More chilling out along the river

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We arrive in Vang Vieng after a fairly uncomfortable but very scenic route from Vientiane. We get dropped at a little resort on the river and for once the scam of being delivered to a hotel of the busdriver's choice serves us well. We choose a lovely little bungalow with proper hot shower and views of the river and Karst mountains for 16 USD per night. Brilliant! My sinuses still hurt every day and I can do with some doing-nothing.
We go for little walks and eat three times a day in our soon discovered favorite little restaurant (Friendly! is the name) and recharge the travel batteries.
There are loads of travellers in Vang Vieng who come here with the sole intention of getting stoned or drunk and watching "Friends" in bars non-stop, but these can easily be avoided and we really enjoy our stay and watch river life and beautiful laos food.
In case we hadn't talked about it yet: Laap (also written as Lab, Larp, Lurb and every type of variation on the theme, )is one of the national dishes in Laos and consists of different kinds of minced meat mixed with chilly, lemon or lime, and parsley or spring onion or coriander along with loads of garlic. It is served with sticky rice and is usually delicious. Try it out if you like!

Unfortunately the last 2 nights of our stay in Vang Vieng coincided with a music festival. Although the location was about 2 kilometres away it was still audible. The first night wasn't so bad as it finished at just after midnight. The second night the events organisers must have paid some backsheesh to the local police as it went on until 3am. The band consisted of a bassist, keyboards, drums and 2 singers. They were as competent in their musical ability as I am. Although the set was very long that did allow the audience to sit through each of their compisitions at least twice. The first hour was quite amusing; Laos punk playing the '70's song "D.I.S.C.O." Oh well, at least we could sleep and relax in the day.

After 4 days we get a minibus to Luang Prabang. Again the mountain scenerey is beautiful and we really enjoy the journey even though it takes 8 hours. We pass through numerous one street villages and in one of those the right front tyre of the minibus blows with a huge noise (we feel so blessed that it happened on a straight stretch and while we were going fairly slowly as we were going through a village - if that had happened in one of those hideous curves...) While our driver changed the tyre the whole village comes to watch and we have plenty of picture opportunity.
We arrive in Luang Prabang and find a very peaceful, serene little city and some superbe food!

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Photos

Blown tire on mountain road
Lots of people surrounding the van within minutes - its better than Lao TV.

Comments

[Jack]

HI!
Hi guys glad alls fine and dandy hadn't heard from you for a while thought you'd died! Only joking I'd be like you when having a great time keep the updates coming and stay safe many blessings Jack and Julie xxx