Date: 22nd November 2014
VV presented a much better account of itself in daylight, as most places do. The famed karst scenery was all around an the river gurgled through it. The backpackers were still there but were much more sober and dignified . Moved into a dorm room with a variety of characters, most of them friendly.
After lunch, i decided to checkout “tubing”, where you float down the river in a tyre-tube, which is the fun part .The sad part is that at regular intervals along the river there are shack bars which try their best to re-create all that is worst about young adults going on breaks. Big speakers blaring electronic music drowns out the chirp of the birds and the river. If you manage to stay away from there wretched places, it can be a very nice experience . For me the highlight was when, as i was slowly drifting down the river, a dragonfly came an sat on my knees for what felt like about a minute.
In general, the whole of the animal kingdom keep humans at arms length and for very good reasons. So when something , that of its own free will,shares those moments with you, those experiences become precious.
At night decided to tag along with the dorm mates to check out the night life. There are bars all over the town and the crowd is almost exclusively made up of trashy backpackers. In most bars , the only Lao presence is that of the cleaners clearing up the mess left behind by out-of-control white trash and the sweet sandwich ladies lining the streets. It was clearly my FOMO that got me to the bars. Maybe the off chance that i would meet somebody with an actual education , to talk about stuff other that how they hate certain people for the most bizarre of reasons