Step ladders made out of bamboo, dogs wandering the streets and beautiful scenery:
The bus ride from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng had been slow. Another oldster at the wheel 🙁 The four-hour journey took 6.5 hours.
Sticky rice is a really good discovery. Best served in bamboo, sealed with banana leaf and coconut bark, it lasts for up to a week. Perfect as a healthy snack on the go:
Toilet stop near a view point. And when I opened they toilet door, this is what I saw:
Surely the best view from a slammer in Asia, if not the world..?
A second stop half an hour later, where the driver pulled up, left the engine running and suddenly disappeared. No explanation, nothing. Same story my whole trip – they’re good at many things, but telling people what’s going on isn’t one of them. We waited, and then I went to find him. He was tucking into sticky rice. I guess that meant a lunch stop, then 😉
Bamboo scaffolding still fascinates me, but with a dearth of metal it’s a resourceful solution. Just looks odd to my first-world eyes:
Vang Vieng is renowned as the party capital of Laos. But look the other way and you’ll see spectacular natural scenery. People I’d spoken to seemed to either love or hate the place. Tubing is the activity of choice. At its most innocent, this involves floating down the river in an inflated tractor inner tube. But backpackers punctuate it with stops at riverside bars where copious amounts of alcohol are consumed. Add hanging ropes over water of varying depth and it’s not surprising that the fatality rate of tourists in the area is ridiculously high. Authorities have tried to turn the place around (for instance, apparently they prohibited venues from calling themselves “bars” which may explain the numerous “restaurants” in town). On my original schedule I didn’t have time to detour, but now I had a few days to spare I was looking forward to making my own mind up on the place:
That it was touristy goes without saying. But it wasn’t as bad as I’d been led to believe (or maybe I’m becoming more of a party animal in my old age), although there may well have been another side to the place that bypassed me completely. Either way, I’m not complaining.
I saw lady boys for the first time on my trip which was cool. Self-confident, exuberant and, er, “top-heavy”, they’re easy to spot. I’d always assumed that they were males who aspired to be female (and who can blame them? 😉 ), but I think they’re actually males who want to be lady boys: they clearly liked attention and seemed comfortable that they’re so identifiable. Or maybe those were just the ones I noticed…
Random stuff from today includes the man in the mini mart who reached in front of me and put his beer on the counter. The sales assistant then, naturally, picked them up and started putting them through the till. “Oh no, no, no”. I actually said this. He looked only marginally embarrassed at his rudeness, and backed off without a fight. Brazenness like this just wouldn’t happen in England. Not in a mini mart, anyway.
And the second incident of note was the hotel member of staff who just walked into my room. She wanted to sort the air conditioner, but there no knock and she didn’t even register me when she entered. It was like she thought she was invisible. She wasn’t. I think it’s a manifestation of the submissiveness that seems a more common trait here. A stark contrast to the mini mart man. On average, they would be about right, maybe?!