Have some spare time so I'll write some ramblings.
Got our first taste of communist law the other night in Luang Prubang.
After catching up with some friends, getting all you can eat $1.20 dinner and buying some shit from markets that we will never use we decide to have a few drinks.
Hit some random bar up, cocktails and free shots going down a treat. Even haggled some prices down on some roughly made cocktails. (they are only a few dollars anyway but when in rome) Special for you, special for you! Yarning to the bar staff who speaks average english I find out my classic gag I've been saying this whole trip to get a laugh 'Kuoy pin nia ban' actually means 'buffulo is village chief' rather than 'I am village chief.' Its all in the kuoy pronunciation which can either mean dick, buffulo, or I.
But yes, get in a tuk tuk to head to the bowling alley. Laos bars all shut at 11.30 but the bowling alley stays open till 1am. Oh yes.
With 11 people in the 9 man tuk tuk, with people street surfing, shit was inevitably going to go down. And it did.
A police check point is reached.
Now in NZ you may have 4-5 running a check point. In Laos you need 18 policemen. And considering we saw one other motorbike and a car on the road during the 30min stop it would be fair to say they are over staffing. But over staffing is what happens when you go communist. Our young driver all of 25 knows he has had a mare overloading, tries to deny it, its no use. Shaking and nearly in tears he gets given a bit of paper with a fine and his tuk tuk (which is a small ute that you can sit on the back of for those not in the know) gets confiscated.
Being a person to fight for the rights on the unlucky I again throw profanities at the police, looking back that could have been a bad move, but nothing eventuated. Lucky they don't speak english.
The police eventually pack up the check point, we asked the driver how much it would be. 300,000 kip, about $50NZ. This emotionally ruined him. Having lost his only source of income and having it confiscated, I along with a friend decide to hook him up with 200.000 kip. Hugging isn't really seen in Laos, but we got a big one.
Money well spent I guess, not that much to me but a huge deal to him.
He even gets us a free tuk tuk from his friend to the bowling place.
End up getting a strike first bowl, but then crumbled under the pressure forced upon me by yet another beer lao.
Mini vaned to Vang Vieng the next day.
Meet up with a group of 13 kings/auckalnd grammar boys.
Imagine a place where the backpacker runs wild, every restaurant has Friends or Family Guy on repeat, the smell of fresh nutella and banana pancakes in the air. There are more western faces than Lao. The small town has one thing happening. That is tubing. Renting a tube and floating down the river. Not just any river. There are about 10 bars (if my memory is correct) down the river. All serving up buckets (for a few dollars of course, standard drinks:dollars spent ratio is very high) and 'other' stuff. "Buy a bucket, get free joint" was even painted on the bars. No rules here. Must be a mafia system, where the police get paid off or something.
Bars have dangerous slides and rope swings into the muddy river and pump what apparently is suppose to be good music, in most cases dated top 40 stuff or d&B. Few people die every month apparently and drinks are supposedly laced with drugs.
So never tube and drink kids. Didn't take any photos, due to water and electrical cameras not mixing that well. But this video I found on youtube is whats its all about:
The massive slide made out of bathroom tiles and the backflip flying fox were personal favorites. Westerns runs the bars, getting free accom and food but no pay, one I meet had been doing it for 6 months. He could barely walk or talk due to being totally out his mind. But not a bad lifestyle.
We all safely got off the river eventually, some don't even remember getting in a tube, others had cuts and sore skin due to chronic body slams. But great day out.
Here are some menu choices frpm one of the places in town:
6200kip = $1NZ, crazy stuff.
Yup that is about it.
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