Blogs from Vang Vieng, West, Laos, Asia - page 2

Leaving Phonsavan behind on the local bus ($95,000kip) I entertained myself on the eight hour journey by looking at the mesmerizing scenery of jagged limestone jungle covered mountains on the winding road. The winding road however also led to a number of children getting sick all around me. I again was entertained. Sounds strange, but you have to do something to occupy yourself on these long bus rides. My destination - Vang Vieng. The legendary backpacker party village all centered around tubing down the Nam Song River. Anything used to go here. You could do and get anything. That was until 22 tourists died last year and countless others before that. The Lao government torched all of the zip lines, jump platforms, and bars on the river. The party does still go down in town, but ... read more

Vang Vieng was once known for its hedonistic nightlife, drug fuelled raves and drunken backpackers drifting along from bar to bar sitting precariously on inflated inner tubes as they float down the river. Perhaps 20 years ago that image might have been a bit more attractive but luckily for us the town has worked hard to change its character and it definitely has a more sedate tone today. The change continues though, and the building of large hotels for rich tour groups may yet signal the end for the meagre backpacker. We ended up staying for four nights on the edge of town, far away from the few noisy bars which still operate until the "curfew" at 11pm. We started in the Laos Haven whose small swimming pool provided a place to cool off in the ... read more

Morning came very early today. The alarm went off at 4-30am for us to be ready to get the hotel shuttle at 5-15am to take us the short distance (but, too far to walk) to see the monks on their morning alms walk. This is a morning ritual in most Asian countries. The driver took us down to the post office (the post office seemed to be the central meeting point during our stay in Luang Prabang :)) where Katy had arranged a vantage point nearby, for us to be able to not only see the monks on their morning rounds, but had also arranged little stools for us to sit on. She had also organised two bamboo steam baskets full of sticky rice for all us to shape into little balls to place into the ... read more

It was an early start so that we could have a big breakfast before catching our minibus. We were the first ones on the bus and it was rapidly filled with late 20's Anericans. It was only 120 miles to Vang Vieng, but progress was quite slow. Sometimes the road was metalled, other times it was dirt and one time, as we went over a mountain pass, the road had simply been washed away. This was the hairiest moment of the whole trip as the minibus went along the very edge of the road, less than a foot away was a massive drop to the valley floor below. All we could do was cross our fingers as stopping the van could have been disastrous. The scenery on our five hour trip was spectacular, very mountainous and ... read more

The bus ride to Vang Vieng was harrowing. It was 5 hours of mountain roads on a giant bus zipping back and forth, up and down. A Lao man slept in the aisle next to me. We stopped a lot but were rarely allowed to leave the bus, and we really only were able to get out when an older Western man went up front to ask to use the bathroom. At the first bathroom stop, we got out and didn't get snacks because we were told we were stopping for lunch in an hour. 2.5 hours and lot of rumbling stomachs later, we finally stopped for lunch only about 40 minutes outside of Vang Vieng. Also, people were vomiting on the bus. Not the most pleasant sound to hear when you thing you're going to ... read more