2/15 - Farang Town and The Broken Foot
We've arrived in Vang Vieng, which is just under 200km north of Vientiane. It's right along a very nice river, the Nam Xong, across from which are a number of massive and gorgeous "sawtoothed limestone karsts" as the guidebook calls them. Basically, they're big limestone mountains that jut up into the sky dramatically. Much cooler than your average non-limestone mountain.
What's making things more interesting, however, is the fact that Aubrie managed to break at least a couple of her toes the other night, and possibly part of her foot. Seems she had a bit too much opium and thought that jumping twenty feet down into the Mekong would be a good idea. I knew I shouldn't have left her with those Lao gangsters.... Actually, it was a simple trip and fall in the hotel room which caused it. The injury doesn't look too great (two toes are pink and purple), and we've had to employ some interesting tactics to get her around. She can walk, barely, but very slowly and with a distinct limp. So when we came up here I either carried both packs while she limped, looking awfully strange, or carried her a ways and then went back and carried the packs a ways, alternating between the two. There's a hospital here which we went to check out today, but the combination of no English, no facilities, and no crutches available (someone else has taken the only pair) yielded us nothing. I guess they're not kidding when they tell you to get to Thailand if you have any medical problems; you should have seen the hospital. But because we don't want to give up on our hard-earned visas just yet, we're going to wait to see if they have anything of use in Luang Prabang, where there's supposedly an "international clinic."
In response to comments: I'm sorry to have been so transportation- and money-focused on this blog. I guess these are the things that tend to preoccupy me. I think that it's also due in part to the transportation segments being the times when all the action happens. As soon as we leave one guesthouse for another, that's usually when weird things start happening. I'm also dismayed to see that you, MCF, find that I've been complaining too much. Perhaps sometimes things come across as complaints when I'm just meaning to get across the bad but usually comical things that happen. Somewhat related to the transportation-focus problem, the things worth complaining about are usually the most interesting things that happen. Please keep in mind that when I complain, it's usually more that I'm laughing at whatever has just occurred and find it worth sharing with the blog-world. Perhaps I'm making excuses for myself though....
In any case, internet is triple the price here (damn, there's the money again--but isn't it interesting to know relative internet prices in Lao cities??!!) so I'll be ending here. Will have more of a place-focused update when I return, and Aubrie promises to comment more on the foot situation, as well as on this town, in her own post, very soon (probably tomorrow). Stay tuned, because at that time we'll also touch upon the subject of Lao road bandits.
What's making things more interesting, however, is the fact that Aubrie managed to break at least a couple of her toes the other night, and possibly part of her foot. Seems she had a bit too much opium and thought that jumping twenty feet down into the Mekong would be a good idea. I knew I shouldn't have left her with those Lao gangsters.... Actually, it was a simple trip and fall in the hotel room which caused it. The injury doesn't look too great (two toes are pink and purple), and we've had to employ some interesting tactics to get her around. She can walk, barely, but very slowly and with a distinct limp. So when we came up here I either carried both packs while she limped, looking awfully strange, or carried her a ways and then went back and carried the packs a ways, alternating between the two. There's a hospital here which we went to check out today, but the combination of no English, no facilities, and no crutches available (someone else has taken the only pair) yielded us nothing. I guess they're not kidding when they tell you to get to Thailand if you have any medical problems; you should have seen the hospital. But because we don't want to give up on our hard-earned visas just yet, we're going to wait to see if they have anything of use in Luang Prabang, where there's supposedly an "international clinic."
In response to comments: I'm sorry to have been so transportation- and money-focused on this blog. I guess these are the things that tend to preoccupy me. I think that it's also due in part to the transportation segments being the times when all the action happens. As soon as we leave one guesthouse for another, that's usually when weird things start happening. I'm also dismayed to see that you, MCF, find that I've been complaining too much. Perhaps sometimes things come across as complaints when I'm just meaning to get across the bad but usually comical things that happen. Somewhat related to the transportation-focus problem, the things worth complaining about are usually the most interesting things that happen. Please keep in mind that when I complain, it's usually more that I'm laughing at whatever has just occurred and find it worth sharing with the blog-world. Perhaps I'm making excuses for myself though....
In any case, internet is triple the price here (damn, there's the money again--but isn't it interesting to know relative internet prices in Lao cities??!!) so I'll be ending here. Will have more of a place-focused update when I return, and Aubrie promises to comment more on the foot situation, as well as on this town, in her own post, very soon (probably tomorrow). Stay tuned, because at that time we'll also touch upon the subject of Lao road bandits.
posted by Gabriel Leigh at 6:24 PM
3 Comments:
Nice Aubrie, you really did not have to go half way around the world to break your foot. You better see some sort of medical person immediately and let me know how you are .....bio-mom
Pobre muchacha, If you were here I'd elevate your foot on my coffee table and have you browse Edna St. Vincent Millay's poems. What happened? I hope you didn't trip on that troublesome backpack! That would really be adding insult to injury, or injury to insult. Maybe Gabe can film you skipping over some rope or foot bridge as you peel down. Gabe, if other commenters don't like your complaints you can send them straight to me in a personal e-mail. I rather enjoy them. Well, I'm off to face a seemingly infinite array of quotidian tasks now. Good luck to us all. Love, Randy
Aubrie darling, kawaiiso! An annoyance to be sure, but I think we can safely assume that nothing is actually broken, right?
Meanwhile, what's more tedious than someone who claims to be happy and content all the time? In fact, there is an old Chinese saying: A man who can't complain is a man who lacks a brain.
If we think about it, most humor is based on dissatisfaction, in turn drawing attention to the absurdities which permeate human existence. Gabriel's complaints are interesting because they fall into this category. It's not as if he's complaining about the weight of his pack, or how sore his feet are....oops! perhaps a ill-timed example, but I'm sure we get the idea.
Carry on... love/dbl
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