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Italiano (Italian)
My stop in Vang Vieng was the epitome of my faulty trip planning. Although it later gave me the opportunity to take my first hot air balloon ride.
My first trip to Southeast Asia was full of meetings and acquaintances of really interesting people. Solo travel in this part of the world usually makes it very easy to meet other backpackers. There are many of them; they are easily recognized and all use public transportation.
Compared to the Thailand trip, however, this time I did not make any real acquaintances: because I did not frequent hostels. Laos is not very touristy and I mostly crossed paths with large groups of rowdy Chinese. So, I did not find many other
Meetings on the road
No matter what, it is easier to make sincere acquaintances with other travelers than with locals. Generalizing, in rich countries you are ignored, while in poor countries, you are considered a wallet with legs at best.
Precisely because it was not very touristy and with the main destinations fairly standardized, I happened to run into certain people again and again who somehow stood out. In Vientiane I saw again no less than four times within two days a guy recognizable from a distance even though he was camouflaged in a garden. He wore phosphorescent-colored Bermuda shorts, a fisherman’s hat, mirrored sunglasses even at night, and above all an incredible floral shirt.
I also met three Russians four times; in two of them they were about to jump the line. The first time at the station when Laotian trains have only numbered seats; the second time to enter the royal palace in Luang Prabang, for a two-minute line.
Instead, when you stop to chat with someone you usually compare your current trip and others. In the shuttle from Luang Prabang station I met a couple from Rotterdam; they had cancelled their lease and before looking for a new job and a new home, they had decided to take a months-long trip to Asia.
He was more than two meters tall and told me how much he struggled with the measurements of bathrooms and means, standard for small Laotian men. I told him that I had gone to buy underwear at a market; I usually wear XL, I had to get XXXL. She gave me some interesting tips for a trip to Tibet, and we talked about the floods that they have always been used to, while for my land it is a sad new habit.
Vang Vieng
Vang Vieng until a few years ago was a hangout for thrill-seeking backpackers. There was a lot of drugs and alcohol going around, and the main activity was drunken tubing along the Nam Song River.
Apparently, after a few dozen kids came home boxed in, the governments of some Western countries lobbied, and now the whole thing has been regulated. There are also other somewhat adrenaline-pumping and unsafe activities in the area, such as cave hiking, kayak tours (as well as tubing), whitewater rafting, rock climbing; all the stuff I don’t care about.
I found the small town extremely boring: 2 dusty roads full of tourist activities. If it had not been on the road between Vientiane and Luang Prabang and if I had not known about the railway beforehand, in hindsight I would not have stopped at all. To make the day meaningful, I decided to have my first experience in a
Hot air balloon ride
In my small group, there was one couple and as many as 6 traveling alone, including 4 women. So much for those who tell me that a woman cannot walk around alone. One was British and had given herself too much perfume, as well as dressed for evening. The Dane was a royal guard; the kind that guards the royal palace and as in all countries with monarchy they have ceremonies for the changing of the guard. He told us about his hat made from bear hair. Of course, they don’t kill bears anymore, so they recycle the same hats as they always have.
Of the 2 French women, one was too pretty, making our hearts ache. The other one showed us her two tattoos. One was a drawing of a chicken, and I agreed that it was very convenient for ordering at a restaurant in a country where you don’t know the language. The other tattoo was an inscription in Italian: the worst is over. I worried that it was not because of a philandering compatriot (they are terrible); but he reassured me, he had chosen to have it written only because it was too long in French.
After this talk, they would have once proposed to me to have a binge, and maybe go to dinner, but no, they would have once been my peers, they are off target.
Video and general links
Here is the video made from the hot air balloon: Hot air balloon in Laos, live on travel
Here instead is what I did after a few months in Cappadocia, Turkey: Almost live video from Turkey trip: part 2
Home trip Travel to Laos and Cambodia with inadequate guide
Previous stop Luang Prabang, where water becomes schnapps
Next stop Slow boats and fast trains the transportation in Laos
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
Countries visited in my travel stories
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