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Published: September 23rd 2008
We decided to make a tough decision in Cambodia to pay the extra money and fly into Laos. We had planned on doing the south of Laos, but time was not allowing it. We have to meet my friend Megan in Bangkok on October 5th. Plus, we had talked to a few people that didn't really rave about the south of Laos as much as the north so we decided to suck it up and fly from Siem Reap to Vientiane. It was a nice 2 hour flight and definitely worth avoiding the long bus rides through Laos.
Vientiane was pretty insignificant. The city was not really what I expected. It was pretty quiet during the day and there were hookers everywhere at night. We did manage to find Ryo, our Aussie friend from our Halong Bay trip in Vietnam. He had been traveling with two French girls and one Italian guy so we all made a pretty fun group. We had some dinner together right on the Mekong at sunset and had our first Beer Lao, which is actually a really great beer. All in all, Vientiane was great because of the friends we made, not because of the
city itself.
We left the next day at 2pm to head to Vang Vieng. We had been hearing a lot about this place from everyone we met, but didn't know about it till we started traveling in Southeast Asia. Apparently, everyone goes to Vang Vieng to go tubing. Sounds innocent right? Well, let's just say it is spring break Laotian style.
Since we were a group of 7 of us (3 Americans, 1 Aussie, 1 Italian, and 2 Frenchies) we decided that it would be a great idea to tie all our tubes together and float down the river. We were definitely a sight to see! Little did we know that tubing really requires less tube and more drinking. There are bars set up along the river every 15 feet or so- soooo you don’t really float for that long!
At each bar there are giant rope swings (more like a trapeze) to swing into the river. I cannot tell you how much fun this is! Jeff managed to attempt a black flip at the first rope swing and land a little funny- his side still hurts. We all were just swinging off rope swings and drinking the
local Lao Lao. Now... Lao Lao is the local rice wine and we met this awesome guy at who owned a restaurant we ate at. We got a small bottle for 8,000 kip- that's $1. That managed to last about 1/2 way through our tubing adventure, but it was dirt cheap and did the trick. We spent the whole day floating from bar to bar down the river with all the other travelers. We even managed to find a place that had mud volleyball, so we played around in the mud, but did more slipping than actually playing volleyball. We returned to the city around 6pm and after all day on the river we were tired!
The next day we decided to skip the tubing and get out of the city. We have known people that have been stuck tubing for 3-4 days and although it was fun, we wanted to do something different. So... we rented motorbikes from our good restaurant owner friend and set out for a 7km drive to some caves. What we didn't know was that the roads were super rocky and bumpy and made our motor very squirrelly to drive. We arrived at the
Chris about to eat it
He did not feel good after this!caves and they wanted us to pay 10,000 kip each ($1.50 is a lot these days!) to cross the river by boat, so we decided to swim. Ryo (the Aussie), Chris, Jeff and I swan across this river. We ended up about 100 feet from where we started because the current was so strong, but we made it. I think all the local Laotian people thought we were crazy! Once there we hiked through the village to the first cave, "Elephant Cave" which wasn't more than a small cave with a Buddha statue and a rock that looks like an elephant. It was ok, but definitely not what we were expecting.
On to cave #2! A short hike later, we arrived to pay our money at the entrance to the cave which included a flashlight and a guide. Now this is more like it! What I didn't expect is that we would be inside the cave for 2.5 hrs! The cave was amazing. We immediately had to ditch our shoes because the mud was too slippery. From there the caverns were filled with tons of stalagmites and stalactites and all that cave type stuff. We were barefoot, walking through a
cave, following a Lao village man that spoke no English and we were slipping all over the place on the rocks. I cannot even explain to you in words what it was like. There were times where the rocks were so slippery we thought for sure someone would break an ankle, other times the rocks were so sharp my feet felt like they wanted to fall off, and other times we would climb through a combination of the two while crouching down so our head didn't hit the top of the cave. Other times there was water up to our waist and other times we had to swim just to get from one side to the other. The cave was crazy. We didn't even have time to stop and get out a camera because it was so intense. We just kept walking further and further into this cave. The different caverns seemed endless. I did have panic attack about 1.5 hrs into the ordeal when my feet were walking on sharp rocks in waist deep water and I was ready to get out of the cave. Other than that, I think I handled everything pretty well. So after hours in
the cave, we had to get back to town because it was getting late. Of course, we still had to swim across a river and take our motos through dirt roads (not to mention it had rained heavily which made the roads even worse!). Just as we were leaving the cave area to head back, Jeff lost control of the moto and hit a ditch, which sent our plastic tire shield flying off the moto. Uh oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How much is this going to cost us? I held the plastic bumper thingy in my hands while Jeff and I rode to the nearest repair shop. We borrowed a screwdriver and were able to screw it back on. There was only a small piece missing after we screwed the bumper back on so we were hoping the rental place wouldn't notice. And guess what???? They didn't! I can't believe we got away with our first motorcycle crash!
That night, the restaurant owner we had become friends with said he would cook us all a traditional Lao meal. So we showed up to his empty restaurant where there were plates and plates and plates of food waiting for us. His wife had
been cooking all day! They woke up at 5am to go to the market to get freshwater crab and then she spent the rest of the day preparing everything. We had crab, bamboo, some ceviche type fish stuff, salad, soup and of course Lao Lao. This time he brought out a special Lao Lao that had been fermenting in the ground with honey for 3 months. It was actually pretty good and I didn't hate it nearly as much as regular Lao Lao. The night was just amazing spending the time with two Lao locals who made us amazing food. It really was such a special night that we couldn't have gotten anywhere else!
The next day we woke up and decided to rent bicycles to take us to this "majestic" blue lagoon 7 km outside the city. The road was a lot more than I bargained for, especially because I have never done any mountain biking. The road was not paved and it was very rocky and bumpy! I was in a constant state of vibration while trying to pedal, at times, up hill! The ride was wonderful though. We went through rice paddies and local villages. All
the local village children would come out and yell hello to us as we rode by. It was so much fun!
Unfortunately, the "blue" lagoon was more like a pond and not really blue, but we still made the most of it by swimming and jumping off a tree into the "lagoon." There was also a cave near the lagoon that we hiked up to. We were wet from swimming and in flip flops, but we still decided to hike through a jungle to this cave. The hike was amazing though and totally worth it. On the way we saw this caterpillar that was bright pink! How strange?! The cave itself was huge and had views overlooking the jungle. So much fun!
All in all, I'm sure we had a very different Vang Vieng experience than a lot of backpackers since we only spent one day tubing and the rest of the time trying to get out of the city. We loved meeting the local people and really enjoying it.
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Heather
non-member comment
You rock!
You are so brave! 2.5 hours in a cave? I love reading your blog. You are an excellent writer and your pictures are incredible. Looks like you are having the time of your lives. Travel safe and keep up the good work on the posts.