I met Marion in the UK – her daughter was in the same year as Hannah at school – before her husband got a job in Laos working on the Mekong river. At the time she mentioned that if i ever came that way then i was welcome to stay with her. So i e-mailed Marion a month before i would arrive in Vientiane and it was fortunate that our times were in sync.
Marion and her husband have a house right on the Mekong river, and across from them is Thailand. There is a verandah that faces the river and is the best spot to observe sunset.
As i had had a really good bus ride there on a sleeper bus – called that because it has beds instead of chairs – i was feeling well rested by the time i arrived there at 6am. I then went to JoMa where Marion had arranged to collect me at 8am. From there we went home to have a shower and breakfast before heading out to begin a very active day. First up, we had to go buy some trainers, as i only have flip flops and hiking boots – so Marion very kindly bought the trainers and they are to be used by her daughter in the future.
First on the list of activities was hockey in the scorching heat – i literally hadn’t played since school – i was dripping wet after that, and that is when we went straight to play doubles tennis. We did get to have a dip in the pool afterwards though, and that felt really good! We then went out to dinner with Marions friends and then home to crash.
The next morning Marion had a Japanese tea party so she invited me to join her. There is a group of expat women who meet up and this was an event organised as a farewell party for one of the members. The women come from all different countries and it was a Japanese women arranging this party. It was really interesting as she spoke a lot about the ceremony and brought Kimono’s for us to see. We got to eat the brown sweet stuff – i am not going to honour it with the name of chocolate cake – and then we drank the bitter green tea. After the tea party they all went to some fancy restaurant and that is when i took my leave to do the tourist thing. I went to a Wat (Buddhist temple) and then another two Wats that had been turned into museums. I liked that they had named the two museums, because they were no longer being used in their original function. In some other places, like Bangkok, i was a bit put off by how temples are used as tourist attractions in order to make money, and i felt that there was an element of reverence missing somehow.
I then went to the morning market to wander around before meeting up with Marion again. She had a hash planned for the evening, so i decided to join her. It is apparently an event that happens all around the world, and is a way to meet new people as well as going to places that you wouldn’t normally go to. Some people jog the course while others walk. As i am not a jogger by any means, i decided to walk - and in my flip flops. I was needing to buy a new pair as they were really wearing thin, but i wanted to wait until they were no longer wearable. About 5 minutes into the hash, they were no longer wearable! I had stepped into some mud, and the mud decided to hold onto my flop as i stepped out of the mud – so the strap broke. I decided to then just leave it there along with the other one, and continued on the hash barefoot. It was really nice as we walked along the back streets of an area where the locals lived, and they were out watching us with interest as we went past. I got to walk Whiskey the dog, who is originally from South Africa, but we met in the UK. He tended to attract a lot of attention from the local dogs, so it was an interesting exercise to try and prevent a dog fight... thankfully my long stick helped. When we had to cross a bamboo bridge – 3 bamboo poles wide – Whiskey had to be carried by one of the guys, as he just kind of sat down on the bridge and didn’t want to go any further.
At the end of the hash we meet back at the restaurant and had some little games before dinner.
My stay with Marion mainly involved playing tennis and going out for meals which was very social.
My birthday was on the Tuesday of my stay, so i had made a special request for chocolate cake, so when we got home on Tuesday afternoon, the cake was in the fridge and looking gorgeous!! I then proceeded to begin cooking dinner, as Marion had invited some of her friends over. I made my favourite – mushroom Risotto, roasted pumpkin and garlic bread and salad – yum!!! It all turned out well, and everyone proceeded to have seconds, so clearly they enjoyed it!
Earlier in the day i had been to COPE, which is a centre where they deal with victims of UXO – Unexploded Ordinance devices. Basically, all the bombies that were dropped during the Vietnam war that didn’t explode then, and are still exploding now when they are prodded or stepped on – causing loss of life or limbs to men, women and children. I watched a couple of documentaries about how it is impacting Laos today, and saw where they make the prosthetics and wheelchairs for the locals. What is really interesting is that this is a rehabilitation centre so walking around there you see people who have been impacted by the bombies, so it is not some far-removed centre.
Then it was time to depart for the north...
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