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
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