng is similarly blessed in the looks department (at least in terms of its surroundings), nestling on a river in a valley flanked by mountains and interrupted by occasional limestone outcroppings rising suddenly from the river's floodplains. If you've seen classical pictures of Chinese valleys with big knife-edge rocks sticking out of them, well, that's what this is rather like. Except that they've turned the village/town there into a tourist centre. Infamously, most of the restaurants/cafes in town serve almost exactly the same food and drinks, at almost the same prices, and all of them either show DVD movies or (more often) perpetual DVDs of Friends or The Simpsons. "Happy" shakes and pizzas (generally featuring interesting varieties of mushroom) also abound. It's all a bit of a shame, really. Amusingly, though, the town bus station is on a disused airfield just behind the main development, which you walk across to get into town.

The first day there, I just chilled out, and ended up meeting up with Giles, Jane, Caroline and Marieke (and a pack of Argentines, also off the slow-boat) at a place called the Smile Island Bar. Which, unsurprisingly, is on an island in the river, reached by a bamboo bridge of uncertain engineering merit (though there are MUCH worse ones in town). There, we sat about, drank a few beers, and played petanque, or boules if you prefer, which was slightly surreal but rather good fun. The second day, we went on an organised trip up to some of the caves north of town (the whole area is limestone-based, with some extraordinary caves), followed by walking through the countryside, followed by tubing down the river. Yes, the number-1 most-popular thing to do in Vang Vieng is to get a bloody enormous tractor inner-tube, and sit in it and float down the river. Beautiful countryside, and the added fun of various riverside bars along the way, who will happily stick out bamboo poles, pull you into shore, and then ply you with beer and attempt to persuade you to use the various zip-lines, swings and platforms which have the common denominator of you ending up in the river, from various heights. Unfortunately, we were running slightly late by this point, so only had time to sample the first couple of these, but it was good fun (even just to watch - I only used the first zip-line, before my usual aversion to getting dunked in water re-asserted itself).

The day after that, my now-regular companions and I chartered a minivan to get us down to Vientiane (accompanied by our driver singing along to Madonna!?!), where I have been the last couple of days, most of which have been spent doing not very much. Notable things I have done are pretty much limited to exploring the Morning Market (the biggest in Laos, dealing with everything from eggs to silk fabrics, to washing machines, via the usual food stands and T-shirt vendors "Hey mistah! You want T-Shirt? We got XL!") and going to see the Patuxai (Victory Monument), a huge 1960s concreted arch, modelled vaguely on the Arc de Triomphe, which I climbed to get views over the capital (what there is of it). Amusingly, the interior floors of the Patuxai are also now given over to souvenir and T-shirt stalls.

So, tonight I head down to southern Laos, on an overnight bus (I keep vowing off these, and end up taking them again!). And I've just realised that I'll be home in 8 weeks' time. 56 days until I'm back in the UK. My, how time does fly!

On that note, those of you in the UK, I shall probably be having some kind of celebration for my birthday soon after I get back - either the weekend directly after (the 16th/17th December) or between Xmas and New Year (maybe the 28th?). Said celebration to happen in Cambridge (depending on numbers, possibly in dear, sleepy old Caldecote). Anyone wanting to attend and having strong feelings one way or the other on date, do please let me know. That said, I'll probably pop down to London town at some point, and also over to Brizzle, so I will hopefully catch up with more of you then.

Until next I write, take care and have fun!

Pat