Two Days of Bone Rattling Travel
Time to leave paradise (for now) and head north to Vientiane (505 miles!) by bus. The plan was to break the the 17 hour trip to Vientiane in Tha Khaek to check out a 7 KM river cave. But, it was too expensive ($150 for 2 people) and we decided to skip it and head for Vientiane first thing in the morning.(Map)
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| Ordinary Bus, Laos |
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| Half Ton of Rice |
After a couple of attempts to withdraw some local currency (kip) from an ATM, we had to wait for a local bank to open to do the transaction. With a pocket full of kip, we headed to the bus station to catch a VIP bus to Vientiane. No luck. We missed it by 15 minutes and only “ordinary” buses were making the trip. We coughed up the kip ($ 6.25, 7 hrs) and bordered a beat-up bus with no air conditioner and a half a ton of rice stacked two deep in the bus. To get to a seat, you had to literally climb on the rice sacks and jump in to your seat.
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| Lao Meal, Meatballs? |
At 5:30 PM, we roll into Vientiane, a city with some serious air pollution issues. Covering your nose and mouth while traveling in an open air tuk-tuk was not an option, it was a necessity!
After two days of hard travel, Maya pick one of the most expensive hotels in the city, ($50 a night). Our room was bigger then our first NYC apartment and had a view of the Mekong River!
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| Our Room in Vientiane |
Maya surveyed our surroundings for massages ($6 an hour) and I picked a place for dinner. After two days of eating soup with unidentifiable ingredients, I did what any New Yorker would do – found the best pizza place in Vientiane!
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| Yum - Pizza! |
Time for some Temples
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| Buddha, Buddha, Bill |
In our our only full day in the capital, we decided to take in some temples. The most impressive was Wat Si Saket, which is the oldest in the city and houses over 2,000 silver and ceramic statues of Buddha.
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| Japanese Food in Vientiane |
Japanese Food in Vientiane? Yes, and it was a very good Japanese restaurant (non-sushi). We had the house special and called it a day.
Next port of call Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Damn guys. When you travel, you travel. It makes for great reading, but it seems tiring. Seems like going back to work will be a nice break.
ReplyDeleteYes - the constant on the move and unpacking - repacking our backpacks does get tiring (we moved 12 times already!). But, when we show up at our next destination and drop our bags, its like hitting the "restart" button on the vacation. New people, food, geography & historic sites to explore.
ReplyDeleteStay warm.
Bill & Maya