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Published: August 10th 2007
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View from my hotel in Vang Vieng
The mountains surrounding Vang Vieng. I started my adventure in Laos with an eventful bus trip from Bangkok, Thailand to Vientiane, Laos. The overnight double decker bus was exceedingly nice and only 1/3 full. At our midnight stop I was informed by a couple sitting in the back that one of the bus drivers/attendants had attempted to unzip their bag sitting near them on the seat. Luckily nothing was missing. They complained to the drivers/attendants about this attempted theft, but they acted like they could not understand what we were talking about. Later on the bus trip, I woke up as I heard someone run very fast and loudly down the front steps of the bus into the driver's compartment. This was followed by a yell from a guy sitting across the aisle from me. He had woken up and saw man crouched on the floor reaching for his bag. Again luckily nothing was taken, however surely all of the drivers/attendants knew about the attempt. At our breakfast stop, the people who were almost robbed took pictures of the bus and attempted to get pictures of the drivers/attendants, even though they hid their faces. Once we got to the Laos-Thailand border, they unloaded our backpacks from
Cave Entrance near Vang Vieng
I took an inner tube 300 to 400 yards back into this cave. the storage compartment under the bus. I found that my bag had been ripped open at the zipper (I had locked my zipper), completely ruining the teeth. Luckily nothing was taken as I only had clothes in my backpack. This also happened to another travelers bag, however he was able to put his zipper back together. I proceeded to take pictures of the bus and the drivers/attendants, however one especially hid his face and locked the door behind himself. I am still trying to get reimbursement either through the bus company or my insurance.
After that eventful experience I went to the Laos travel police in Vientiane to get a police report made. I spent the next two days wandering around Vientiane. This town is the capital of Laos, it's largest city (about 200,000) and sits along the Mekong river. There is really nothing to see in Vientiane except for a few old French buildings, some nice restaurants and a few Buddhist monasteries. Overall the town is incredibly laid back with only a few busy streets. However, as I found later, this is hectic for Laos.
I next went to the backpacker hangout of Vang Vieng. This small
Near the Cave in Vang Vieng
A small mountain near Vang Vieng. town is situated in a valley flanked on one side by beautiful limestone mountains rising vertically out of the surrounding terrain. A clear river runs through the valley and is one of the key attraction to backpackers. The most common thing to do in Vang Vieng is tubing down this river. Along the way, there are a series of bars that have rope swings over the river, volleyball nets and other amusements. The other attraction for a number of backpackers is the apparently easy access to drugs. However, I never saw anything being explicitly used. The town itself is not much other than guest houses and restaurants. The restaurants take the laid back mentality of the place to the extreme. Many restaurants have a few TVs situated at one side playing American movies or TV shows all day long. To aid the TV watching, they have sofa style chairs that backpackers lay in for hours at a time. One restaurant specialized in showing The Simpsons, two showed Friends, another Family Guy, and a few others new movie releases, I watched Spiderman III one night.
In Vang Vieng I took a guided tour that included floating on an inner tube
Butterflies at Vang Vieng
One of many groups of butterflies at Vang Vieng. 300-400 yards back into a water filled cave and then kayaking down the river back to Vang Vieng. It was quite fun and the scenery was spectacular, to add to that there were clouds of butterflies on the riverbanks.
After Vang Vieng I took a 6 hour roller coaster ride to Luang Prabang. The bus drove so fast through the windy mountain roads that at one point the left side tires lifted enough off the ground to squeal. I was dizzy by the time we reached the destination. Besides the life threatening ride, the scenery was some of the most beautiful I have ever seen, with vertical limestone mountains, small thatch villages perched along the road, and clouds hovering at multiple levels on the mountainsides.
Luang Prabang is on a peninsula between the Mekong river and another river joining the Mekong. It was the capital of Laos a little over 50 years ago and because of that there are many French colonial buildings, Buddhist monasteries and the former king's palace. The town is very sleepy and all around pleasant. At night many of the smaller brick streets turn into night markets selling locally made handcrafts to the tourists.
Along the River Near Vang Vieng
Note the rope swing to the left. There are many things to do in the country around Luang Prabang, I chose to do an hour and a half elephant ride through the jungle and a swim at the waterfalls. The elephant ride was quite interesting if very uncomfortable. I think I'd choose walking any day if I had a choice. The waterfall was unlike anything I had seen before. Because of the karst topography in this part of Laos, the water of this waterfall was exceedingly mineral rich. So rich that the cascading water builds up it's own pools from these deposited minerals, similar to inside of a cave. The minerals even coat tree trunks and other plants which grown in the pools. Also because of the minerals, the water is a very rich aquamarine color. On a hot 95 *F day, it was very relaxing swimming and sitting in these natural pools.
After Luang Prabang, I headed north east to Nang Kio, a tiny village nestled along a river in tall mountain peaks. Everyone who comes here or the town north tend to just sit around and soak up the tranquility. I stayed in a small thatch bungalows over looking the river. During the
The road from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang
The picture really fails to capture the beauty of the scenery. short time I was there, I visited a Vietnam war era military installation in a cave overlooking a valley. There was a sign showing where a 600 pound US bomb landed not more than a few yards from the cave entrance.
With time running short, I caught a boat back to Luang Prabang and then a series of buses back to Bangkok.
Next, open water dive training in Kho Tao and then on to Singapore.
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