Day 39: Vientiane, Laos: Not Much

Got a nice, new digicam (I know, I KNOW!), and a few books to entertain me.  Another beautiful day, and then an overnight bus to Pakse!

Oh, and a map of where I've been lately...


View Ko Phangan to Pakse in a larger map

Day 38: Vientiane, Laos: This and That

Went to this faux Arc de Triomphe and saw another funny museum.  Saw a pretty cool golden temple, and... rode bikes around town!  Met a few cool folks: Claire (28, Oz), Ben (28, Holland).  I attract many Dutch people it seems!  Oh, and we played a lot of Juhu (Dutch for Yahtzee!).

PS: Two toes are broken.  One on each foot.  Expecting to lose some toenails soon!  I think a week of convalescence (no walking, just bikes), and I should be able to function again.

Day 37: Vientiane, Laos: Pain

Oi, so, yes, I'm camera-less and mp3-player-less.  And maybe I have 2 broken toes.  I'm in pain, so I'm taking it easy.  I bumped into Dan in VV.  I made it to Vientiane successfully after a 4h, 40,000kip bus ride.  Hopefully, Lotte will push me around in a wheel chair tomorrow.  J/k.  I'm just gonna limp around.  Maybe I'll find a pharmacy.

Day 36: Vang Vieng, Laos: More Tubing???

Okay, so the sun came out hardcore today.  I had no choice but to stay!  Lotte couldn't hang anymore, but... it's all good!  I met up w/Sam, Thibaud, Laura, Seth, Rob, Michael, Caitlyn, Patrice, Aleksandr, Henry, and some other people.  Um, isn't it weird that I keep seeing the same people around SE Asia?

Day 35: Vang Vieng, Laos: TUBING

Tubing.  Floating down the river, drinking cheap drinks, being pulled into riverside bars by life-preservers on ropes, flying through the air on death-defying (barely defying) slides and swings.  Oh... I barely survived.  Say goodbye to another camera and MP3 player.

Day 34: Vang Vieng, Laos: Spelunking!

We rented some bikes and road about 13km to some sweet-ass caves. We saw some beautiful scenery. The first cave (Pha Thao) was big, and went on for a long ways but only crawling. We saw some spiders that were about 10cm. CRAZY. Seriously...

The next cave (Kien?) went on for at least a few km. It was dry for about a km, then it was all wading and swimming. It was so awesome. We didn't go to the very end, because we didn't know how many km it went on for, and we wanted to get back before sundown, especially since we were all wet.

Day 33: Vang Vieng, Laos: Confusion

Went to the Royal Palace Museum.  Hung out by the river.  :) 

430pm: Took a bus to Vang Vieng.  We were pretty much the only white people there.  Thought it would take 6h.  Took 9h.  Got there around 130am.  Thanks to my awesome abilities, found a cheap and nice guesthouse very quickly and that was that!