Day 222 - The Good and The Bad

First The Bad. Or The Adventures of Drinky McBarfsalot. Or Why I Am SO OVER Bamboo Walls. This is not a tale for weak stomachs.

Some things you need to know.

1. Bamboo walls are not soundproof. Not even a little bit.

2. I. HATE. vomit. I do not like to sit in aisle seats on airplanes because I fear someone on their way to the toilet might throw up on me. Pregnant ladies make me nervous because of morning sickness. Ditto drunk people. I cover my eyes for vomit scenes in movies. And the list goes on...

So understand my horror when on our second night in Don Det we are awakened to the sound of a girl sobbing next door. Followed by...BLEAAARGH gurgle SPLAT and a man's voice saying sorry, sorry. It was all I could do to keep from responding "Well you should be!" Then more sobbing and frantic girl talking in Korean. Followed again by BLEAAAARG gurgle. gurgle. SPLAT. And more sobbing. Repeat ad nauseum (pun intended).

Drinky McBarfsalot as I have now christened our lovely neighbor was sharing his bungalow with two women. Between the guesthouse owner, the Turkish guy in the bungalow on their other side, and I, we deduced that he and girl 1 were probably an item. He got exceedingly drunk and made a pass at girl 2. Resulting in A: Girl 1 crying and B: Him projectile vomiting. Jackass.

This would be somewhat OK if the story ended there. But oh no, the saga continues. The very next night, I am awakened to a girl with an Aussie accent saying "Oh I feel so sick". Followed shortly thereafter by URP URP Bleagh Splash. URP cough splash flush. I can be a little more sympathetic as she tried to be quiet, and probably just had food poisoning, but still two nights in a row?!

The bus ride was mercifully vomit-free. BUT our very first night in Vang Vieng...It was like Drinky McBarfsalot revisited, minus the sobbing and the Korean. At least the next day his girlfriend apologised for him. Food poisoning apparently - he actually wound up in hospital. But not before causing me to vow to NEVER EVER rent a bamboo-walled bungalow again!

And now the good. And it's very good.

As mentioned before, tubing the Nam Song is the main activity in Vang Vieng. So this afternoon, we rented ourselves two tubes, hitched a a ride upstream, and flopped into the water. In rainy season it's a fast and furious float with even a few rapids. In dry season (now), the river meanders along just strong enough to make paddling redundant.

All along the way, entrepreneurial Laos have set up open-air bars and rope swings into the river. The water didn't seem deep enough for the rope swings to feel really safe, so we opted out of those. Most of the bars seemed to cater to a much younger clientele, where everyone's bits seemed to not yet have heard of gravity, and to wear anything more than a string bikini positively prudish. So we drifted on. After the first glut of 19-year olds doing mating dances, the bars mellowed out considerably, often being just a collections of bamboo platforms built into the river with a sign offering up Beer Laos. We stopped at one of these, and watched bemused as the Beer Laos gondola poled its frothy load to our side.

After drinking our lukewarm beer and baking like lizards for a while, we flopped back into our tubes to continue floating our way into town. By the time we drifted back to the tube rental place, the sun was going down, and we agreed it had been an afternoon well spent.

Every night the moon has been getting fatter and fatter. All over town today, we have been seeing signs advertising a full moon party at one of the riverside bars. Having never been to a full-moon party, and having heard tales, we decided to take the plunge. As we walked towards the sounds of revelry, the moon did its best to prove its fullness.

Once at the party, we bought the drink of choice a 'long island bucket'. As the name implies, it is a little beach bucket filled with long island ice tea. As we sipped our 'tea', we watched the rest of the crowd dancing and drinking. It all seemed a little pathetic. I would guess the average age of the crowd to be about 19, and they all seemed to be trying to get as drunk as possible as fast as possible and to prove that they were having a good time - which very few of them actually seemed to be doing.

That said, the fire pits and lights were nice, but as soon as we finished our drink, I was ready to leave. BUT, as we got up to go, the DJ finally put on some Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Queen, ACDC, and even some Beatles. We found a little pocket of people that might have been closer to our own age who actually seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves. The final half hour of the party was a total blast.

And we left before anyone started throwing up.