Vientiane

The following day was to be another sightseeing day but one that would take me outside of the city. I walked to the bus station, getting propositioned on the way by a tuk tuk driver. He thought that since we were both fat and single that we should get together and have children. I made my excuses and moved on. Funnily enough this wasn't the first time I had been propositioned in Laos it had happened before in Lurang Prabang. I caught a bus that was supposed to take me to the gate of the Buddha park, the statue park, but it didn't. The bus stopped at the Thai border and I had to change buses, getting on one of the oldest buses that I have ever been on, at least the driver knew where I wanted to go. The Buddha park is a collection of concrete statues built by a mystic who fused Buddhism, Hinduism and his own warped view of religious statuary. You can climb to the top of one of the statues, I don't know what was going through the guys mind when he built the place, he was weird for sure. Of course I managed to take a statue photo, well it had to be done. I got back to town and then spent a bit of time in an internet cafe. I didn't have a lot of time before I had to turn around and go to the meeting point for the Hash House Harriers meet. The Hash is a group of people who meet weekly to do a run and drink. I have only run one hash and that was with Christophe and Meghan in Kuching. I had such a great time, the most amazing memories that as soon as I saw that I could do it in Vientiane I knew I would. The meeting place was a little shack posing as a restaurant on the river bank. The organiser, Chris, was already there and I was able to chat with him before anyone else arrived. Another girl came to do the run, she was a "virgin" in Hash terms, luckily my previous run saved me from that status. Most of the people there seemed impressed by the fact that my "home hash" was Kuching, apparently it's very famous in the hashing world. Since I don't run I walked the route with Chris, he had to stay at the back to make sure that no one got left behind or lost. After the run we all had dinner and a few beers, I was so glad that I had made the effort to get out there to take part. One of the guys gave me a lift back into town. I didn't do a lot the following morning, a bit of computer time and enjoying some coffee. I met Marie for lunch, she is probably going to have to leave Vientiane. I don't think that she is too bothered by that, she isn't as happy there as she had been in Mui Ne. She isn't planning to go back there but would like to go back to Vietnam. I didn't do too much in the afternoon either. I had booked a night bus out from the city to take me to Savannakhet, further south. I was picked up from the hostel by a tuk tuk and then taken to a tour office, it seemed to be Hanoi all over again. We were then shoved onto a mini bus and taken to a bus station on the outskirts of the city, past a vast new stadium. I think that Vientiane hosted the Asean games in 2009. The guy handing out the bus tickets wasn't terribly organised but for once I wasn't stressed. For some reason I was convinced that the bus wouldn't leave without me. Eventually I got my ticket and got on my bus. I was sharing a berth with the only other white person on the bus, another English woman. We were the only two white people going to Savannakhet. Hopefully that would mean that I would be getting off the tourist trail, well at least a little anyway.