Leaving Vang Vieng

I was looking forward to moving on to another city in Laos today: Vientiane, the capital.

In the morning, at 9.20am, I went downstairs to the kitchen and asked if the free breakfast was still being served — no one had informed me of the breakfast times previously.
What I got back from the lady was a direct and, frankly, quite rude, “NO!”

I was put off by that reaction and didn’t know what to make of it. Why on earth did she react that way?

I said, “Wow, cool, thanks for letting me know,” and left.

No breakfast, then.

Even though I still had 2.5 hours before the departure of my train, I went to hail a tuktuk from the street. I had had enough of that hostel.

The tuktuk driver and I agreed on a price of 60,000 Kip.

Once arrived at the railway station, he only gave me 35,000 Kip change and tried to tell me he doesn’t have any more change. Which would have been considerably more credible, hadn’t he taken the 35k change out of a big wad of cash with plenty more notes.
He kept shrugging and gesturing sheepishly, smiling, hoping for me to just go with it.
Yeah, great. What choice did I have?

I initially said, “No, that’s not the correct amount. There’s 5k Kip missing.”

But more broken-English explanations that were neither coherent nor logical followed.
I think he tried to convince me he had to pay an entry fee at the station to drive in.

However, he bypassed that entirely and didn’t even enter the section. He dropped me off in the grass next to a large ditch over which I had to jump with my 30+ kg of luggage.

I kept explaining, but I wasn’t really getting anywhere in that situation.

I told him if there really was an extra fee, he would have known about this (he either drives people to the airport or the train station every day), and he should have informed me. What he’s doing is not okay. I left in a huff.

The hostel staff had mentioned that, yes, I’d be able to buy snacks at the train station.
Guess what I wasn’t able to buy? Yep. There was nothing there. Only a bit of cake and some daifuku (basically mochi). I wasn’t even in the mood for it (what is happening? 😮), but thought, meh, at least something. But it wasn’t edible… So, yeah.

This time, I had a first-class ticket and was looking forward to the train ride.

Until I entered the compartment and noticed I was surrounded by toddlers and babies.
Nuts.

I promptly put on my uniform of noise-cancelling headphones and a face mask. And occasionally doused myself in disinfectant because a waddling, incoherent creature thought it fit to touch me with snotty, dripping fingers — and the parents were entirely on board with that.

I was NOT in a good mood.

My mood dropped further when I checked into my new hostel. I thought the last one was run-down. But this one? Yuck.

It had really good reviews, however! How? I can tell you. They give out a free beer for every 5-star review… The hostel deserves 1. Because that’s the minimum you have to give…

In the evening, I explored the Night Market and the Food Night Market, where I tried a new dish: rose tteokbokki — a creamy, Italian-inspired Korean street food with rice cakes as a thick pasta substitute. I was told it wouldn’t be spicy. It was.Read more