My Fellow Jerseyans!
I travelled 10,000 miles away and find myself hanging out with two adventurous and hilarious girls from Jersey. In such a short period of time, I felt like I’ve know Jasmine and Georgia for years now. Jasmine I met back in Jersey in one of those random car rides to AC when a friend is bored and just feels like driving down to the shore. We quickly bonded over gambling and traveling.
A month later and 4 countries I planned to meet with Jasmine in Vientiane, Laos and her friend Georgia. The minute I got to the Mixay Guesthouse I knew I was going to be in for a wild adventure with these two.
Georgia is painfully honest, loud but with a sweet caring and sensitive side. She can crack a joke and tells it like she sees it without sugarcoating the obvious. Let’s just say I quickly felt connected.
I decided to relax at their guesthouse while they decided to go get a haircut and eyebrows done. You know how it is for you ladies…got to keep up the looks even while backpacking through SE Asia. They manage to spot a “salon” and I’ll use this word lightly. I couldn’t imagine what this place looked like but they said it was in the middle of the block across the street. As I was enjoying my beer outside the guesthouse they quickly filled me in on what just happened.
Georgia tries to explain how she wanted her hair styled with a Lao person who doesn’t speak a word of English. I can imagine how that conversation took place. At the same time Jasmine decides to get her eyebrows done and she is told to go through an alley, up some stairs into an apartment. (Yes, I was asking myself what are these girls thinking…BEAUTY over Safety!).
Jasmine tells me an old lady comes out and starts working on her brows as she looks around at the cobweb filled room.
They are safe.
We get on our sleeper.
In the sleeper bus, I am switched around twice and get to lay next to a person who just stared at me. Maybe he was more frightened than I was. I figured if I kept letting gas out he wasn’t going to get frisky. Yes, I just told you the secret.
We eventually made our way to Pakse.
Once there we wait again for a mini-bus to go further south to the 4,000 islands.
The mini-bus arrives and we start boarding the bus. Jasmine goes in first with her backpack strapped on her back. All of a sudden I see the bus moving.
Georgia screams, “The bus is moving! The bus is moving!”
Jasmine is oblivious to what is going on.
From my perspective, I see the bus moving and Georgia screaming and trying to hop in.
Jasmine looks at Georgia again confused.
Georgia screams, “There is no driver!!!”
The driver who was busy trying to stuff our packs in the undercarriage realizes what was going on and hops back into the bus to stop it.
Turns out Jasmine hit the gears when her pack swung around. What I found hilarious was that as the bus was moving, with no driver, Georgia was trying to hop on it. She definitely wanted to make sure she got on it with or without a driver.