Adventures in Vientiane

Yep I booked myself onto the 'Kayaking to Vientiane' trip where I met Marco and Bart a Dutch couple and absolutely fantastic fun. We got along so well. Bart kindly mentioned that I was only traveling for 52 weeks, believe me right now one month goes by and it feels like a day. May have to extend this trip after all! I have been invited to The Hague to visit them which will be a lot of fun.

We set off, Maya was there too, happy to speak Dutch for the first time in ages. I decided on a solo kayak, which was a mistake. Thought it would be lighter and therefore faster but I was wrong the kayaks were pretty heavy and it was mighty hard work.

The highlights of the trip were the rapids and a cliff off which jumped into the river. We were told (at the top) that it was a 7 metre drop but five minutes later the guides were giggling in a way only Asian men can (its quite feminine) and they admitted that it was 7mtrs in the wet season. It was more like 10 metres when we jumped! I did it. It felt like my body compressed on impact but it was OK. Marco took great shots of me doing so and they have promised to send me the pics of that and the rapids when they get home in two weeks.

We got into Vientiane at around 6pm. We all had a coffee at JoMa Bakery (God's gift to travelers in Vientiane and Luang Prabang) and then met up for dinner were I had a pizza for the first time in yonks. I'm the kind of person that eats pizza once a year if that.

The next morning I woke up really early with a slight fever and a really awful stomach. I decided to go to the hospital just in case but the docs looked so dodgy I didn't take their advice of antibiotics for a gastric infection. I actually slept most of the rest of the day and watched movies - luckily the town was fully booked when we arrived and so Maya and I joined up and splurged on a $16 twin room which comes with satellite TV, HBO movies, Air Con and a nice western bathroom. Maya left on the 5pm bus to Hanoi and exactly 2 hrs later and suffering from cabin fever I trotted off to an internet cafe. All of a sudden I felt really strange and collapsed. I've never fainted in my life and it felt as how I would imagine it does to be tripping really badly on some hardcore drug. Travelers here take care of each other and within seconds I had the full attention of 4. Eric a cool Marseillous guy with greeny brown eyes who was sitting next to me took care of me by keeping me company whilst I lay down on his bag as a pillow. Someone else bought me water and another pal of mine was offering support through Skype when I was better enough to sit back up. So all in all a very short but really weird episode. The medical services in Laos are the worst in SE Asia, the hospital actually shuts after dark... ummm and the embassies had no listing for a doctor so I called my Doc at home and he told me what out of my med kit to take. Happy again I watched more movies and eventually fell asleep.

Today I rented a bike and wondered around getting to know the city. I bumped into Eric again and we had a drink at the Talat Sao market. He is so funny and very charming. We didn't exchange emails but talked about bumping into each other in Bali or in Oz. It's like that on the road, you really do bump into people you meet, again and again, it's rather sweet just like a little global nomadic village. I quite like it.

Vientiane is an interesting place. The roads around most of the hotels are being rebuilt so there is still more dust. There are loads of mosquitoes and it is really hot. I ate dinner; Bamboo Shoot soup at a Bunmala Restaurant whilst I waited for the monsoon to stop. I was happy, the rain would kill most of the dust for at least a little while. I booked a flight to Hanoi tomorrow. Which means that tomorrow I leave Laos. It is sad as I really have enjoyed my stay and still haven't managed to see it all. Maybe one day I'll come back to visit the South. In the meantime the plan is to whizz through Vietnam and Cambodia (pity pity) and head off to the islands north of Sabah, Borneo. I need to get back to the coast, the sea and the diving. It'll be the season for Hammerheads and Whale Sharks and I can't wait. Jumpy is currently in Ko Tao and I'm really tempted to drop in... but I don't think it will be realistic to head back into Thailand, let's see what happens.

... wait a second Maya just appeared!!! Bet she'll have a story to tell!