Blogs from Vang Vieng, West, Laos, Asia - page 6

Summary: Mini van from Luang Prabang Hospital visit Read more...... read more

We have hired a van for the journey to Vieng Van. It is 6 hour trip and the troops don’t think they can handle another public bus. Also the scenery is very stunning and many photo opportunities will be required. I don’t think there is one flat, straight section of road in Laos. The driver crawls his way up the hills, than pops the gear into neutral and we charge our way down the other side. All for the sake of fuel consumption. Just like a roller coaster ride with corners. Village after village we pass through. The people are Hmong, the one’s that took the wrong side in the political upheaval. They are subsistence farmers, very poor and uneducated but the views they have from their meagre homes are million dollar. From all the stories ... read more

Approaching the half way mark in our travels, we had been remarkably lucky up until now that in 4 months on the road neither of us had fallen ill so far, aside from the odd headache, cold or itchy mosquito bite. Well that was all about to change... After a scenic but bumpy 5 hour mini-van ride from Luang Prabang, we arrived in what used to be known as the party town in Laos, the small dusty Vang Vieng. Previously infamous for it's tubing, partying and drinking, in recent months this has all changed after the government ordered that the riverside bars, where tuber's would over-indulge in potent Lao Lao whiskey all day then stagger back to town (if they made it back) had to close immediately and the town had to clean up it's act. ... read more

From Luang Prabang we took another long, windy, mountainous, beautifully scenic bus ride to Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng used to be Laos' party capital with bars set up all along the river so tubers would stop for a few drinks before continuing along the lazy river. All of those businesses were demolished a few months ago for a couple of reasons. First of all there were about 22 deaths last year alone from the unsafe zip-lines, “death slide”, tarzan ropes and other ways of jumping into the – very low during dry season – river. Secondly, Laos hosted the most recent ASEAN conference and needed to create a better image. When tourists are dying due to your party scene it doesn't look good to the rest of South-East Asia's tourism counterparts. That being said the town ... read more

Na ranajky som spravil zasadnu zmenu,uz ziadna kuracia bageta ale pre istotu tuniakova. Ta je uplne najlepsia. Tunika je z konzervy. Potom len odchod na izbu,zobratie batohu a smer tubing. Pre pozicovnu dusi som dosol 9/45,ziadny iny ludia okrem mna tam neboli. mam pockat abo zacvakat 20kk za vyvezenie hornemu toku rieky. Tak som pockal. O 5 minut prisiel irsky par a hned za nimi sa valilo 5 thajek. Vypisal som papier,dal 55kk + 60kk zaloha a nasadol do tuktuk auta. Kolesa sa vyhodili na zstrechu a slo sa za mesto. Pri nastupovani som si buchol hlavu,maju tu fakt nizke stropy. Po asi 15.min jazdy nas vylozili pri rieke. Prvy bar bol prazdny.Nakoniec vysvitlo,ze vsetky bari su prazdne a wikitravel neklamal,vsetko zrusene aj atrakcie.Skoda no. Som dufal,ze to uz bude obnovene.(update k 01.04.2013,podla wikitravel par barov ... read more