Before we came to Laos, neither of us knew how to pronounce the name of it. Some people pronounced the 's' and some people left it silent. It is now clear which one is correct: In Laos they don't even have the 's'. It is written and said as 'Lao'. From now on I will be writing it this way, because I don't understand why other countries have put an 's' at the end of it. Silly countries.
It's another early morning to get the bus at 8AM. We buy water from the shop next door and order baguettes from a restaurant to take away. you wouldn't think cheese baguettes take 15 minutes to make, but they do apparently, and it makes us late for the bus. Today is very much a travel day with a 7 hour bus journey on bad roads. It gets very bumpy, there are lots of tight corners and it makes Rachelle feel ill. I give her the window seat in hope that it makes her feel better and it does a little. This journey is supposed to be the worst out of all the other journeys.
Despite the awful roads, we get to see a lot of what Lao is all about. It's absolutely full of mountainous land, covered in all sorts of foliage. Lao is one colour; green. It's just green hills everywhere, as far as the eye can see.
On the way we stopped at a small market where they had buckets full of beetles and frogs, baskets of crabs and a small monkey like creature all for sale. I wouldn't know what to do with any of it. We stop for lunch at a bigger market where there are chicken feet and what we think are chicken guts. Even most of the fruit is unidentifiable so we buy a large packet of crisps and some bready things with paste in them. Rachelle didn't like the bready pasty things, but I had a few. I hope the paste wasn't made from chickens guts or anything.
Our last stop was in a Hmong tribe village. As we walked into it, all the village children followed us in a group, keeping at least five or so meters distance and kept laughing. It was better than the other villages we had visited because in this one it seemed like they hadn't seen many tourists. In the other villages the people didn't seem to care about us being there and seemed bored of the idea. As we walked through the Hmong village we saw piglets, hunting dogs and were allowed a peak into one of the huts. Inside it was very dark and minimalistic.
We arrive in Nong Khiaw, a rural town. Before stopping we drive through and make a quick stop at some caves. They were once used as safe hiding places when Lao was being bombed. back at Nong Khiaw we get riverside bungalows overlooking the Nam Ou river and are surrounded by green mountains. I stopped learning Geography after year 9 so I can't explain why, but the clouds were really low and circled the mountains. It looks quite spectacular.
It's the rainy season in Lao so it's raining when we arrive. We rest in the bungalow, looking out over the river and mountains, listening to the sound of heavy rain hitting the roof. The bungalow is very basic, wooden and has a bucket toilet. Bucket toilets are the native toilet where you have to squat over a hole in the ground (mainly if you're a girl) and next to it is a bucket of water. There is no flush system so the bucket is poured into the hole to displace what's in there - a manual flush, you could say. When the rain is less heavy, we explore the town and get food at a restaurant where we watch the sun set between the mountains. Beautiful.
When we get back to the bungalow, we sit out on the balcony. Rachelle reads and I write some of my journal. It's not as hot in northern Lao, so we have a blanket across our legs and I am trying my first Beerlao, which I bought from reception. A giant beetle scares us and we go back inside.
At night the bungalow is less romantic. It's dimly lit and I see a small cockroach. Then I see a big one climbing the wall and another of similar size scuttles across the adjacent wall. I pick up my bag and guess what... another cockroach. Above the bed is a net which we drop down. With all our things on the bed and protected by the net, Rachelle reads her book. I just rest and look through the netting at a large spider that is slowly making its way across the ceiling. We don't sleep awfully well in the night. Just awfully.
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