Vang Vieng

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Arrived in Vang Vieng yesterday after basically spending two days traveling non-stop, first an 11 hour bus ride from up North - public bus full of hill tribe people in all their gear, bags of rice, babies weeing etc. The worst thing about it is they clear their throats constantly and hoiek, pretty disgusting. The sound almost makes you want to vomit. The women in front of us kept doing it, and also being sick, and the problem was we had to have the window open and it kept blowing back in. So we had to hold a blanket up to block it for pretty much the whole trip!

We had one night back in Luang Prabang and then took a mini van here - it was supposed to be five hours but then our van broke down and we were stuck in a little village for quite a while. It was all good fun!!

Vang Vieng is a really weird place, like a mini Khao San Rd (Bangkok) in the middle of sleepy Laos. Heaps of hippies, you know, braids, tats, smoking pot and talking about the meaning of life, hanging out in little cliques and thinking they are pretty cool. It’s actually a little shame that this place has become like that. I guess on the other hand we’re supporting the local economy, and providing them with more money than they could earn by growing rice.

Went tubing today, basically floating down the river in inner tubes. It was pretty fun, you stop along the way and have beers, jump off rope swings etc. As we were coming to the end of the course the sky started to darken and thunder began rolling in. We managed to get back to the main road to return the tubes before the heavens opened and the most unbelievable downpour began. Hail the size of strawberries, absolutely freezing - very strange as it’s pretty hot here.

Tomorrow we’re off to stay at an organic farm and help out with the building of a community library. We’ll probably stay there for a couple of days before kayaking down to Vientiane and then heading south.

If you have any big files you want to send us, please send to either [e-mail] or [e-mail] .

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