Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, Laos

It was one of those days!  I was up shortly after four – so went down to the sitting area where much to my surprise found someone sitting in “my” chair!  A young woman had just arrived from Annoy – a 33 hour bus ride! We had a lovely visit and it turns out she is only 18. She has lived in Brazil, Singapore and now in Copenhagen because her father is in shipping and that is why her family has moved so much. I would like to meet up with her in 20 years to see what has become of her because she was so mature and already seemed to be aware of so much.

My shuttle, not Rip, was coming between 8:00 and 8:30 to take me to the train station. I was packed and sitting outside when a white van pulled up. There are between 800-900 white vans in the city, all for tourists!  The driver was looking for two people and I knew there were not two people leaving from my hostel so I hopped in with him. We had to pick up a few more people and then he stopped to collect money. I produced my receipt but he said no that I had to pay him.  To make matters worse, everyone was only paying 40,000 and I had paid 60,000. I called the hostel and the owner talked to the driver and said he would pay him and then I talked to the owner and apparently the shuttle I was on was not for me.  I guess mine showed up a few minutes after I left.  Whoops.

We got to the train station which was recently built by the Chinese -

with lots of time to spare. There were so many people as a train was leaving for China first. In the bathroom cubicle- oh the Chinese-

The train is very modern-

and after founding my seat, Eric from the slow boat sat down right in front of me. It is such a small world!  I was on the EMU train and we travelled 160 km/h and arrived in an hour.  It was very smooth and comfortable. Along the way –

Once in Vang Vieng I was to get a ride in the back of a small half ton to the hostel. I had done my homework and had screenshots of maps on my iPad  but for some reason I pulled up MAPS.ME and told the driver to take me to the red dot. He had never heard of my guest house.  We dropped everyone else off and I finally turned on my data – I am just about out,  and found a guest house that’s sort of spelled like the one I had a reservation for.  He knew where that one was and as soon as we got there and I got out he took off like a shot. Well that was the wrong one. They don’t even rent rooms anymore! I walked across the street to a different hotel and the man at the front desk showed me a room in his hotel but it was not as nice as what I was expecting. He phoned my guesthouse and Google maps produced the right directions and luckily it was close enough I was able to walk.

Once at Sokxay Guerthouse- (the owner is aware it should be an “s”)-

The owner’s son having a bath in the yard-

I was shown a room that had a very noisy air-conditioner without louvers and it blew directly on me in the bed. I do not want a cold so they moved me to another room-

When I booked, I was expecting a balcony because that’s what booking.com said but guess what – no balcony and none available.  After spending four nights in a room the size of a twin mattress I was looking forward to sitting outside but…

Anyway, I found a great place to eat and had chicken with cashews where the sauce is nothing but oyster sauce–

and mango sticky rice for dessert-

I wandered around the town-

and wondered what I was doing here. This is an adventure town and activities on offer include kayaking, hot air balloon riding, dune buggies, zip-lining and caving – all things I have done and cannot presently do.  In the good old days there used to be a tubing booze cruise on the river with numerous bars to stop at along the way but it got pretty wild, so they shut it down. I don’t mind having another day to just relax.  I have a nice comfortable room and books to read.

Tomorrow will be two weeks post-surgery and I will be removing my bandages. I am nervous because I am worried that I won’t like what I see - it won’t be healed or…. but I know where the hospital is in case I need to go and have it re-bandaged. It feels really good and I am taking care not to lift anything or stretch it too badly.  Each day it hurts less and less.