THE CANCUN OF LAOS

Day 12, April 2

Preparing for the 'sweet' ride.

Today did not start out well.  Mom had her heart set on the “best pancakes” she had ever had.  The place said they opened at 7am, which gave us enough time to eat there and catch the bus to Vientiane.  7am our time isn’t the same as 7am Laos time.  I’ll admit, I was a bit disappointed as well.  I was looking forward to a cup of mud coffee.  Mom can’t stop talking about it.  She LOVED those pancakes.

The bus from Luang Prabang to Vientiane is a slow rolling journey across winding roads through mountainous terrain, never getting over 30 mph.  It could be a tough ride, but for me these are some of the sweetest moments in traveling.  A little BeerLaos, a homemade mango cake from one of the local bakeries in Luang Prabang, Mishka on my ipod and watch the countryside crawl by.  Not much sweeter than this.

  

The haze of smoke over the countryside.

Our timing here in Southeast Asia is good and bad.  It is good because it is the off-season and prices are pretty low.  But, it is also bad because this is the time of the year when parts of Laos and Thailand burn their fields for the upcoming rains.  That means there is this haze of smoke that lays over the country.  There are a lot of controlled fires on this trip down south.  Hopefully we’ll get some rain that will clear it out a bit.

Roadside 'restaurant'.

A few stops, one barely edible meal and 10 hours later we get to Vientiane, the capitol of Laos.  Vientiane is on the Laos-Thailand border and we thought about dipping down into Thailand from here.  Originally, we were going to go north in Laos and cross over into Thailand from there.  But, as we travel and understand the logistics more, we have to cross some places off of our desire list.  Thailand as a whole is off the list completely.  I was in Thailand back in 2002 and they were there in the 80’s.  We’re gonna stick to places we haven’t been.

We do the usual routine.  Leave the kids at a restaurant and I head out to find a place to stay.  Just the walk from the restaurant to find the hotel and I can tell this town is completely different from Luang Prabang.  For the capitol of a country, it is quite subdued.  But, Vientiane feels like Cancun.  It’s a party town.  I’m not gone from the kids more than five minutes and I have already been offered drugs twice and “boom boom” three times, once by a lady who I believe would actually be doing the boom booming.  Just maintain foot speed and do not make eye contact.

I check the kids in.  Get them showered.  Put them to bed.

Day 13, April 3

  

Monks taking a tuk-tuk.

The next day is pretty slow, but the heat is suffocating.  We take a tuk-tuk out to the Buddha Park, Xiang Khuan.  It is an amazing array of Hindu and Buddhist structures crafted by unskilled artists with the guidance of a yogi-priest-shaman.

Back into town and it is time for lunch.  The heat is worse and is getting to the kids.  Do men go through menopause?  If so, I think dad just had a hot flash.  We sit down for lunch in an open-air café and it is a bit uncomfortable.  Too uncomfortable for him.  The conversation went like this:

Dad:   “This is just really smothering heat.”

Mom:   “Do you want one of those hand wipes?”

Dad:   “Is there no A/C or fan here?”

Mom:   “Do you want one of those hand wipes we got from the bus?”

Me:   “It’s open-air.  Of course there is no A/C.”

Resting Buddha.

Dad:   “It’s so hot, I’m uncomfortable to the point I’m not even hungry anymore.”

Mom:   “Maybe a hand wipe from the…”

Dad:   “NO!  I do not want a hand wipe!”

Silence……….

Mom and I try to fight back our laughter.

Me:   “Do we need to go somewhere with A/C little guy?”

Hindu sculptures.

And off we went to find a place that had A/C, a fan, something.  We found a place and promptly ordered some cold waters.  The food was decent enough, but the best part was the flea-riddled cat that weaved its way around our legs the entire meal, brushing up against us, meowing for food.  Not ideal in the least, but much better than sitting through another hot flash.

The evening is equally uncomfortable.  Mom is getting another massage.  This time, just her feet.  And it is in our hotel room.  As soon as the girl arrives, mom says, “Kevin, you need to let her know that I am going to moan a lot.”  I think she is getting a bit too comfortable around me.

Suffocatingly yours,

Mango

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