Vientiane

The Monks receiving morning alms of sticky rice

A novice monk studying-late afternoon

Khemer King someone conquered Laos

We started out in laos (luang prabang) and ended is Vien tiane. You might guess how we got there... well for starters we got up at 7:00 am and got into a rickety old took took (cheapest way of transport) to the bus station and waited for our tickets. ( There was a soccer game going on the TV so it wasn't all boring.) The tickets were for a seat on the bottom of the bus. (so far so good.) We got the bus and studied it. It looked sanitary enough. (but we were only on the out side.) We got in side and the ceiling was claustrophobically low!!!!!!!!!!!! (good word huh?) Even I had to bow down to the floor. Dad was even worse but I liked it, it was like a cave. It had a nice TV (that probably did not work) that added to the cool-ness. So reluctantly we (I) went to go get different tickets. We ended up in the back row on the top of the bus. Super bumpy!!!!!!!!   :(   Dad was up more front with his ticket seat. He was so lucky. The trip was ok over all and worse bus rides have happened so I guess it was 7 out of 10. One crazy thing that occurred was they literally gave you a pink plastic bag if you got sick. Once I went to the bathroom on the bus ( also crazy tiny) and regretted it immediately. Since we were going through the main mountain range it was really bumpy and we were in the back as I said the "most bumpy part of the bus" I got thrown 4 feet right of the dot in to a lady that was coughing badly. That was also one of the problems on the bus, germs. Any way I got up and crawled down the steps to the bathroom.  As I was in the bathroom the bus would make these sudden random turns. I was crashing in to the walls so hard I bet you guys heard. I had to close the toilet for fear of falling in. After that experience I got thrown to my seat and stayed there sitting  happy not to be chucked all around the bus. A few times we stopped for bathroom breaks and lunch. Lunch looked good but alas had the servers hair got in and all tangled up in mini balls in the food, not so good. I was not hungry after that. We got back on the bus and for the rest of the time I slept and read on the bus. Ok after 11 hours "we got to our final destination" as a tom tom would say. We got into another took took and rode 2 miles to a random place in the middle of the city of Vientiane. Stranded so to say.




The next morning we got up to a loud noisy city.Our hotel was called lani #1. Luckily we were a ways back from the road. I woke to tell mom about my great dream I forgot then and there and to have breakfast. All I had was good old bread butter and jam. Then we walked to the mekong river beach which was quite long. We walked past a statue of some guy and stopped to play soccer for a few min. We decided that we were drawing attention to our selves so we left. While we were playing we heard from some guy that people played soccer on the sandy beaches at the sun set. We said that we might come to that game and play. We wandered around the city walking in to book stores eating street food. We wandered into a guy that had a thing like a shuddle coc but you juggle it. It makes a great PPPPIIIINNNNNGGGGG sound when you hit it. We got one for the Drakes and the Brookens if you are reading this it is called a Ying pai. It is great fun. Then we went home for reading and a nap and then renewed got up to play soccer at the beach.


We walked to the beach and saw some bodies moving far down the beach. As I said the beach is very vast. I was careless enough to trip and skin my arms. We ran as fast as we could over in the area that the people were playing but when we got there there were people walking away. The game had just ended. Bummer! We walked back to the side walk and juggled our new ying pai and went for dinner.



At the restaurant that we chose to go to there was a pool table and it was on the top of a building. Awesome! After dinner we wandered back home to take a long sleep after a long day!   :) JM