Vang Vieng
August is the first month of the 'Rainy' season in Laos so it started to get a bit wet. Though the river was a little flooded, I had to try the TUBEING which involves floating down the river in a large inflated truck inner-tube which was great fun. I stayed at "Pan's Place", a well known medium sized guest house located on the edge of the town centre and run by Kiwi Chris and his Laos wife, Nitsa. As they have just renewed their lease on the place they were keen on up-grading the property so I offered my services as handyman/woofer. The first job was a full kitchen re-build. We ripped out all the old units and, because it was not possible to buy any sort of fitted units, we built new ones in 3"x2" timber with 6"x1" worktops finished in thin sheet metal.
The result was much better space and working conditions within the kitchen. Then came the painting of the internet cafe/room floor. This involved disconnecting the 7 computers and peripherals, ripping up the old linolium and painting the floor.
This went well untill the floor was 3/4 covered and we ran out of paint. A quick trip to the shop for a new tin of the same coloured paint, from the same shop, the same make, even the same seriel/batch number and it was, of course, a different shade, very different. Never mind and 'carry on regardless', so we finished the first coat and 24hrs later, half way through the second coat we ran out again and on buying another, (same), tin of paint, we ended up with a 3rd shade of the same colour. Most of the work is just generally refurbishing the plumbing, electrics and decorating.
LOL. This is certainly a very beautiful region. went out on the scooter to caves and swam in a waterfall. 'Time Flys' when you are having fun! Lots of nice people passing through the guest house. Just realised that my Laos Visa is about to expire so 6 hr bus ride to Vientien -> across the border to Thailand -> $35 for new Laos Visa -> back to Vientien -> 6hrs on bus back to Vang Vieng ..... Long day. Will stay here for another week or so then move on... :-)
