Escape from the Grinder

A handful of us managed to escape the meat grinder yesterday. That's the alias I'm giving to Vang Vieng, since that is what it is. You arrive there all fresh and ready to party, and after a few days of it it spits you out as a ragged, disheveled mess. Brent, Isaac and I were originally the only three that were going to leave, but when we were all in the lobby of our guest house waiting to be picked up, Bob and Terry out of the blue decided to pack their shit up within five minutes, buy a bus ticket and come to Vientiane with us. A couple of stragglers were still there, and I'm curious to see what they look like after a couple more days of partying on the river.

The bus ride there was full of the typical worn-out partiers, us included. I was worn out from the constant sickness (alcohol and gastro-intestinal), as was Isaac. Brent was sick with the flu, has a nasty infected burn from an exhaust pipe and had been walking around with a cane the past few days from a sprained ankle. Bob completely lost his voice and was in a zombie state. Terry was the funniest of all, he was going hard until he hit rock bottom that day, part of the reason he jumped on the bus with us. The funniest part of the bus ride was listening to him (he's 18) all stoned on Valium (you can buy it over the counter here), talking with Brent about his sexual exploits of this trip, which amounted to a near hookup in the shower with this Aussie girl. All this was said at high audibility, enough for the whole bus to hear and laugh at, mostly from the phrases "I had a raging hard on" and "I should be more forceful with women from now on". I love that kid.

So now we're in Vientiane, where I'm going to start my mission of getting a Vietnam visa tomorrow. Last night we went out for a finally dinner since Brent had to leave to go meet his parents in Bangkok today. It was a splurge hard meal, a feast for kings. Fresh prawns, pork spare ribs, noodle with squid were on the menu. And I can't forget the frog, we each ate a whole one. It was actually pretty good, the meat is almost exactly like chicken.