- Bad start to the day – Dislocated Shoulder
- Arranging transport to Vientiane
- Meeting talkative randoms on route to Vientiane
- Finding half decent accomodation in Vientiane
- First impressions of Vientiane
Bad start to the day – Dislocated Shoulder
I got up pretty early and packed up the rest of my messy possessions as today I was leaving Vang Vieng for the Laotian capital – Vientiane.
I got ready and walked out of the guesthouse room onto the slippery wet wooden deck and as I approached the steep set of stairs to walk up to reception I fell ass over tit on the slimy wooden surface. I was stuck flat on my back with my backpack on in a huge amount of pain since I had dislocated my shoulder.
This was a bad dislocation it was so painful and still so very painful as I write this now. I do have a pre-existing condition with my shoulder since I have dislocated it many times before but this particular shoulder dislocated was really bad. I somehow was able to get my arm back into its socket and I proceeded to check out with my arm in a sling and surrounded with ice.
Arranging transport to Vientiane
Mr “Ping” Pong the owner of the Vang Vieng Orchid Guesthouse arranged for a pick up truck “HiLux” to take me to Vientiane for a cheap 60,000 kip which I immediately agreed to.
Meeting talkative randoms on route to Vientiane
There was another Aussie guy and a pommy couple also riding along with the driver and I to Vientiane. They were all super cool, the pommy girl wouldn’t shut up and I bet she would have been able to talk under wet cement. We were all joking at how much she talked and the boys expressed how painful it could be when they had massive hangovers.
It was interesting to find out that the pommy couples were both studying law at University back home in England. Then she started asking a thousand questions about the law, getting a job, law in Australia, me, my life, my girlfriend, my brother, my family…..I think she pretty much covered every aspect of my life on the trip to Vientiane – it was quite weird. However, these are the pleasures of meeting random and different people from all over the world and all walks of life – I love meeting new people.
Finding half decent accomodation in Vientiane
We finally arrived in Vientiane and I got out on the main street aligned to the Mekong River. I wandered around looking for a decent but cheap guesthouse and was having a bit of trouble. I came across some very cheap places but they were disgusting hovels that stunk, I pursued on until I cam across a place called Joe’s Guesthouse. I ended up paying 110,000 kip per night a bit more than I wanted to but the place was clean, had air conditioning and a bathroom and to be quite honest I was in pain from my shoulder and couldn’t be bother looking around for a cheaper place much longer.
First impressions of Vientiane
I went for a wonder around town and to be quite honest I was not too impressed, the city just seemed flat boring and not much to do. It was ok but certainly no highlight. Perhaps it was due to thefact that I had just come from Vang Vieng which was by far and away the highlight of my trip so far. Vientiane had a tough job in aiming up to the fun that Vang Vieng presented.
I grabbed a tuk-tuk and ended up buying some opium off him which I ended up smoking that night following a nice Indian meal. I ended up passing out on a concoction of sedatives and alcohol, which was a welcome distractions for the pain I was enduring from my injured shoulder.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Josh Boorman
Editor-in-chief
Backpacking Addictz
Twitter: @backpackaddictz
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Joshua Boorman
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1 Comment
Michael Anthony
May 13, 2010Hey Dude ! That sucks about the shoulder ! sounds like u got it under control! That opium will for sure help keep the pain away !
It is cool to meet other people during your Travels ! Looking forward to next post , Man ! Good healing Josh !!1
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