Blogs from Vang Vieng, West, Laos, Asia - page 15

Vang Vieng Sai’s Uncle took us for a drive to Vang Vieng, it took about 4 hours to get there. Unfortunately, we got stopped by the Police about one hour out of Vientiane and they found that Uncle had neglected to pay his road tax on the van for some months and he was given an on the spot fine (or was it a small bribe?). It did not take us long to be back on the road, so we guessed it was not such a big deal. Being an optimist I decided not to ask Sai if we would be covered by any insurance if Uncle had an accident, I let that thought slip by with the scenery. We passed through many small villages on the route, as we got further from the capital the ... read more

What was I letting myself in for? Was I going to love it or hate it? From Luang Prabang there is a road. Not any road though. A single lane mountain road with more twists than a curly-wurly. The views in the highlands were terrific but my utmost concentration was needed not to be sick. Every other turn seemed to be a 180 degree corner just like the Monaco Grand Prix. On the way, there were villages perched on the sides of sheer drops. Hundreds of children roamed the road. One child of only two at most was feet away from speeding vehicles. I was nervous every time we got too close. At one point, a cockerel was avoiding the traffic in the other direction. In its haste it did not realise our minibus heading straight ... read more

Woke up for our 9am kayaking/caving trip! We had a mini instruction on how to paddle through the rapids but it was hard to understand the guides so they just told us to follow them and do what they do! Too funny! I paired up with Ryan from USA who luckily was a strong paddler and he did good on the rapids! We had 1 kayak bail overboard in the rapids; it was Texas! It was beautiful scenery (even though we were in the dirty brown Mekong). After an hour or so we got to a cave where we got out and walked into the caves. It was a little scary for some as they had a couple of tiny flashlights, some people were given candles and you could still hardly see as it was so ... read more

Tristan and I had made plans to go to the Organic farm in the morning for breakfast before returning our bike. We sat down and ordered and Candace & Duncan showed up shortly after. None of us were really impressed with the place. The food wasn't as great as Lonely Planet made it sound, and it was pretty pricey. We floated down the river today. We rented tubes. We went to a couple bars along the way then Tris and I got seperated from the group. We decided to just float on our own. It was soooo slow. At times the river didn't even move and we had to paddle with our hands. The tubes had to be returned by 6pm or else the company keeps your deposit of $7.50 per tube. It was getting close ... read more

The van was scheduled to be tat our guest house between 9:00 and 9:30. You can imagine how surprised we were when he was there 10 minutes EARLY! Candance and Duncan hadn't even packed their bags as everyone gets used to everything being late, and waiting around. They frantically packed and we were in the van 15 min later. This van takes us to the bus station where we transfer into another minibus. The drive was twisty the whole way. We drove above beautiful canyons, and through Lao villages. Ladies were showering on the side of the road with no tops on. Chickens, cows and pigs were running everywhere. People were sitting under their homes enjoying the shade and having a good laugh with the neighbors. Children were butt naked jumping into the river smiling ear ... read more