Lasting impression 14/03/2011: Camp at another hut to Luang Prabang 34.65km

Another awful night sleeping this time thanks to the army of ants. I was woken and could feel little bites in my head, thinking i was going soft i tried to ignore it but after 15minutes reached for my torch and the area next to where i had my head was moving. I came up with a cunning plan to change ends so i put my head to where my legs were. This plan worked until about 4am where a few ants appeared, then i felt a few drops of rain. Mattis woke also shined a torch onto my dry sack which was close to my head and there was a never ending line of ants walking along. As my head was in the line of rain i moved to where my head originally was as the ants had moved on.  The rain didn’t materialise to anything and i managed to get a bit more sleep in before the sun came up.

Again i was pretty grumpy in the morning not having a good sleep and ants were now my biggest foe having made their way into my food bag. We had a downhill to the town for breakfast and passed the kids walking to school, they had a good 5km to go. We only had a short ride to Luang Prabang and it was to be the last time the 5 of us would ride together. I have really enjoyed the change of pace, going with the flow of others and seeing how other people do things. For example getting water from the well in villages, i was getting to a stage where buying water was becoming expensive but now i see there is no need to waste money on something that back in the developed world all is need is the turn of a tap and if you do get ill all is needed is a trip to the hospital to get it fixed, that’s not an option here. Laos is a very poorer place and you see the water wells from World vision Australia, Singapore, America, UK etc.  Riding i needed to stop for the dunny and a petrol station was the best place, Loon stopped also and after finishing my business another fat women who had been cleaning them came over  with a bill for 5000 kip! Instead of smiling, pretend not to understand and riding off i got a bit angry at the cheek or trying to rip me off because I’m Western. I pointed out to her no signs nothing, she didn’t understand me as i shouted louder so did she though she did have a grin on her pig like face that she was going to make some dishonest money, i was prepared to just ride off though i did have it in the back of my mind she could get ‘the boys’ to hunt me down, im not hard to spot. Loon came out and we gave her a 1000kip each, better than 5000kip each. Steaming i rode flat out to try and release some tension and it worked but looking back its best to just smile and walk away, you don’t get angry and keep your money, this is just another example why Laos has become somewhere i hate and love. I love the countryside, its truly is amazing but the people obviously hate westerners, don’t want and can’t be arsed dealing with us but sadly for them have to and if they can rip us off blindly they will for that i never have an desire to come back.

Getting into Luang Prabang we tracked down a place where we got 2 rooms for 100,000kip per night and between 5 that’s cheap as chips. Its also really nice place, beautiful wooden building, looks clean though with a few small holes in the wall but by far the best guesthouse i have stayed in Laos. I claimed the bed thus sending loon to the floor, i deserved it,  its to be my first bed for i don’t know how many days.

Hungry as me Loon and Athena looked for food, Athena had been here so knew where to go so we followed her lead. WiFi was next plan after food but using the plug sockets was a problem in most places, another reason why i hate Laos, they will rip you off (10,000 for a tea) and not let you even use a plug so you can use a computer for example, i told to shove the tea up her fat penny pinching backside and walked around some more. Loon went with Tomo the Japanese from a few days earlier to help him find a guesthouse. Me and Athena did find a nice cake shop, which had WiFi, would let us use the plug socket and had some killer cakes for a budget price. We headed back to the guesthouse where on the way i took advantage of the French influence of baguettes. Here comes another example of an attempted rip off, asking how much i was told 10,000kip, for any, then choosing i happen to choose the one that is 15,000, saying no thanks and beginning to walk off the price comes back down to 10,000. We went back to the guesthouse where i virtually crashed, i needed the rest.