Viang Vien....and the journey from Hell!!!


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Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng
February 28th 2009
Published: March 28th 2009
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First, lets deal with the journey to Vaing Vien......OH DEAR!

We were meant to be departing at 4:30pm...when we arrived at the bus station they told us our bus had broken down...and we would have to get the next public bus at 6:30pm....WE HAD to leave today...according to our strictly itineray we had to be in VV by that night!

Finally, after much delay...the bus started loading, lots of ppl, good, vegetables...motor bikes on the roof...and farrrr too many people!

Luckily Laura and I got seats...they were extremely tight...my legs didnt fit in properly and at first i was able to stick them out in the corridor....then came the plastic stools and the extra people!!!

In Laos they have NO concept of respecting people's personal space! Like none! There are no words for "yours"; "mine" and for individual people...we soon learnt about this cultural shock the hard way! Shortly into the journey, with kids screaming, asian music blaring and people snorting and spitting out of the windows...the peopl of the stools started to stretch across our laps and fall asleep! Apparently public bus spooning is not frowned upon here!

The road was horrendous and by this time it was pitch black! The scenery from the road is meant to be spectacular, but we missed it all...I spent the majority of the journey with cramp in my legs and hips and on the verge of tears!

The journey was meant to take around 5 hours....approximately 8/9 hours later we reached our desination!

Luckily another couple on the bus had a reservation with a guesthouse in town, so we hopped in a taxi with them hoping the guesthouse wasnt full! Hallelujah we got a room!!!

After an extended nap...we arrived at the river, ready to start our tubing experience!!!

So we got our tubes and headed up the road in a rackety tuk tuk...none of the reports could prepare us for the amount of fun we had that day!!

We arrived into a sea of people, hot sunshine and pumping music! All over the place people were swinging into the river on trapezes and the water was crystal clear and warm! It was actually the most fun place on Earth!!!

I did a swing.....eeeek very scary! I had to close my eyes and my heart was in my mouth the whole time!
No way!No way!No way!

Thank goodness I had a real seat!
Fun fun tho!

As we tubed down the river, young boys would pull you in on a rope and you could visit all the clubs along the river! There were soooo many people!!

Laura and I entered the mud pit at the Mud Bar...that was also pretty special!! I felt like a big pink pig!!

Then we went down the crazy tiled chute....ohhh boy, unfortunately we didnt notice the angle at which the slide ended....shotting people up in the air and smacking into the river! OUCH!


Pretty soon we realised that we had stayed on the river for too long! We attempted to head down stream...the river was barely moving so when we realised that we weren't moving, i got out of my tube and pushed mine along and life save dragged laura behind on her tube....by this point it was getting very dark!

Luckily there were lots of other people in the same situation and we finally managed to hitch a ride with a waiting tuk tuk!

Eventually we made it back to town....had some din dins and straight to bed....absolutely shattered!!!



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