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Published: August 17th 2008
Super VIP bus
"Yessir, this is the bus that will take you to Vang Vieng"Taxi arrived on time (6.00 am) to take us to airport but the cab for the others didn't turn up so they had to hire another and just made the plane to Hanoi. Long wait at the airport as our flight to Luang prabang wasn't until mid afternoon. Spent a long time chatting to a nice German girl who was heading to Bangkok after her time in Vietnam.
Landing at LP we found that there is now an Airport taxi service wanting 6 USD for transfers to the town. We immediately headed off out the gates and struck a deal with a Tuk-Tuk driver but before we could leave he was surrounded and intimidated by the taxi service people. Eventually we agreed to take an airport taxi but at the lower rate that we'd agreed with the Tuk-Tuk.
We went directly to Oudomphang Guesthouse where we'd stayed 3 years ago and once more were greeted like honoured guests. Mama and Papa remembered us well and we were once more being showered with all kinds of fruit and treats from their kitchen.
We couldn't believe the changes in LP, new guesthouses abound and more are being built or upgraded.
VIP bus
"I'm sorry Sir, much rain last night and your bus shrank!" Accommodation prices have risen steeply (fan room with shared B/R approx 50-60,000 kip), and tourist numbers are booming. Most tourists appear to be flash-packers and upwards and the town prices reflect this.
Some of the riverfront properties, especially at the back of town were affected by the flooding but all appears back to normal now although power supplies are erratic and frequent cuts occur. We checked on transport south and found that they were still only selling tickets as far as Vientienne because of the flooding and were warning of occasional long delays getting to there and also, possibly, Vang Vieng.
Decided to crash on to Vang Vieng after 2 days and the trip was only slightly delayed by road repairs with a couple of major slips still being dealt with.
Arrival at Vang Vieng is now at a new bus terminal (approx 2 km from town) and Tuk-tuks want 10-15,000 kip pp for the journey to town (drops to 6-7,000 after a while). The town has grown a lot but still has the same feel and accom is much more reasonable here (fan, own B/R, hot water - 40,000 kip). Unfortunately for me even the Olympics
has failed to shift "Friends" from the bars here!!!
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