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Published: March 10th 2008
Laos
Laos was a lovely country, one of our favourites so far! Our brief visit from Vientiene, to Vang Vieng to Louang Phrabang had us wanting more.
From Kuala Lumpur we flew to Vientiane, the Capital city of Laos. Stepping out of the plane we noticed a drop in temperature compared to what we’d been used to for the past few months. It was a refreshing welcome.
Vientiane Vientiane a city with French architecture, traffic was relatively quiet and cafes and tastefully decorated restaurants were dotted along the streets. It was the quietest and relaxed capital city I have ever been to. During our stay we wondered about the town (as were a few other travellers pondering how to spend their time here), with not many tourist sites or attractions to see. We found a local market and shopping mall, busy with local people. The market was full of healthy looking food produce and silky goods. Masses of gold jewellery shops, clothes shops, mobile phone shops, DVD and karaoke CD’s, and so the list goes on, everything in one very busy shopping Mall.
From Vientiane we travelled to gorgeous Vang Vieng on a bus winding it’s way up and
Go Phil!!
On the way to the caves.down the mountains for about 4 hours we watched the beautiful scenery pass us by.
Vang Vieng We really really really liked Vang Vieng! Planned to stay for the usual 3 nights, but stayed for 5, never done that before other than Xmas. Our room (individual hut) was fab, it had an undisturbed view of the river and mountains, so picturesque.
Our days here were spent:
Cycling around the countryside, exploring unlit caves, walking - among harvested rice paddy fields, sketching, tubing (lying on an inner tube and floating down river back to town, passing bars along the river bank) , and laying down in ‘Friends’ Bars. Some of that may sound a little strange, but the whole vibe in Vang Vieng was to have civilised fun, and relax.
The town itself is packed with the ‘messy’ backpacker types, chilling out. Our favourite chill out area, was down by the river, sipping a drink and sketching the limestone mountains in the distance. We could’ve stayed here for even longer!
From here we went to Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang was a lovely clean town, with a French feel about it. We explored the town right along the river
and came to a rickety bouncing bamboo bridge, which lead us out of town onto a river bank. Young monks dotted the landscape in their saffron robes; all seem to be going somewhere.
Next log entry is about how we got ourselves accidentally being trained to ride elephants bare back!!!
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