Our journey to Vientiane crossed dust storms and half finished bumpy roads, the driver pent up on taurine cohering the minibus from one side to the other trying to find the least damaged parts of the road. We made our way to the riverside, but it wasn't what we were expecting, the river had shrunk exposing cracked arid banks I watched children throwing dust bombs at each other whilst a hazy and bloated sun lazily slid below the horizon. For a capital city there didn't seem to be too much to do so we decided to leave for Hanoi as soon as our visas were approved.
The following day however we bumped into Kev & Nat a class couple from Liverpool and Alana & Andrea et al, all of which we had previously met tubing. All nine of us crammed into a tuk tuk destine for Buddha Park on the outskirts of the city. It is essentially a riverside field full of intricate statues of Buddhas, Cowheaded people and decidedly mean looking statues. The most impressive is a giant sleeping Buddha and a 3 story vessel you could climb up by entering a demonic mouth. Later when the sun was a bit cooler I decided to attempt my first run since embarking on this world tour. Running has been something I have missed but it is hard to find good routes in unfamiliar cities, especially when there aren't any pavements and crazy traffic, plus iv been unable to convince anyone to come with me so I had put it off, today following the river down a half dirt half concrete path seemed adequate. Next issue; my Brooks were in a wardrobe 6,000 miles away so I decided to run barefoot. It is a lot of fun, your stride changes as if your running on hot coals, dodging an assault course of rocks and stones. You end up landing on the pad of your feet as opposed to the heel strike you do with conventional running shoes. Along the way I passed the monstrous palace hotel looking so out of place in this low level city, I also jogged passed a few mass aerobics class. Running till sundown and until my feet hurt I returned to the dorm and realised my feet had a couple of cuts and blood blisters but nothing a hot shower couldn't solve. I threw on some fresh-ish clothes and went to find the others for drinks and a meal eventually we ended up in Skybar, a plush hotel with a nightclub inside that turns out to be the behemoth building I had ran past earlier, Andy was convinced it was run by the mafia. Most of the night we stayed together throwing some shapes by the bar, it was similar to clubs back in the UK but if you peered further towards the epicentre you saw the club's more seedy nature, there were dozens of prostitutes trying to find new work. You spot them a mile off because most of the local girls have chaperons and dress pretty normally, I guess most westerners are either very naive or know exactly what they are getting into like the pack of old western men circling the dancefloor.
We had arranged to meet again the next day at 11 for breakfast but Kev was the only one who felt well enough to participate, we rented dutch style bikes that had seen better days and travelled to the harder to reach parts of the city, some of the monolithic buildings had adopted the hammer and sickle flags, We visited a big golden temple and a driving range. even though there is so much poverty there is definitely people with money around, asides the massive hotels we saw Bentleys and Hummers. We returned our bikes said our goodbyes to Kev Nat Alana & Andrea and departed for the bus station. The station is a dust pit of tuk tuks and people shouting and drivers stomping down luggage on the roofs of coaches. Our driver said he wouldn't open doors until 7:00 so we went to get supplies for this 23 hour journey that would inevitably be more. Stocking up on a couple of bags of crisps and water we got back to the bus at 6:55 and the bus was already pulling out, I just managed to stop it in time.. As you walk on you have to remove your flipflops because the bus is all red leather gangways and deck chair style sleeper seats. We found an empty row of 5 at the back of the bus and spread out, the only disadvantage, the engine was directly below and it got a bit toasty, that was until we got to the Lao border where the weather suddenly went over very British, we drove towards a looming gated fence between mountains shrouded in fog and rain. Here is where we braved the elements to get our passports stamped, naturally we all queued as the Laotians and Vietnamese pushed and shoved to the front. We were then marched across no-mans land to run our bags past sniffer dogs and scanners. The coach got thoroughly searched too with officials taking a knife to some suspicious looking bags. Back in Goa Surinder had warned us that during one of his boarder crossings a guy he met asked him to hold his guitar case while he went to the toilet, The border officer who searched it was a bit of a show off and started playing the guitar but if he search further down Surinder would have been in trouble and the owner would have been nowhere to be seen. I checked my bag to make sure noone had stashed anything in it. After getting fully saturated with rain we got the all clear. Past the boarder you had to have incredible faith in your fellow man/coachdriver. In very poor visibility he was navigating down wet winding roads with shear drops over the sides. Once we got to open land I glimpsed of the swarms of motorbikes, the riders looked otherworldly with their bug eyed googles, mouthmasks, helmet and ponchos that covers their entire body. All the time in the coach you are playing a balancing game of dehydration and a full bladder as you never know when the next stop will be. My secret weapon is the fact I can sleep anywhere and I have used it to good effect but right now I have plugged in my headphones switched to shuffle and looked out over rainsoaked Vietnam 'Subterranean Homesick Alien' playing in my ears.
No comments:
Post a Comment