VangVieng: we DUBSTEPPED in Laos!

Ok, so I left you at us being incredibly organised. Suprisingly, that has mostly continued so far..

On Saturday we checked out of the hotel and left our stuff at the fantastic domestic reservations office, and then popped to the weekend market in downtown bangkok. Oh my goodness, there's nothing else like it in this world. We got there by skytrain, and as you ride over it, you just see this massive expanse of white roofing. When you get there, it looks pretty small, you step past the street vendors, cautiously buy a bottle of water - just in case, and clutch onto your bag as you duck past the first hanging display. Then suddenly, you're in the midst of it all! To one side there's a man selling ivory elephants and tusks, there's a knife and sword stall to the other side, swathes of colourful material draped everywhere, incense masking the smell of sweat. It's organised in rows and columns, so kem and i decided to do it systematically, going up and down the columns. After about two hours we counted 17 more columns to go, so we dived out the otherside for some air and coconut icecream. Then we saw that on the other side of the street, there were even more stalls! It was INSANE! But so wonderful, i invested in some crazy traveller pants, everyone has them in bangkok and they make me feel a little less touristy.

We then headed for the train station - only after discovering Tesco Lotus! You might call us wimps, gravitating towards the only english brands we could find, but technically, it's where real thai people do their shopping, none of this touristy street stuff for us! It was such an adventure, we discovered that crisps that're green in thai, aren't salt and vinegar, but actually seaweed, and that pringles come in crab flavour, and blueberry and hazelnut! Bizarre! Kemi discovered to her disappointment that ribena doesn't actually exist in thailand, and was suitably heartbroken. We managed to lose each other as well, typical us, surviving the street market chaos but getting lost in tescos!

The sleeper train to Vientiene was certainly an adventure. The chairs folded out to make beds, but above that a shelf folds out to make bunk beds, and that's where we were sleeping. The lights remained on throughout, and as usual, the airconditioning was brutal. Probably managed about 2 hours sleep - seems average for thailand so far! When we got up properly, we were in the middle of rice fields and marshland, it was beautiful. We got to Nong Khai which is where the border is, and were panicking because we didn't know what we were supposed to be doing, we were -this- close to phoning Del and freaking out, when I noticed a thai man eagerly scanning the crowd, holding a piece of paper. Turns out, we were booked under Mr. Joanna Barrow and Mr. Kemi Clark, but fortunately disaster averted! He was a legend, fasttracked us through immigration and getting our visa, and filled out all our paperwork for us, which was just lovely.

When we got to Vientiene, the capital of Laos, we couldn't believe it. Having just left the capital of thailand, we were expecting something a little more lively, but it was just the sleepiest town - and genuinely sunny! No clouds in Laos, which was nice. We explored, got bikes and had a look around the town, having surmised there was little to do, we had an early night.

It turns out we were late for the bus to Vang Vieng, so when we got in, there were no two seats next to each other.. we wandered the aisle desperate for seats, but the only space was at the back, one next to a quiet german, the other right at the back in the middle of four, sweaty, topless boys. Evil person that I am, i shotgunned the seat next to the german, and Kemi was left to make friends with the boys. Air conditioning, again, gave us hell, it was so weak, and we were broiling in the heat.

Again, my time is up, I have a 16 hour bus trip to chiang mai.. will fill you in on VangVieng next time, it's so incredible you wouldn't understand!

xxx