Kicked out of Laos over 4 Dollars, Getting Stuck in a Giant Pumpkin's Mouth and Leaving Thailand Again

Daniel This Blog sounds a little confusing. Well, I have to admit the last day really was a bit strange. Especially the quarrel with the hotel staff over the lost trouser, where we insisted on them calling the police. But I will get to that. Just keep on reading...

On our first day in Vientiane we vistited all the tourist sites including the last stop on the "following the emerald buddha"-tour. When the Thai took the Buddha from this Wat back to Thailand, they completely burned it down, but the French restored it (but nobody knows if it looked like that before).

On our second day we didn'ty have too much energy, so we didn't do much. Nina and Ini went shopping, which isn't that easy in a country that prefers Thai Baht and US Dollars over their own currency Kip (1 USD = 38 Baht = 10.000 Kip). You always end up paying in a mixture of all three currencies, which makes you do some tricky calculations.

We wanted to leave early in the morning on the third day, but still had to solve the problem of Nina's lost trouser. The day before Nina gave lots of stuff to the hotel laundry service, but when they returned her stuff, 7 pieces where missing. After asking 3 times, we got most of it but her trouser was still missing. When we checked out, the hotel staff refused our offer of not paying for the last night (20 Dollars in total) in exchange for the trouser. Their offer was 2 Dollars. After some bargaining they were up to 4 dollars, and threatend to call the police. Not to lose face we insisted on them calling the police...

The police officer arrived, and we realized he didn't speak English. So the hotel staff had to translate our complaints for us, which was a bit awkward. At the end it turned out to be a typically Asian negotiation. The party who has more time wins. We won. They had to accept our improved offer of 9 Dollars for the trouser, but they got angry. The hotel stuff threatened us that they would report this all over Laos and we couldn't stay in the country anymore.

(A threat like this is already ridiculous in the West, with good communication equipment, but in Laos it's nothing more than a joke. I guess it would take weeks to spread the description of a real criminal in this country, so what would they do with somebody who demanded a 9 Dollar compensation for trousers?)

Well, we happend to leave Laos anyway.

On our way out, we stopped at Xieng Khuan, a large park full of "Hindu-Buddhist Sculptures, made by unskilled artist for a Yogi-Priest-Shaman" [Quotation from our Traveller Guide, Lonely Planet Laos]. Some sculptures were great fun, including the giant pumkin with a mouth, which had three floors inside that represented heaven, earth and hell. (Wait for all photos to be added.)

When we crossed the border to Thailand, we got our first culture shock. We travelled in a real CAR again! With air condidion, clean seats and almost no engine noise, no people vomitiong out the car windows and everything. For a distance of 60km, we needed less than half an hour. IN LAOS THIS TOOK US TWO HOURS! It was soo nice to be back in a civilized country!

The second shock was the shopping mall in Udon Thani. There were so many people, and they were moving so fast. I guess too much time in Laos slows down the mind....

From Udon Thani we flew to Bankok, where Ini and Nina did their best to spend all their money shopping, and Metti and I tried to look for the newest computers. (The Sony UX-180 is pretty nice!)

The trip to Thailand also concluded our "Emmerald Buddha"-Route. Tomorrow Nina, Metti and I will head to Cambodia, while Ini flies back to Austria.

a traditional buddha from Laos	weird nose	They kept the Emerald Buddha in here.
at the market, Vientiane	We stopped in this sculpture park on our way to the border
		Swallowed by a giant pumpkin!
	We just crossed over to Thailand and are confronted with high tech.