(Day 8) Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng

---

Not in great form after my bday party last night; but not as bad as I had expected. Lucky for me my body needed some rest and for the first time we were spending almost a full day on the coach which we hadn’t really done yet. The drive was through very lush, turny, bumpy roads. I tried to sleep at the back of the bus but it didn’t happen. We had a lunch stop at a beautiful lookout spot. I felt funny about eating the lunch there as it was all the exact same food I had been sick off days before. Only able to eat a bit and still felt nauseous the rest of the bus ride. We had a few other bus stops along the way today.

Finally got to Vang Vieng about 5ish and loved it at first sight! Our hotel the Elephant Crossing hotel was absolutely beautiful! You have to take your flip flops off before entering the hotel lobby so piles of shoes sit at the entrance. The room has balconies which all overlook the same direction facing the river and mountains! Emmo gave us a bunch of options for our free day tomorrow and the majority of us went to sign up for a kayaking/caving activity. This was not a Contiki optional but with another local touring company. The majority of our group signed up for it.

My instant thought about Vang Vieng was that I loved this town! It did have a crazy tourist vibe to it; mostly because it’s famous for the river tubing that the drunken tourists flock to. All the shops sell fun tubing clothes and accessories! I browsed all the shops on the walk home and bought a BeerLao tank top and a silver ring. Another great thing here is that they have TV bars where tourists can just chill and relax on bed-like booths and watch tv. For example, they have a Friends tv bar, and there’s a Family Guy tv bar! I loved this vibe. For dinner, I didn’t know what I could stomach so I ate the most amazing Banana Pancake from a street vendor in front of our hotel. It was a free night to do what you wanted. Everyone was meeting up for dinner and drinks at a popular bar but I wanted to do my own thing. I showered, wrote in my journal and was in bed by 9pm excited for my early morning kayak adventure!

---

Photos

Lunch Stop
Driving through beautiful Laos countryside!