Life in slow motion

Tomorrow i leave Laos and head out to Thailand having had to curtail my trip somewhat due to the fact i have to collect my passport from the Myanmar embassy in the capital Vientiane. I'm kind of a bit gutted at not being able to make it to the really far north of Laos especially as the whole effort for Myanmar could be wasted if there election goes to pot.

The last two weeks have taken some getting used to as the pace of life here is something to be seen to be believed. It wasn't helped in the beginning as my first introduction to Laos was waiting for an age at the side of the road for a connecting bus after having to pay extra (bribe) to officials in order to get into the country. Starving i make it to the beautiful island of Don Det in the middle of the Mekong where josh and i obtained a river front bungalow complete with balcony and hammock. The view was immense and lying listening to the sounds of the river, beer in hand is what Laos is all about. You soon realise that nothing happens quickly especially food as we were left waiting 1 hour for fried rice which is normally the fastest thing on the menu. We thought this might just be the nature of the island but no its the same absolutely everywhere. It might sound like the perfect place but honestly its gone too far in the opposite direction, its nice for a few days but when you have a limited time frame its frustrating. Its rare that anyone can summon the energy to get out of their hammock let alone get around to driving the bus!!

Anyways we met two dutch girls and two aussies on the bus over the border from cambodia and the next couple of days we spent riding around our island as well as the neighbouring Don Khong which has some jungle trails and a pretty cool waterfall. Following this Josh and i parted ways which was wierd as it is by far the longest time i have ever spent travelling with anybody on the whole trip. After six months of meeting new people every couple of days it was nice to have a permanent fixture rather than being bored or having to seek out somebody to talk to. Fortunately the two aussies louis and jesse were heading the same way as me and we grabbed a bus up to the Bolaven plateau which towers over the south of Laos. Some of the best coffee in the world comes from up here and it was pretty good, especially accompanying the view from our bungalow overlooking the tad lo waterfall. Theres not a great deal to do on the plateau although we did manage to do a days hike through some thick jungle in a national park that has tigers although not suprisingly we didnt see them. The buses in laos really arnt cheap at all so we resorted to hitch hiking something none of us had tried before. Little tip for laos: if you can, hitch everywhere, we never waited for longer than 10 minutes and everyone was really friendly. Also theres not much better than watching a laos sunset from the flatbed of a yute.

Having already spent two nights in the dirty, seedy hole that is paxong (we stayed in a guesthouse/brothel jokes) we grabbed what turned out to be a austin powers meets pimp my ride nightbus to Vientiane. The bus was ridiculous with neon lights, padded leather interior and double beds, although we didnt find the swimming pool. Vientiane is a city of 200,000 people and with nothing to see so we left the next day nursing sore heads and with me having to alter my plans to collect my passport one week later.

From there we went to Vang Vieng the tubing place which was really not my cup of tea at all so i left the aussies to it and headed to Luang Phabang 7 hours away. The setting is pretty incredible and considering how long it took to get there i was surprised as it appeared to be a retirement village of expats. Anyway it provided one of the best sunsets i have ever seen from the temple on the top of a hill, as well as a waterfall complete with rope swing. Kuang si waterfall is amazing as it is pretty spectacular but it also forms pools of crystal clear water which you can swim in. Save from being attacked by leeches on the way there and then being bitten by fish in the pool it was a great day out although i had to cut it short having not fancied the 10 hour night bus which would have given me no sleep at all.

So the flooded north of Thailand awaits tomorrow where i have to collect as many brand new dollars as i can (Myanmar has no atms) before flying into Yangon on the 5th. There are regular power outages in Myanmar and little or no internet in most places so this could be the last blog in a while. Also the election (first one in two decades under the military junta) is on the 7th which could spell disaster for a prolonged stay in the country if as i expect they don't accept the result. I just have to wait and see.

Hope everyone's well and look forward to seeing a couple of you at least in Oz in just over a month!!