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Published: June 27th 2008
Something for the weekend sir...?
Amers contemplates doing away with his mop top at this makeshift hair salon. (But only for a second)Making our way back to Luang Phabang, we decided to to break up the 6 hr journey by stoping for a couple of days at Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng was your typical tourist hangout, the likes of the Khao San in Bangkok or Las Americas in Ibiza (well sort of)- streets and streets of bars and restaurants (albeit quite laid back and chilled out) all pointing the way down to the main river. The main activity on the river (and this is what stands it apart from the forementioned Khao San), is tubing.
Tubing is where tourists fling themselves into the river with thier arse firmly housed within a giant truck tyre inner tube. They then leisurely float down stream, stoping at bars along the way for a drink or two dozen (normally until they're too 'sloshed' to swim, should they fall in).
This was something that although we considered, instead decided to pass on, on this occasion. It seemed a little bit too expensive (a bit of a glorified pub crawl) and a little too dangerous (with the currents being what they were- and Amers' inability to stay afloat for very long), plus the weather was pretty bad
Doing our bit
We meet some local teenagers who want to improve thier English and it rained, rained, rained making it all very cold- so getting wet was not as appealing as it would have been in the sunshine. Instead we opted for a few drinks, while sprawled out in one of the many 'lounge style' bars that lined the streets and watched a few episodes of Friends. Yep, i kid you not, that's what they play in these bars- Friends- episode after episode, every day from morning to night. It was a bit strange to say the least but nice to just relax for a while after running around in Vientiane.
After a few days we made our way back up to Luang Phabang and just enjoyed the lovely little historic town with all its French Colonial charm. It was full of arts and crafts shops and stalls and it reminded us so much of the similarly chilled out town of Hoi An in Vietnam (by far our most favourite town in said country). The night maket was a delight- every night the main street was lined with lots of well organised stalls selling local handicrafts and artefacts (we just had to buy some for our imaginary flat).
On one of
Still doing our bit
Teacher in her element the days we walked up the sacred Phou Si hill in the heart of the town and visited the monestary on the apex. The views were amazing- as were the numerous buddha images and temples that we discovered on the way down, on the far side of the hill. We even took the guidebook's advice and took a boat across to the other bank of the Mekong and and walked through the village there called Man Xiang. We didn't come across one other Westerner the whole time (which made it feel all the more of an adventure) and scaled the hill there to visit the abandoned temple at its peak. The temple itself was a bit eerie (with buddha statues and images still in tow) but the views were absolutely breathtaking and well worth us clambering up the 100 or so steep steps. We took it all in and sat there peacefully for some time.
On one of our last days in Laos, we visited a centre called 'Big Brother Mouse', an organisation that helped young Lao adults with reading, writing and speaking English. It was so nice to sit down for an hour or two and just talk
Xiang Man
The disused monestary at top of the hill- a bit eerie if we're honest to these very friendly youngsters, who are just desperate to improve their English. Very worthwhile indeed.
All in all, we were quite sad to leave Laos- it was not really what we expected. Stories we'd heard about its widespread poverty and ill-equipped transport systems were unfounded, and we were very pleasantly surprised. The place had so much charm, the people so much warmth and the terrain amd landscape so much beauty, that it's been our favourite country so far.
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