Welcome back my dear readers. I hope by now you have discovered my youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/laowhy86
I have documented a good chunk of the past year on my episodes. Hope you have as much fun watching them as I had making them.
Anyway, things have picked up quite a bit since I left you there in Xishuangbanna. After my trip to the Dai area of Yunnan province, I hitched a bus, and made it to the border with Laos.
Laos is a misty, unknown, off the beaten path kind of country in South East Asia, and isn't full of the rowdy Australian backpackers drinking whiskey out of buckets. It is a quiet land. A devout land. A nation of rules (no pre marital sex or even staying with one another) And the next check off of my list of Communist countries (there are only 5 left).
As we got to the border in China, we noticed the looming military presence everywhere. Trucks were being searched, and a large golden building appeared. Inside, there were border guards, a friendly exit card machine, and guards that looked like they could drown a puppy. The Chinese side was super professional, and seemingly, very secure.
Upon exiting the border, it just opened into pure jungle. Gone were the buildings. Gone were the people. There was simply a wooden shack with a stream of people getting there passport stamped. This was the Laos border.
The guy at the counter wouldn't give change, and if you didn't have a picture to give him for your visa, then he simply charged you 5 extra dollars and stamped it anyway.
This was Laos.
A bus picked us up, and was loaded with all kinds of strange boxes (which were randomly dropped off at different locations on our trip). We picked up locals the entire way (some with chickens), until we arrived in Luang Namtha. This was the official border town with China, and I was surprised to notice that the entire city comprised of 1 road.
This sleepy town was an absolute contradiction to anything that I had ever seen in China. There were no cars. Just tour vans that would glide effortlessly across the new pavement, occasionally ditching cows.
Our wooden cabin guesthouse was lovely, and it wasn't long until we stopped off at a local restaurant to have some Beer Laos, and a dinner of local cuisine.
The sun was setting, and I thought to myself, "it's good to be in Laos."
That is, until the typhoid set in.
The next day, I am in an outdoor hospital covered in sweat under a 100 degree sun, and being led to the bathroom every five minutes. I am severely dehydrated, and the doctors are doing there best to get dehydration supplements in me.
I don't know what happened, because the 106 degree fever was kind of thinking for me. All I knew was that this was worse than malaria, or perhaps anything I had ever experienced in my life. And worst of all, I was 5 days behind schedule now.
Trying to hold in explosive diarrhea while riding a motorcycle through Laos is not the nicest of feelings. But damn is it one gorgeous country. Town after town faded into one another. There was a dire sense of poverty in most places, but the nature was undeniably rich.
We passed many villages that had been built by the Japanese for relief efforts. Everywhere we went was desperate for tourism, and the kids would run up to your bike with dirty little hands, begging for something. It was heartbreaking, but also a blast. It was nice to know that we were seeing things that other people did not see, because on a bike, we had access to places the government didn't want us to see. It was fantastic.
Laotians were very laid back. Life seems to go at a snails pace. It might be attributed to 99% of the population being Buddhist, or it might be the fact that Laos has always been a hidden backwater.
The town of Vang Viang was a trip and a half. There were drugs everywhere. And in a country that carries the death penalty for using, it was an intense sight. Corrupt officials smoked opium with the Australian backpackers, and nearly every restaurant had reclining couches, marijuana pizza, and played Friends or Family Guy on big TVs. It was horrible. If you ever want to see the negative impact of tourism on society, go to Phuket, Thailand, or go to Vang Viang Laos. You can watch hordes of drugged out, half naked 20 somethings try to "find themselves" on a river raft, all while contracting pink eye and numerous STDs. Nightmare...
Temples abound, we meandered through the hot sun until we made it to the sleepy capital of Vientiane. The French influence on architecture was obvious, and the city had a very big feeling of government presence.
Time cut short. And sick as a dog, I meandered back to Guangdong, China.
