all good things must come to an end, and so it goes with laos.
after three days of climbing, one day of hiking, and three days of tubing, we left vang vieng behind to make our way through laos' tattered south. as always ashley proved to be a champ at rock climbing, making spiderman-like moves to make it to the top of one particularly difficult route, that noone else could make. i partially attribute my failure to a bruised rib i earned during a heated match of mud volleyball the previous day, though it can probably be chalked up to my fear of heights and lack of skill. for both of us, three days climbing in one week has almost certainly solidified our status as officially addicted, and we both hope to find more climbing in cambodia and vietnam. there's even talk of ending our trip where we started it, on tonsai beach, for a solid week or two of scaling walls.
after leaving vang vieng we worked our way south, into vientiane, a capital city in desperate need of a makeover. we went to vienetiane truly wanting to like it, dismissing negative accounts we had heard from other travellers, but after just a few hours of dirty streets, seedy characters, and our overpriced rats nest hotel (complete with window facing a brick wall), we booked a VIP bus for the next day to pakse.
the VIP bus is more than just prestige. the slightly elevated price gets you extra leg room and airconditioning, both big perks for a ten hour ride, and dinner. a heads up ashley, thinking there might not be a vegetarian option, brought her own meal along. i, instead, held out for the bus meal, which turned out to be two nerf balls filled with cat shit. somehow the dissappointment of dinner didn't prepare me for the letdown of dessert: a small handful of halls cough drops... honest to god. this was quite possibly the most liberal interpretation of a "dinner" i have ever experienced.
the rest of the bus ride was fine, the worst part being the city in which we arrived. pakse is a beat up town with not much going on. nearby are several smaller towns with waterfalls and ruins, but today we're left killing time waiting for the sun to set, as we're told thats the only attraction pakse has to offer.
no complaints, of course. a bad day here is, at the very least, more interesting than a good day at home... i think we're both just ready to make it to our next destination, wherever that may be.
in other news, happy birthday mom!!! we wish we could be there and hope you have a great day!