Off to Vietnam

We got up about 8:00AM, Court and I went for breakfast, and then packed our stuff, and lounged on the verandah.

About 11:30, the four of us went to a buffet place, an all you can eat for 20,000kip ($2US). I never ate, because I had just had breakfast. It was Sri-Lankan/Indian food.

AFter lunch, we went to a restaurant that had BBC on and watched the war coverage. Courtney then went to the internet, then we all met back at the guest house, Sapir and Jasmine went their way (they were heading into south Laos) and Court and I took a tuk-tuk to the Sihom guest house, and collect our passports/visa and where the bus was going to pick us up for Vietnam. There, we showered, read the newspapers, watched BBC, then went for supper and back to teh guest house.

The mini-bus picked us up shortly after 6:00, stopped at a few other guest houses, then took us to the bus. Not much of a bus, tight seats, they don't recline, a really crappy tape audio stereo system, no toilet...it sucks. And it's a smoking bus. The bus took us to a vacant lot, and we waited and waited while more and more locals showed up for the bus. This is definately not a tourist bus. The bus finally left about 8:00PM. The bus was not full, Court and I each got 2 seats to ourselves. At one point, a local grabbed a mat that was stored in the baggage compartments above the seats, and laid it out in the aisle of the bus and went to sleep. At about 1:30AM, we stopped at a cafe somewhere, and we got off to eat. None of the falang ate, because they didn't have any english menus, or recognize anything, then about 2:00AM, everyone got back on bus, the bus driver shut the door, grabbed a blanket and a seat and went to sleep!! Mmm, that was it. Sleep time.

So, we all curled up and went to sleep.

About me getting skinny. The problem is manyfold. I'm not getting the meals and nutrition I'm so used to getting, lots of meat!!! Plus, in Laos, I've been getting the runs quite a bit, which I'm sure doesn't help. Also, portions in Laos are not all that big. And I get sick of rice and vegetables after a while, and just don't want any more, and price of real meat (if it's real meat at all), is prohibitively expensive, and/or just plain gross. I had a big burger a couple of nights ago, and it tasted awful (Jasmine had one too, and he didn't like his either.) For supper last night, I had chicken fried rice, and was still hungry after, but not for rice, or chicken, or veggies. So, I had a chocolate sundae, which was small and quite expensive, relatively speaking, and was still hungry. I realized after that the only thing that would fill me up was a big steak.

When we were at the sauna yesterday, I was talking to one of the locals there, and mentinoed about my watch, how I had bought it in Vang Vieng and how it all kinds of condensation in it, and I couldn't read it. He laughed, and the lady working there asked to see my watch too, so I showed her, and she started laughing. She tells me it's a cheap Chinese watch, that's why it's like that, then she asked me how much I paid, I told her 25000 kip, and laughed some more, and said, "too much, too much, no more than 10,000 kip". Oh well.

During the basketball match yesterday, I noticed that all the locals wear "Western" shirts (Nike, Converse, Toronto Raptors, etc.), and all the falang wear Laos shirts of some sort (Beerlao is popular, and also shirts with Lao flags and country on it).

Thoughts on Laos:
Very nice country, scenery wise. Beautiful views and mountains and waterfalls. People are generally friendly, and I remember, as we were heading for the border, I was staring off into the nighttime as Laos passed, and I was kind of sad, realizing this was the last time I may ever see Laos, ever in my entire life. I liked Laos, it was quite primitive in many respects, and very different than Thailand, but still very interesting.

Goodbye to you Laos. (Sniffle)