So I came back to Vientiane and now I have this fk'd up coughing thing and its driving me insane. Im feeling down because hey I've just partied my last party for a month, am sick, and am on my lonesome again in Vientiane and I also have to go back to work on a saturday. Work wasn't too bad but I hadn't started shooting yet and theirs not much to edit if theirs not much shot.
Saturday ended up being a bit ridiculous and my body was literally not ready to even be awake let a lot at my computer processing thoughts into ideas. I did manage to do a bit of work, make plans to shoot on sunday early and then get out by 1pm and go home and pass out.
Sunday I was up early and was shooting mushrooms at the farm by 8am. wow, way too early for me but it did feel really good to finally get something in the can. It is why I'm here after all so progress is progress. Its interesting to see how the mushrooms were made. They use saw dust and then mix it with the fungus which they pack into a 1.25 litre coke bottle like plastic bag. They then stack them into rows and rows and have a little opening at the top. The fungus grows and after 3 months it starts shooting out mushrooms. (non hallucinogenic mushrooms that is)
They have 2 types. Oyster mushrooms which are brown and white mushrooms. The Oyster ones bloom more in the hotter rainy season and the white ones in the cool season. Both very popular with the market and hence yield a good return. They said that they can generate 100kg or mushrooms a day. Amazing.
We got some of the farmer which is had later in a soup Souly cooked up for me. I would say that it was nice which it was. very healthy and probably the healthiest thing I've eaten since I got to Asia but she dumped a million chillies into it and my mouth burnt like crazy with ever bite. Damn you mum for punishing me with chillies when I was a child. My chilli tolerance is considerably pathetic for an asian. Souly even said con, your asian, you should be able to handle chilli. Nope. I suck. and everytime I feel a little guilty.
At the end of the day I felt good I had actually done some work whilst sick at the same time. Jules came in that night and we ended up having dinner with 2 swedish guys we partied with in Vang Vieng but its was a much more quieter sombre occasion for a bunch of veteran backpackers all nursing their war wounds. No rest for the wicked as they say.
After what I considered to be quite a nice sunday at the Buddha Park chillin out, going for a ride, being one with the city its streets and its people I get back to the core of Vientiane. I had to take my bike back and was also quite hungry after my 50km ride. After returning my bike which I hired @ $US10 a day. boo. I was returning home and in the near distance I saw what I knew was Julians bright orange backpack (same backpack as mine) in the group of about 10 young girls. Ha! thats so Julian I though and casually walked up and introduced myself to everyone. What was really going through my head was "ooooooh yeah, its tubing time baby!!!" and holy fuck I need to get out of work for the next week.
Julian and the girls had just gotten off the epic 24 hours bus ride from Hanoi over the mountains and were off to Vang Vieng tomorrow for some epic partying. We all went out and has a very very nice dinner, mine being a great pad thai, quiet drink and then and early night.
I managed to get work off, thanks Souly, Your a champ! and then raced back, booked my ticket and got my stuff ready for what I knew was to be a the last of my partying in South East Asia. Kinda like the storm before the calm. The trip wasn't too bad, it was pretty much the whole group and myself and two other people that were on the same bus from Hanoi. They had decided to swim in the Mekong River not knowing that it was the border with Thailand and when they came up to the beach were welcomed by National Guards and Ak-47's. They spent the night in Gaol and were released the next morning to go tubing. Good story to tell the kids hey. :D
Vang Vieng is what you have to consider the backpackers mecca in South East Asia. It supports a river with a lot of bars along it that gives you free shots of whisky (bad laos whisky), cheap buckets, a lot of drunk backpackers, swings into the river which at first look quite dangerous but after a few leaps you realise the river has been dug pretty deep and for what its most famous for tubing. You can actually hire a tube and go down the river but most people recommend that you don't on the first day and that you just go party. You end up finding that you tube about 50meters from Qbar (the first bar when you cross the bridge, and the little swing) all the way through to bar1, bar2, bar 3 and I think bar4. You forget how to count after bar 3.
I saw a lot of people with slings in their arms and 1 or 2 that were considerably dangerously passed out in the river, but other then that most of the injuries seemed to be cuts and bruises from falling, playing soccer or rocks on the river. I did hear that 1 person dies every year in Vang Vieng and that 2 died while I was there but I didn't know about any of that.
leaving PG area now!!!
Day 1/4 we got there pretty late and so we kinda missed the river party because it all ends around 6 when it gets dark. So we check into the hotel. about 2 bucks a night and found the nearest restaurant which by no coincidence happened to sell "Happy" foods. and by happy I mean it had a lot of weed in it. Cmon its Vang Vieng its what people do there, as well as buckets and Shrooms :P We all hooked ourselves into a Happy shake. mine being banana. It pretty much tasted like a blended banana and shredded ice, and I didn't really think it did anything at all. We all got food *insert blank food memory here* and then the owner. nice chap offered us a free joint because hey, we ordered a shipload of food from him.
The first hit of that joint was like holy crap the shake has just kicked in. I have not been that stoned since… well a while. maybe camping. It was also the bushiest weed I've ever had, no hydro here. At some point the Jules, Ben lily and Emma were heading off to the Irish bar for beer and pool. I was meant to go but the girls were keen for another joint (or 2) and I just could not resist. I was meant to join Jules for a beer later but 2 hours had passed and well.. still hadn't moved. Quite alot of fun in the end. The whole experience brought back so many mixed nostalgic memories. It made me think of being in high school for one when I used to smoke alot. But the weird thing was that it made me miss my girls. This group of girls, so young, happy to be travelling the world and partying, getting high in Asia somewhere :D good times!
Oh well, nothing last forever. So for the next three day we hit up the river. And to break it down into a shorter less detailed version of the events the went like this
Day 2 : River. Awesome day
Day 3 : River. chesh running @ 50%
Day 4 : River. last day of party. went to far. blacked out somewhere around the took took. came too and was wearing my jeans instead of my swimming shorts. was now at Qbar on the main street sick as a dog and Jules feeding me a Baguette. Spent the rest of it recovering with joints at the smoking restaurant and was in dire need of passing out.
After the high life partying we were doing in Nha Trang it was about time to give my body a rest whether I knew it or not. The 10 hour bus ride to Saigon followed by the 3 hour (stop off in Cambodia for an hour) flight to Vientiane was enough for me to sleep for a day or 2. I pretty much spent 2 whole days just sleeping and recovering from the week long partying and travel.
I got sorted into Vientiane pretty nicely. setup my apartment which is fairly spacious and cool. Air con, stove and kitchenette area, hot water and western toilet. Pretty snazzy for asia. I started to venture out into the streets knowing I had time to spare and felt like a beer. I found several nice restaurants and have eaten quite a lovely array of delicious foods but when it comes so socialising, meeting new people and partying the town is the polar opposite to Nha Trang. In Nha trang it was easy, tourists everywhere which is a good and bad thing but bars specifically dedicated to catering to foreigners. Here the bars and clubs are small and quiet. There seems to be a neverending supply of couples and those that are travelling here are quite anti social at first.
Being on my own for the first time I think I am coming across some of those challenges of being lonely and not knowing a person in the world. Sure I know my boss but other then that I'm out here on my own. There are positives to this whole phenomenon too. I get time alone. Life out here it a lot slower and laid back then you think. People say Australians are laid back. hell no in comparison to here. This is the capital city and its more laid back then wagga is.
I did hire a bicycle. ie foot powered push bike, a freewheel one with no gears. NO GEARS!!!!.omfg. after one day to work I realised yep. I am that lazy and so I hired a scooter instead. I have to say I'm a fan. I love it. driving out to work. putting along at 60km/h. Sooo much fun. The fuel efficiency is amazing too.
So its sunday and I hired this scooter, 10 bucks a day for the weekend until I get my other bike from the hotel @ 5 bucks a day. I went out and got drunk with a japanese guy Yoh, a Spaniard Jose, and a french canadian guy Peter. I did plan on going out to the Buddha Park yesterday being saturday but I was being lazy that day. They told it was cool so I figured I've paid for the scooter I better used it and decided to drive out there. The park was 25km outside of the city. a massive 50km there and back. the longest I've ever driven a bike was 3km and that was to work on friday, and before that was about 100 meters on pats scooter in the future car park.
The road to the Buddha Park started by driving past the SEDA office. The road was quite and flat, luckily the spaniard told me that I should take the left at the roundabout which Im sure saved me an hour. Being of little experience bike riding wise, I didn't really take into account that i was about to ride 50+ kms. The last 20km was quite interesting considering that the pitchmen road all but disappeared and the was replaced with dirt, pot holes, and mud. Kind of fun on a scooter.
The Buddha Park itself once I finally arrived was quite bizarre and cool. They architect mixed Buddhism, Hinduism and the local Serpent Deity worship together into some weird funland. There were angels mixed in with serpent bodied shivas. Buddhas sitting on coiled serpent bodies and5 headed serpents hovering above them. There is a massive pumpkin like concrete construction with 3 levels that you can crawl inside of and then on top of for a great view, while the belly is filled with small serpent offspring. I have to say and i do think I'm biased but i personally liked the armoured monkey the best. Now, where is my warsow. :D
