Ants In My Pants

Mountain top view inbetween potty breaks

We arrived in Luang Prabang against our will at dusk. By the time we made it to the city center it was completely dark. Anxiously walking up and down the guesthouse streets seeing the sign’s full on every door, we happened to fall upon the Mekong Moon- a great boutique hotel for  $20. The only bad part, they could only keep us for 2 days. After our wonderful 2 day stay, we headed out to our new guesthouse, what looked like another great spot for an even better price $15. After a night on the mattress (I don’t even know if you could actually call it that), the springs were indented on our backs.

Sadly, Danny caught the stomach bug. After a night in the bathroom for Dan, we decided to check into another guesthouse, one with a comfortable bed!  Between bathroom breaks, we made a run for our next abode-an even better deal, $10.

After one night, I was ready to leave, but for some reason we had committed to two nights. With a nice and early wake up from the roosters, dogs, babies, pots and pans clanging- all at 5 am might I add- we headed over to the Mekong  Moon.  It was my lucky day, they had the next week available!

Another Golden Wat

We get through night 2 at our $10 a night guesthouse- 5am wake up call’s still included.   Now that all belly’s were up to par, we took a morning stroll to a great bakery.  Well the stroll turned into a brisk walk into a slight jog as bellys that we thought were good turned out not to be.  Even though this place wasn’t so great, they did have an awesome shower. With a jog unexpectedly thrown into the morning, I decided to make  use of the only good thing this guesthouse had to offer. 

 I start to shower and see an ant on the wall. Not uncommon, no big deal.  As I go to turn the water temperature up, I reach my hand almost to the faucet to see hundreds of red ants filing out of the wall. Now im not talking one or two, Im taking HUNDREDS OF RED ANTS. And what do I decided to do- spray the crap out of them so THOUSANDS of red ants come out of the wall. As I start to panic, I call Danny for some help. After a few curse words, he’s like get the heck out of the shower and pack your bag- we’ve got to get out of here.  We packed our bags so fast it wasn’t even funny. Even as I write this I feel ants crawling all over me.

Beautiful scenery

As we settled back into the dream hotel, Mekong Moon, I took that shower that was much needed. After a day in a plush bed, in an ant-less room, one stomach bug was nursed back to health, but sadly another one started. That’s right- I caught a bug myself. I’m just glad my bed has springs and the bathroom I spend the night in is ant-less.

Bus Trips Through Laos

OK- let's get you all up to speed. Yes, I'm sure you've figured out I havent been blogging. The leisurely pace of Laos got to my head. If you've been following Danny's blog you know we are in Luang Prabang, Laos but for those of you who aren't here's a map!


View Laos in a larger map

Street side view from out place in Vientiane

We spent a few days exploring the capital of Vientiane and then headed north to Vang Vieng to take in the beautiful limestone setting and the famous tubing experience. After 2 days of techno beats, westerners without clothes, and a tubing experience down the Nam Khan River, we decided to head even farther north to Luang Prabang.

Hotel balcony view in Vang Vieng

If you look on the map it seems that there is equal distance between all 3 cities. WRONG. Journey #1 from Vientiane to Vang Vieng was advertised as a 3 hour journey. Wrong again. Our "3 hour" journey was actually a 4 hour journey. Not too bad, right? Wrong again. The roads weren't paved. Would you like me to repeat that? A 4 hour journey on unpaved roads with a bus driver who thought he was running from the cops. I am a go with the flow kind of person, but I thought I was either going to puke all over our friends on the bus or have to spend the rest of my life in jail because I killed our bus driver. It was an agonizing trip that left us off in the blistering heat of a unknown city to find a guesthouse.

unpaved roads through Laos

More views from the busride

 

Now onto our journey to Luang Prabang! We knew it was going to be a long hilly journey so we tried to prepare ourselves. We got the VIP big bus, had plastic bags (use your imagination), and had empty stomachs. We were successful!!!! However, we dont want to ever have to do it again. So $160 flight later- we will be heading to Hanoi, Vietnam February 1st, but not before we take in all the beauty Luang Prabang has to offer.

Beautiful sunsets in Luang Prabang, Laos