leaving Vang Vien, 4000 islands bound....

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First of all apologies for the gap in my blog, up until Luang Prabang net cafes had been relatively easy to find and quick, however I then had to make the decision to either spend too much time in net cafes or get on and enjoy travelling which im sure your'll all understand which one came first, ha! BUT I still was a good girl and kept up my homework in written form and on karen's laptop. The reason for the gap between this and a few days ago is because I have saved them on Karen's laptop, and not because of the 'happy menus' available in VV as some of you might have guessed, ha ;-P However we are yet to find wifi to do a cut & paste job, but Cambodia bound tmw we're hoping we can finally get up to date and I can fill you in on Vang Vieng......

Anyway I'm gonna do this in order so forget about Cambodia for now (even tho it's hard as heading off 6am tmw morning!!) and i'll get back to the date in question - our last day in Vang Vien ......... (just please remember that the last few days are missing so apologies if some parts don't make total sense....... all will become clear when we find wifi ;-P

It was our last day in Vang Vien, even though we'd added on an extra day loving it here so much more than we thought we would, it was still sad to leave, so far Pai and Vang Vien have been my top favourite places as a whole and the party scene here has been great! But time to move on and again looking forward to 4000 islands - our next stop.

However we have until 1ish in the afternoon before our bus and there's still places i want to see so i wander over to the other side of the river opposite our apartment and start wandering, it isn't long before i come across water buffalo swimming in the river, with the mountains in the background, again the scenery was breath taking. After wandering further down the river and checking out some bungalows that look cool, I get their card as I've decided that Laos is one place I want to come back to and although our place was cool (especially being we got a much better place through the date mix up!) these ones had just that little bit extra scenery and still only a stones throw away from the action at night.... It kind've annoys me that people i came across in other parts were slating VV as there is more to it than just partying, Karen and me are into both and so this place is perfect for us, but even for non-party goers it's not really in your face and the best trek we did was here and scenery amazing so I really recommend it........ and you never know you might just find you enjoy tubing down the river after all, for anyone reading this not totally taken by the sound of VV, ha....... It also wasn't full of 18 year old gap students as i'd imagined but friendly people of all ages just out for a great time (well apart from PB, haha!! - but she gave us a great time with her stories so there you go - even the crazy people here can be fun, as long as you remember not to give them the shirt on your back, ha ;-P)

Well back to my last morning - i then wandered round town and found a cake shop, the only one in Vang Vien so not knowing when i'd get to another one i went a bit crazy and bought up some of their selection for our next destination, i really need to get away from these cake shops though so maybe it'll be a good thing if we don't come across any in Don Det, but my size 6's are still (just about!! ha!) fitting so im not worrying too much yet 😊 I do need to get the yoga mat out more tho as though tubing is fun i don't think it quite works off many calories 😊

Well 1pm comes around and our tuk tuk arrives on time to take us to the bus Vantienne bound, funny as considering i'd heard so much about everything in Laos being late most places so far have been bang on time, and not even had long waits in restaurants as i'd heard...... We now have a 5 hour bus ride to Vantienne before we join our sleeper bus, the one thing i was dreading travelling was the journeys but im actually growing to love them, i've discovered i've got over my travel sickness which has haunted me up until this year and so have just enjoyed sitting back and enjoying the rides, the scenery is so amazing I again have the dilemma of whether to read or look out the window, again, as on the last journey i choose my ipod and scenery watching - the book can wait for another time!! The journey flew by and we then had a couple of hours in Vantienne, we were dropped in the centre so did a bit of exploring and i managed to fit a quick meal in, what happened next really saddened me - an old guy came up and started begging to people, only he was sitting like a dog with hands in prayer and rather than money he wanted food, I gave him a couple of my chips and he went off happy, poor guy, if i hadnt been in such a rush i'd have bought him a meal, but annoyed me the amount of people that ignored him when someone is that starving, wasn't like he was after money for his next crack hit or anything...... I've come to learn that as well as being one of the most beautiful places in the world i've ever been to that Laos is also one of the poorest, there arn't many old people here and the reason is because they can't get hospital treatment and so most die young, so it really is like going back in time and sad, especially as most Laos people are so nice considering the poverty and seeing us coming over most don't even beg or expect anything but are just genuinely nice to us ........ Well going back to Vantienne, we only had an hour and half and so we didnt see more than a few coffee bars and a promenade with the Mekong in the distance, i wished we had longer, the road was too hectic to cross to get back in time to explore the Mekong so had to give it a miss, shame we arrived just after sunset too....

We then got our luggage and got a tuk tuk 9 km to our sleeper bus, this turned out to be great! It's basically just a bus full of bunk beds, Karen and me bagged the back seats (or beds!!)as there was slightly more room, and got chatting to our fellow passengers, it seems everyone on the entire bus had brought valium for the journey to aid sleep - haha! For anyone that doesn't know valium is legal here just to buy over the counter, i necked one and had great nights sleep but wondering whether it's that or the special shake (also legal across the counter, ha!)from the previous night still kicking in when i wake to a huge inflatable clown hovering above us all on the bus..... Once i realise Mr Clown is just a dream i draw back the curtain just in time to see the sunrise, amazing start to the morning (sorry the sunrise not the clown ;-).....I enjoyed the next hour just admiring the scenery and so glad i woke up when i did unlike 'most on the bus who when we finally arrived in Pakse seemed to have trouble stirring - Seems everyone around me had necked 2 or 3 as opposed to my one, ha! I'd got a brilliant nights sleep so no complaints and on to the next leg - the 3 hour bus ride to the border of Don Det, 4000 islands, again more scenery to gaze at, then for the fun of loading all our luggage onto a tiny boat Don Det bound, i'd heard horror stories about these but our boat was fine and both us and luggage arrived in one piece, only a 10 minute journey across to the island.

What amazed me most of all was the pure white sand on the beach with people sunbathing, i hadn't imagined the Mekong to be this beautiful :-)

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