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Published: December 14th 2008
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After Luang Prabang we bused down to Vang Vieng. We managed to get a fairly nice minibus with leather seats but the main excitement happened before we even left the bus station. An old guy was carrying this massive long pipe with him (obviously to protect some massive picture or something) which he said was very valuable and did not want it damaged. After refusing to let it be put on the top of the minivan with the rest of the bags, he jammed it next to the van's sliding door. In the minivan there was also an Australian family with 1 sick (or going to be road sick) son. They had another son as well who was about the same height as Michael who thought he was too large to fit in the normal seats (hmmm...) so he sat in the front seat next to the driver. The argument kicked off when the Australian dad asked the man with the picture if he could sit next to his son and his wife on the front row of seats. Who ever thought such a simple request could turn into a full blowm argument almost to the extent of violence breaking out.
Basically they argued for a good 15min over a seat like 10yo. The funniest bit though was that the Australian Man eventually won and the other guy should of been happy as for the whole 6hr trip his son and his wife were being sick into bags and also asking the driver to pull over numerous times.
Moving on though, we eventually got to Vang Vieng and found a hotel over looking the Nam Song River and got settled into one of the many bars which continuously play Friends/Family Guy/Simpsons.
The next morning we got set for a day of Tubing. For people who don't know what tubing is, it is floating down a river on a truck inner tube. In Vang Vieng it has a twist though as the tubing part of it only takes about 2hrs if you only tube the whole way, about every 50m for the first 1km, there are bars on the river banks which rope you in as you float past. Each bar also has an activity such as mud volleyball, rope swings or flying foxes. The other thing to note is that Laos does lackthe Health and Safety Australia has so
Blown Out Wheel
On bus ride from Vang Vieng to Vientiane these flying foxes and rope swings are very high above the water and just a bit dodgy looking, but fun none the less. We spent the entire day tubing around the river and even met someone from Hobart! Once finished we were both quite sore and tired.
The next day after a long sleep we rented a motorbike and went and saw some caves a bit out of town. After paying a motorbike parking fee, and a crossing the shaking bridge fee, we found the first cave, "Elephant Cave". We had to be pointed out which formation actually looked like the elephant! We then somehow picked up a guide who took us to the next cave. On the walk over there we talked to ourselves about how much this service would cost us as we had learnt early that when you pick up a guide it is very rarely free. After paying the entrance fee for this next cave he took us in with a torch each and we managed to make our way about 3km into the darkness. At the end was a swimming hole which Michael splashed around in for a few moments. This was heaps of
800,000 kip.
We went to a different ATM...we didn't realise they dispensed money in only 20,000 kip notes. Michael can hardly fold his wallet but if he trips on the bad pavement, he will not hurt himself!! Oh and also, they are all sequential notes. fun but kinda ruined the rest of the caves we had planned for the rest of the day as we knew they were unlikely to live up to this one. After making our way back to the entrance the previously friendly guide turned and asked for money, to which asked him how much he wanted. He said 200,000 kip ($40 AUD), to which we laughed and gave him our petty change which was about 10,000 ($2). But he wasn't too unhappy with that and we had read that this should be the real cost anyway.
After this we went to a few other caves, where at one parking stop we swear the staff siphoned the petrol out of our tank (as we went from a 9/10th full tank to a 1/10th full with not much driving). Considering it only cost $4 to fill up and we were not going to use it all anyway, we were not that concerned.
That night we watched more Friends than we had ever watched in our life and watched the sun go down over the limestone formations around the city.
The next day we got a bus to Vietiane, we saved 50,000 kip by leaving 4hrs later at 1:30pm. On the way our bus tyre blew out so after limping a couple of km's till we found a garage which could help us, it took about 5min to change the tyre and we were back on our way. We were very impressed with the Laos work ethic as in Australia it would have been enough to call a new bus to pick us up.
Once we arrived in a dark Vientiane we realised the problem with taking the later bus is that almost every guesthouse in the inner city area in our price range is full. We had the choice of places with either a shared shower or toilet stillfor $14 AUD or places for $20 US for a private fan room. After walking for a good 45min we found a reasonable place with private everything and even A/C and cable for only $20AUS which is normally a bit expensive but in comparison with the other options in town we were quite happy with it. We were luckly to even get that room on the top floor as there were only 2 rooms left and the last room went while we were checking in!
Today is a Sunday here and we are not sure if it is just relaxed Laos or if it is because it is Sunday, that nothing seems to be open. Tomorrow we hope to try and get Cambodian Visas and see all the sites which were shut today.
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