Danny Beer - Danny does Laos and Cambodia

© Danny Beer, 2020

ISBN 978-5-4498-4603-7

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

I guess this will serve as an introduction as any. I write this half-drunk at Bangkok airport, in between flights. I turned down a night out on the town in return for a little solitude and a slightly greater chance of making my 6:00 AM flight to Udon Thani.

This is a long deserved holiday. Four weeks cycling in Laos and Cambodia. It is a long overdue rest away from it all. I am escaping an intolerable colleague, who only today treated me like a dog in front of my students and boss, and some weird stalker who calls twenty times a day yet won’t say a word whenever I answer. I need to distress. I hope that the cycling may help to relieve some of it.

This is probably my first trip of which I have planned so much. That said, this is my first cycling trip in excess of three days. But it is as yet entirely planned. There are still a few uncertainties of which I haven’t even begun to plan. I’ve winged it before.

This was, originally, a solo trip. Indeed I am quite alone whilst writing this now. I did invite my friend Ken along, my cycling buddy in Taiwan. At first he couldn’t come but then jealousy started to overcome his sense of logic. He booked a flight to leave nine days after mine and to return on the same day, due to work commitments. Two days after he booked his flight he finds out that his boss got confused and he could leave a week early after all. He was unable to change his ticket date though.

Two or three days ago Ken informs me that he might be able to meet up with me a little earlier. His application for residency has been denied and he will need to do a visa run sooner. So maybe he’ll meet me in Vientiane. Maybe a little further down. It is all very uncertain for him until he comes to Bangkok in three days time and tries to get another visa at the Taiwan consulate, or whatever office they call themselves as Thailand do not recognize them as a separate sovereign state. Heck, even I almost landed in trouble trying to leave Taiwan. I was taken aside at passport control because some government agency had failed to cancel a disused re-entry permit. Don’t worry though as I have another, valid, one.

So yeah, the plan for the next few days I catch a 6: 00 AM flight to Udon Thani. Then I buy a bicycle. Then I ride the 55km to the border, over the friendship bridge, and into Vientiane. Then I plan to book a flight up to Luang Prabang. I’ll take the bus back down to Vientiane, via Vang Vieng, spending a couple of days in each. I have pretty much decided to leave my bike somewhere in Vientiane. I do not want to do any long distance cycling in these few days and figure that it will only prove to be a hindrance on the plane and buses.

So that’s about it. Saturday is sure to be one long random day. I’m not sleeping tonight so I’m not quite sure how I will handle everything tomorrow. At least I won’t have to put up with the crap that Ken has to go through.

One night at the airport.

14—01 I just awoke from a nap so am not quite all there at the moment. I am in Luang Prabang. I didn’t end up buying the bike in Udon Thani. I took the bus instead which, although forcing me to wait three hours at the airport, was dead easy. I almost missed my connecting flight from Vientiane though. The tuk-tuk raced to the airport only for me to have to wait behind some guy arguing about some non-descript non-urgent matter. Each time he asked a different question I had to think to myself ‘holiday Danny, you’re on holiday’, to stop from exploding.

It is now early evening, perfect for taking photos of all the wats in town. But I have other things on my mind. Food and beer.

Unusual thing I noticed today. People often ask where I am from. But I never ask them back. Probably because I really don’t care. Or maybe I’m merely too bored/boring to hold a conversation.

A woman outside has a pet monkey. Some young children play with it, laughing wildly. They run close to the monkey. It takes a swipe at them. The children run back, laughing. One child runs forward and trips over his brother. He falls flat on his face. There doesn’t seem to be any serious damage done but he cries anyway in the manner of all small children. I laugh.

15—01 Nothing overly exciting happened today. In short, I woke up late then walked around town taking photos. I booked a minivan ticket to Vang Vien for tomorrow morning. Luang Prabang is a nice town but it’s time for me to move on.

I met a monk last night called Pha (sp?). He was an interesting lad of twenty, intelligent enough and seemed to have met a few people in the last few years. He had been there for six years now but clearly showed signs of wanting a different change of pace. He wasn’t shy about showing his dissatisfaction for his sexual oppression, in particular his fondness for Japanese girls. I could only agree.

My first Beerlao.

17—01 Yesterday didn’t mark anything significant or interesting. I took a bus to Vang Vien. The scenery was quite nice. Otherwise the trip was boring. There were a few cyclists about. I kept thinking that it would have been so much better on a bike than in the bus.

Today I went tubing. It was okay but got monotonous quite quickly. And I just couldn’t relax after seeing that snake coming towards me across the water. Seeing the police sit behind one of the riverside bars, watching the foreigners drink and smoke dope was also a bit unsettling.

Tomorrow I may do a kayak tour to Vientiane. I need to get there anyway and am getting eager to exert some energy.

18—01 I have arrived in Vientiane and now need to wait until six to meet Ken, just like his note said. It also said that he would find us a couple of rooms which leaves me wandering around town with a couple of heavy bags. So I found this nice restaurant here and sat down and ordered breakfast.

The kayaking went ahead as planned with no major eventualities. The first place wanted to charge more money as there were only the three of us. We soon found somewhere else and we soon (ish) were on our way. There really was only one lot of rapids. It is dry season so the river is low, and therefore slow.

At one point docking on some rocks I left my camera in my dry-bag. Our guide thoughtlessly pulled the other kayak onto mine, and right onto my camera. It seems to be working fine now although a system error message came up at first.

Stupa.

My camera is broken. The shutter won’t close properly. No biggee though as it still works. I bought an overly expensive bike today, then twice took it back to fix the tires and rims. I almost bought a mountain bike for much less but the pedals almost fell off and the gears wouldn’t work properly. In any case, bikes in Taiwan are much cheaper than Laos or Thailand. And of better quality too. I had to buy a rear rack separately and when I showed Ken he immediately bent it back, braking it.