Saunas and Massage

Sauna

Most people that visit Vanvieng are unlikely to remember it. This is not because it is a particulalry forgettable town. It is just that the majority of time that tourists spend here is done so under a haze of opium, Marajhuana or Lao Lao ( homemade Lao paint thinner come drink). Or a combination of all three. Vanvieng is famous for tubing which invloves the occsionally fatal mix of booze, drugs, rubber tire tubes and a fast flowing river. ....

It was with some trepidation then that i had arrived on a hot afternoon and looked for somewhere to stay. I finsih up sharing a room with a new zealnd guy. He arrives in at three in the morning blotted. He turns on the light and starts searching the top of the cubboard in the room. "What are you looking for" i ask. He tells me his mates left half a joint there the previous night. He goes out to smoke then comes back in and procedes to sleep naked, sheetless in the bed next to mine. I move hostels the next day...

My gear is in rather desperate need of a clean ( the bag smells like a dead animal) so i need somwhere to spread everything out. Finally I pick another hostel that looks like it has some space that i can clean my bike ( always important). I dump my gear and meet of few of the other travelers. The three Aussies in the group have a decidedly bogan edge. I cringe at there notions of "box ticking" travel- must always travel in a group, only eat food i would have at home and only socialise with other travelers and most importantly get the picture to show to your friends.

I spend the day washing anything and everthing. The bag is almost yellow again! The day ends on awesome note with a lemmon grass sauna with all the staff from the hostel.

Sauna Time!

It is without much sadness then that i leave Vanvieng early the next morning. The locals are hard at work, cleaning up from the previous night shenaigans. Being a bit over the hostel scene but needing to stay in Vientiene for a few days to sort my visa i have teed up a couch surf.

Massage

The Lao capitial Vientiene has the same laid back, easy going feel as most of Laos. Guy, my host for my stay, is a bit like the city he lives in, laid back, easy going with an off beat charm. He was born in Laos but spent most of his life in LA. He does an awesome job of showing me around the sights and sounds ( and eats) of Vientiene while i wait for my Thai visa. He also introduces me to Glee, a very trashy but very funny show about kids in a choir in the US.

The day after i arrive we head off for a massage. I have been a bit cautiuos to try this as i haven't been sure i won't get something "else" with the massage. Guy, however, assures me that this place is very professional and stays strictly above the belt.

2 hours later i feel like i have been beaten with the phonebook and then run over by a car. The dude took my poor hips joints to places even i havent taken them yet! And he seemed to get some kind of grim satisfaction from each wince that i gave. I spend the next hour or so wondering if the pain was worth. When i can actaully bend squat using my thigh muscles, however, i decide that maybe it was.

"Who is emrys, where is he? "

And so after a wodnerful 4 days in Vientiene i have now hit the road again. I have blasted through some rather falt and boring country in central Thailand and am about to hit the coast. The swim that i will have ( in the ocean) means i will have crossed the eurasian land mass and am starting to get a little bit closer to home....

What a month or two of cycling in the heat will do to your hands...