Vang Vieng

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After much deliberation we decided to join Rich, Carinna, Doug & Lainey and head to Vang Vieng. It was an eventful journey to say the least. We got to the bus station at 5.00am to find the bus didn't actually depart until 7.00am and spent 2 hours sitting on a delapidated bus that hadn't been cleaned since 1962 when it was bought secondhand.... Once our bus finally departed it soon became clear to all of us that the 4 hour journey would probably be a little longer as the bus moved abour 2 miles and hour along mountainous pases with shear drops to the side. After 4 days in Loas it had become apperant that hygience isn't high on the list of priorities. My use of hand sanitiser almost quadrupled on this bus journey after having to watcha small boy in front of us lick his hands and smear his saliva all over the window - as far as we know the sceneary was spectacular but with our vision now obscured we had to settle for reading our books. Next to us was an old manwho looked about 95 who we nicknamed "gummy bear" due to his lack of any teeth. He was happily tucking into his sticky rice, and when having finished he decided to clear his throat by spitting on the floor next to him. Suffering with a cold he then decided to blow his nose onto the floor & what didn't make it to the floor was wiped on the bus curtain. At this point we were nearly sick and wanted this bus journey to finish quickly. Almost gagging at this point Tasha decided to take a sip of her water only to find the top of her bottle had fallen into a gop od warm chewinggum in the seat infront. This was the final straw and I think she was fit to cry at this point. By the time we arrived in Vang Vieng all she wanted to do was lay in a bath of Dethol!!!!

After finally arriving the Vang Vieng bus station we found out the Doug had had his trainers nicked any suddenly all the bus staff could conviently no longer speak any English. In this situation we had no choice but to walk away as frustratinly as it is.

We then all piled into a tuk tuk a found a hotel in which could only be described as a shabby village with a hundred bars all selling the same food at the same price, all showing friend on 24-7 reruns with a hundred tourists wasted on too much sun & beer after tubing stumbling bleary eyed around trying to find anothe rhit of freely available opium.

The scenery surrounding Vang Vieng is stunning and we were sad to see how tourism really can destroy the charm of a place so easily. That night we ignored the masses and got destroyed for Rich's birthday. The saving grace of Vang Vieng was being in a group and finding a local hotel with a pool. We spent the next 2 days being "glampackers" trying to escape the hords of drunk teenagers...........

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