December 31, 2006 In Transit – Vientiene, Laos

December 31, 2006
In Transit – Vientiene, Laos

Our bus pulled into the Vientiene bus station at 5:30. From there we squeezed into a song tao and headed for the city center. We jumped out in a location where there were numerous guesthouses. We were quite surprised to find that all of them were full. Slightly worried we continued wandering the streets in search for a place to stay. Every place we went to was full, even the expensive ones.

After more than half an hour of searching we found a place, a cheap one at that. We stumbled into our room and immediately fell asleep. I slept until 11:00 and then jumped in the shower. When I returned the other boys were pulling themselves out of bed.

Once everyone was up we decided to get some food. Spizz and I were starving because we hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before (B had a sandwich on the bus). After a large meal we started exploring town. Everything was closed! Apparently New Years is a very big holiday here and all of the shops, internet cafes, and travel agencies close for several days.

Not knowing what to do, we returned to our room. At 13:00 B and I headed for Pha That Luang (Spizz wanted to just chill), the most important structure in Laos. After a short tuk-tuk ride we arrived at the golden monument. We wandered all around the building and took numerous photos. Though it was smaller than I had imagined, it was magnificently shinny. The glimmering gold and perfectly blue sky made for a beautiful scene.

As we were leaving the temple we ran into two monks that spoke (some) English. We sat and talked with them for several minutes. They were interested in hearing about our trip and seeing some of the photos we had just taken.

On the tuk-tuk ride back to our hostel B spotted an ATM and I went to takeout some money. It was an interesting experience. I pulled out 500,000 (50 USD) Kipp and the machine gave me the entire sum in 1,000 notes. It was a ridiculously large stack of money.

We returned to our hostel a few minutes before 16:00. We met back up with Spizz and then decided to get massages ($4) because they were one of the only establishments open. After 1.5 hours of massage we continued exploring town and found a DVD store that was open. They had a large selection of movies, each one selling for the equivalent of $1.50. We stocked up on some entertainment and then grabbed some dinner.

After Pizza and Pepsi we returned to our room with a few beers. We spent the early part of the evening watching BeerFest and having a couple of drinks. When the movie was over we went out looking for a party. We jumped in a tuk-tuk and asked to go to the nearest New Years celebration. The driver drove us to the rivers edge where he talked to one of his friends. He then dropped us off about a block from where he picked us up and told us the party was just down the street. Slightly annoyed we started walking down the street in search of the party. Much to my dismay we ran into the Canadian girls from the bus and they joined us. Eventually we found the bar we were looking for. After some deliberation (I did not want to spend the evening with these girls) we all paid the fee ($8) and headed in.

There was lots of live music, alcohol, and white people. We had a few more drinks and got our faces painted. As we partied we met some nice tourists from all over the world. Just before midnight everyone was given sparklers to bring in the New Year. We left the bar sometime after 1:00.

On the way back to our hostel at group of locals beckoned us over to their table, where they were celebrating the New Year. They treated us to a couple of beers and we hung out with them for a little while. Eventually we decided that we needed to get back to our place and get some sleep.

By the time we got home it was 2:00. We started a movie but I immediately fell asleep.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!