Nam Ngum Lake

So after a really busy week and lots of progress, I figured I had earned myself a little treat. And since the other girls wanted to participate in a DVV workshop I simply set off on my own. Yes, I’ve heard the questions “Hey Lady, where is your husband?” like a million times in the last couple of days but as a matter of fact, I actually like to travel by myself. This way, you are almost forced to meet new people.

A destination was quickly found: Nam Ngum lake is located about 2h North from Vientiane and quite easily accessable by bus and tuk tuk. I scored a good deal for a hotel there – as you can see, my balcony and the pool ROCKED! Spent my first day just swimming, reading, napping and sipping on treaclesweet ice-coffee. Had dinner on a swimming restaurant and watched the sun set over the lake. The large beer I had with my sticky rice and veggies gave me enough courage to then ignore all the curious stares of the locals: I started playing on the incredibly old pool table – the queues were broken and crooked and 5 balls were missing but it was fun. Still I could feel everyones’ eyes on me: White, female, alone, billiard!? Soon the Thai receptionist challenged me and and broke the ice – after that, 7 more guests (aged between 5 and 60) came up to me. Working at Bata is finally paying off, I won every single game except the one against a little Lao boy. Had a soft spot for that little man 😉 Frankly, all of my opponents had rarely ever played before so those were no victories I am proud of… They were fairly impressed and bought me a can of beer for each win and well, I got drunk pretty quickly (being sick for so long has made me an extreme lightweight). After another quick nocturnal jump into the pool and an embarrassing karaoke incident later, I was fast asleep that night 😀

Unfortunately, rain woke me the next day but since I couldn’t find a single hiking trail in the area anyways, I wasn’t even sad to return to Vientiane around noon. All in all, a fantastic and very relaxing getaway 🙂

Note: Sorry for writing half-arsed, but I am actually just packing my bags for the next trip. I’ll be in Thakhek (a town in a southern district about 4h away) for work until at least Friday! Yeih!