Blogs from Vang Vieng, West, Laos, Asia - page 7

We woke up for an early breakfast and perused a map of the Vang Vieng area over Laos coffee ( this coffee could have cleaned a radiator ). We spotted what looked to be a cool blue lagoon for swimming on the map and set off for it shortly afterwards. This turned out to be a very beautiful walk taking us roughly six miles through the Laos country side. We passed beautiful farm land, small villages, and crossed cooling creeks. We wish we had taken more photos of this walk, but sometimes you just get caught in the beauty of the moment. The walk was a reward in itself, but the lagoon at the end was perfectly cooling and relaxing considering we completed a couple hour walk through the mid day sun. Although there were several ... read more

We arrived in Laos' capital, Vientiane, after a back-bending, mood-shittening overnight bus ride with an alcoholic Dane on a Visa run who looked like a melted Darren Clarke, a Scottish girl with her life in a backpack and a travelling professional photographer from Michigan. We sat on the side of the road wandering when our bus was going to leave and whether there would be more on offer for breakfast than the assortment of ice-creams from the local vendor. Helen, one of the three English girls we were to spend our time with here, approached me by telling me that I look like Matt Damon. On hearing this John put it forward that he looked like Johnny Depp, as someone (presumably with bad eye sight) had claimed previously on the trip. I'm not sure if they ... read more

We woke up early with no direct goal for the day other than to make the trip down the narrow steep stairs from the second floor of the guest house to the front resturant area to enjoy a coffee and breakfast. Shortly after finishing breakfast we chose to go for a walk. We also did this with no purpose of direction in mind. Fifteen minutes later, we found our selves crossing a river via a rickety hand built bridge. Past the bridge, we found some guest houses and past the guest houses we discovered a few small signs proclaiming 'hiking caves this way>' pointing out into a field of rice. We figured what the heck, we have no morning plans so lets trek across the rice field, Several hours later, exhausted and drenched with sweat, we ... read more

Leaving Koh Phagnan and making our way to Laos- After all the partying on the beach our next destination was Laos and what a journey it was...after checking out at 10:30 we waited till 4pm to get a taxi to the pier and boarded a ferry to Suratthani. who knew the journey would be soo long in the storm too! having boarded at 5pm we reached at 7:30pm (well done mel who wasnt sick!) as we got off there was a vip bus waiting for us going to bangkok, journey time-10 hours! in between we stopped at a cafe with a cockroach running around on the floor and a stall which sold all kinds of chicken- pop pop, spicy pop? we slept throughout the journey and reached bangkok at 5:00am with horrible travel sickness! bleugh.... got ... read more

The bus journey to vang vieng was bumpy and bendy to say the least unfortunately it was dark but i wish id have gone in the day because we went through the mountains and i bet the scenery was awesome. 11.30 I arrived and found a guest house and got some sleep. Up early the next morning i headed in to town to get my bearings and soon found a tube and headed off in a tuk tuk to the river to start the tubing. I got talking to a group of australians and we stated on the beer... pretty soon i was a bit tipsy and we were playing 'beer pong' where you have to throw a table tennis ball in to a beer glass. And if you get it in your apponent has to ... read more

We had now booked our bus journey back to Luang Prabang to our flight over to the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi. We spent our last day in Vang Vieng seeing some traditional culture, by watching family guy on lounge seats. In VV they have so many restaurants where you can literally lie down, eat & drink whilst watching a selection of the most addictive shows from home. These include friends, family guy & simpsons. Whilst watching these, you can choose from any fruit or milk shake under the sun! I went for chocolate and peanut butter which blew my mind...I had 3, felt ill. We made the treturous trip back through the mountains to Luang Prabang and arrived early evening just in time to watch the sun set on top of the Wat Chom Si temple, ... read more

If you go to Vang Vieng, there is only one thing to see and do....TUBING BABY!! This consists of a river, alcohol and slides. It is basically the thorpe park of Laos, only difference there is one death a month here. But no worries, it is only if you are to drunk and jump off the side somewhere rocky crack your head showing off and drown. Luckily I am a very sensible boy and decided to just stick to Zip wires and high jumps into the river. 9 of us went tubing and decided to buy bright coloured clothes looking like an 80's disco band, I had fluresant (spelt wrong) pink shorts & glasses with a white t-shirt claiming I love the 80's (seriously this doesn't look out of place one bit in VV!!). On arrival ... read more

Originally 7th June 2011 Somewhere in the heart of Laos the sun is beginning to set over a shallow, brown river in a dusty little town. At first, the silence is broken only disjointedly by a laughter track, and then as daylight departs, the repetitive thump of electro music... Why is it that the mechanical rocking of a car that so often induces sleep to come and take me away during the day abandons me on an overnight trip? Blinded by dust, we rumbled into Vientiane in the back of a sawngthaew. Vientiane, right on the banks of the Mekong River, doesn’t feel like a capital city. It’s small, relaxed, quiet. No traffic. At night however, it undergoes a transformation like Dr Jekyll. Scary, aggressive ladyboys prowl the streets; Jeff and I were abused by a ... read more