This Week I Have Mostly Accomplished NOTHING (01-05/12/08)

MONDAY 1ST DECEMBER

Woke up with a stinking head. Shitty buckets of whisky and red bull. Having crawled to a cafe for breakfast I went to write this blog as I was one week behind. It took me nearly 3 hours to remember what I had done in the last week and write it all down. Afterwards I had another beer hunger so Louise and i went to a street vendor and bought lots of pork and crackling and devoured it. Twenty minutes later I felt sick for the remainder of the day. Went back to my digs to sweat the beer out having arranged to meet Carla and James at seven for more food.
At 7p.m as agreed we met up for more food which I didn't really enjoy. Had a chocolate milk. All in all a thoroughly unproductive day. Tomorrow we leave for the capital Vientiane.

TUESDAY 2ND DECEMBER

Left our guesthouse and the very nice owner gave us a free lift to the bus station. Arriving at the bus station seeing all the clapped out buses put is in a very nervous frame of mind. Got on the bus. It was quite sturdy looking compared to the rest. There were only 5 people on board, me, Louise, a Canadian we met at the station and two locals. Bargain! loads of room to lay down and listen to the ipod. Or so I thought. For the next twenty minutes we stopped at every bus stop within 2km, the bus was full and people were sitting on bags of rice in the end. It was dead bumpy on the way and I needed a new arse by the end of it. Oh the joys of Lao public transport (even though, it still only cost 30,000kip for a 200km journey).
Arrived in Vientiane at about 5p.m. A tuk-tuk driver tried to rip us off. Made it to the town centre unscathed. Not knowing where to go we headed towards the river. Went into every guesthouse and hotel along the riverside and the connecting streets. Every one was full. At this rate we were gonna end up in the Plaza at $200 a night! Finally after 1.5 hours we found a place within the budget, and it was the last room. 4 flights of stairs later, we were in. Shower changed and out for tea. Had a massive Indian. Stopped at a bar to get a coke, opened it and poured as directed. Nothing came out as it had frozen. Went back to the room in a mardy. Couldn't sleep because I'd eaten too much. Got up twice in the night with the shits, brilliant! I've also got a massive ulcer under my tongue, a supposed side effect of the anti-malarials. All I need now is Hep A to complete my day.

WEDNESDAY 3RD NOVEMBER

Woke up at around 11a.m having got to sleep around 3a.m. Had a shower, opened the curtains to let in some fresh air, and there's a bloke sat on our balcony. Closed curtains. Had a wander to the shopping centre for something to do. Bartered dead hard for a magnet for Louise to add to her collection. Then had a walk to the Arc de Triomphe replica, Patouxai as its known. It looks quite good from the outside but when you get up close there's not much to see. Inside is only half finished so it looks a bit shit, and then there are homeless people in some of the pillars, one of which had a gun stuffed down his jeans. We're finding it hard to find anything interesting to do in Vientiane, and we have another full day here still. Later on we spotted James and Carla walking down the street, they spent another day in Vang Vieng. They booked the VIP bus and it got stuck in second gear for the entire journey, which took 7.5 hours instead of 4.5. Had the biggest prawns ever for my tea and then sat about watching the world go by.

THURSDAY 4TH NOVEMBER

Went to get all our photos put on to disc for Carla and James. The fella did it for us and then I went to put it on facebook and none of the photos would come up. It took 4hours to sort out the problem, by which time James and Carla had gone back to their digs and I had had a row with Louise. In the evening we met Carla and James for the last time as we were going our separate ways from tomorrow. It had been really nice meeting up with another couple rather than groups of lads or girls as most of them are on the piss constantly. We only did it twice in about 9 days.

FRIDAY 5TH DECEMBER

Finally after 3 and a half days we are leaving Vientiane for Ha Noi, capital of Viet Nam (2 words) not Saigon as many people think, albeit by plane. I'm not too thrilled as I'm shit scared of flying. All my fears were realised when I saw the plane we were going on. It was a tiny little thing with two seats either side of a smaller than usual aisle. The engines weren't nice big 747 Rolls Royce engines, no they were from a meccano set. And the pilot looked no more than 25, he could only have had about 6 hours of flying time in his life.
Arrived in Hanoi after 1hr 20min flight which seemed like a lifetime to me. Got on a bus for $3 each, not $20 the taxi driver wanted. Its 18miles to central Ha Noi so I'm glad I didn't walk. Got a nice hotel room for $15 which is not bad considering the Aussie backpacker place wanted $7.50 each for a six bed shared dorm. Left my little bag on the minibus so the hotel gopher went after it on his scooter and got it back within 20 mins. Had a walk to the lake in the middle of the French quarter. When you cross the road here you just have to go and hope all the scooters go round you. It's not for the feint hearted.