Dec 6, 2010

10 hour busrides and capitol cities

As Ruut wrote in a earlier post, we've got some sort of lucky star watching over us.
When we felt like leaving Luang Prabang, all we had to do was step out on the street outside our Guest House, and a tuk-tuk, with two falangs already in it, stops and tells us it's going to the southern bus station, so we jump on. Haven't you organized a tuk-tuk to pick you up? the driver asks surprised. Ehm, no? Haven't you got tickets for the bus yet? ask the falangs. No, but that wasn't a problem either, and we got good seats for the same VIP bus as the tuk-tuk falangs.
After talking nonstop with a poor Canadian guy for 10 hours (he asked Ruut and Sophia to change seats with me, more then once... but he was only joking, right?) we arrived in Vientiane in the dark. Walked around with a couple Australian guys till we found the cheapest ( and the shabbiest) hostel in town.

Spent the next day in Vientiane wandering around on the empty streets, thinking it didn't seem like a capitol city. The city was full of Finns though, and not being around Finns since the Trans Manchurian, it felt really weird to hear small kids shout out 'Aiti, mulla on pissahata!' all of a sudden. The highlight of Vientiane was definitely the high speed internet cafe - we were able to skype with one of our friends back home!

After spending less then 24 hours in the city, we jumped on a bus again, headed for the south of Laos.
Sleeper buses in Laos are very different from their equivalent in China. For one thing the beds were double beds, so Ruut slept next to a complete stranger. All buses we've been on so far in Laos (2, around Muang Sing they were only minivans or jeeps) are really luxurius as well, and we got some candy, water and dumplings on the bus. Best of all though: the buses have a toilet!

So at 6 am today, after another 10 hour busride, we arrived in Pakse. We're thinking: cute town, but a bit too hot and humid for it's own good. Gotta find some water to swim in. (Well, the Mekong is maybe a hundred meters from where I am now, and we live by another river, but swimming in a sewer tempts us about as much as jumping into them...)  We'll see if we'll continue south tomorrow, otherwise we'll stay here one more day to post things and exchange money.

At the moment we're thinking about trying the Lao sauna (as is I don't already feel like I'm sitting in one, and it's almost seven pm...) since it's the Independence day of Finland today, and sauna sure is as Finnish as it gets. Happy birthday Suomi!
//H

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