Observations from Vang Vieng

My 24 hour bus trip to Vang Vieng was ... Interesting. I think I slept for about an hour, tops, and spent the rest of the time bumping up and down. Kind of like Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura When Nature Calls. The beauty of this country is breathtaking. Green fields, rice paddy fields, and mountains. Towering mountains. The last bus we took between Vientiane and Vang Vieng kept on breaking down and I thought it was pretty hilarious that the clock up the front was stuck on 11.50. We started out late and even though we were breaking down all the time, it was still 11.50. Who cares what the time is right? That was my first observation. My second was that from what I can gather people in Laos drive on the right side of the road. Unless they can't be bothered, and then they drive wherever they like.

Third observation is that amidst all the paddy fields, of which there are many, there always seems to be one lone straw hut. Just one. I was wondering what this hut was for, as I never seemed to see anything, nor anyone in it. I concluded it must have been for the workers and this was veriified when the next hut we passed had a bunch of men lying in it.

My final observation was regarding tourism. A large majority of people in Laos are living in conditions that are something I could never really comprehend. As we drove through villages I noticed the houses made out of bamboo, straw and clay and inside them there was very little. Just the basic necessities, no more, no less. Enough to survive. It struck me that they must look at these buses driving past filled with people and wonder why we are coming to pay money to look at their country, and more so, at them. I felt like I was invading their lives, which I think tourism does to a large extinct. I have tried very hard on this journey to be conscious of where I go and what I take part in for this very reason, as I believe people have a right to their own privacy and to have their own customs without their lives being encroached upon.

I just had one more observation. I am sitting in a place called Oh La La and it is true, Vang Vieng love to play reruns of friends and family guy on TVs. That wasn't the observation, this is: it is PISSING down. Bucketing. I am lazing inside on a sofa with my book and not planning on moving for a while yet.

From Vang Vieng

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