Blogs from Vang Vieng, West, Laos, Asia - page 9

Took a tuk-tuk to the border today - very slowly - due to the ridiculous amount of rucksacks we have between us, thought the engine may well just cut out. People walking could have overtaken us. Got passport photos taken for less than £1for our visas and crossed the thai border. We then got on a minibus as the only tourists not really knowing what we were doing or where exactly we were however enjoying stunning views over the river. Reached the Laos border and managed the paperwork. Here, if you don't understand a question on the immigration form, you can just leave it and they don't even notice. Glad I brought the dollars, so much easier for borders. Once we were in Laos we got taxi which looked distinctly stolen with no rear view mirror ... read more

Vang Vieng, small riverside town in the Vientienne province, four hours drive by bus, you get to see no high rise buildings, single stories to three stories the most. Most shophouses converted to coffee shops, restaurants, motels, guesthouses, massage parlors, clothes, souvenirs, internet cafes and accessories shops. There are also pillow-filled restaurants known as TV Bars. Hospital is nearby. There are so many to brag about, I give good credit for their natural surroundings, beautiful karst mountains, the Nam Song river and many natural caves to dwell about like the Tham Phou Kham cave(Buddha Cave), Tham Jang Cave(Elephant Cave), Tham Nam Cave (South Cave) and Tham Hoi Cave. We did all in one day. Crazy as we are(John, Jo, Lai Chin and Suit Fong), we were drenched, dirty with minor cuts on our four limbs. Later, ... read more

Jaja mijn blog is bijna weer up to date! Van Vientiane zijn we naar Vang Vieng gegaan. Wie Vang Vieng zegt, zegt ook tubing! Ook is het een echte party place. Ondanks dat ik niks had verwacht van Vang Vieng was de natuur hier weer super, dus het is meer dan alleen een party place! Omdat de brommers erg goed bevielen hebben we hier weer een "loop" gereden. Eerst stop was de blue lagoon! Yesss lekker springen uit een boom en lekker zwemmen! Bij de blue lagoon is ook een mooie grot dus die ook weer bekeken. Pittige grot om door heen te lopen dus Victoria is drie keer gevallen en die dag had ze ook al haar been verbrand tegen de uitlaat. Dus daarna ging zij weer richting het guesthouse en ik heb de loop ... read more

After returning from the Gibbon Experience in Huay Xai we took a nightbus from there to Luang Prabang. We got there early morning after an okayish journey and found a nice guesthouse. Our room was big and we had a lovely balcony. Luang Prabang is a really pretty town with loads of nice restaurants and cafes. It's on the Mekong and you can walk down to the shore (no sunbathing!). We wondered around town, got splashed with water (run up to the New Year's celebrations) and found a lovely little cafe which does home made ice cream. They also have nice wine and delicious looking salads. We decided to go there for dinner, as especially I have been craving salads after 3.5 months in Asia. This little cafe was quite a walk away from our guesthouse. ... read more

Long before getting to Vang Vieng, I was hearing stories about Vang Vieng. I had heard stories about other places too, but the Vang Vieng stories were unique as they revolved around the (in)famous tubing pub crawl. I was excited to experience it, although I never planned to go all out as I'm a firm believer that drunkennes and water are a recipe for disaster, especially if you are as accident prone as I am. So when I arrived in Vang Vieng and learned that there was so much more to do that tubing I was pleasantly surprised. While the tubing was fun, and I will never forget it, I think that the other experiences that I had while in Vang Vieng are what made the town so memorable. Everything in Vang Vieng is about the ... read more