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Published: June 19th 2007
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So Donna and I woke up at 5am to catch a 6am bus to Vang Vieng (south of Luang Prabang). The drive was a beautiful, yet curvaceous drive through northern Laos. All along the drive we passed by several small Hmong villages (one of the local SE asian minorities). They appeared to be living much like Donna and I have lived at times during this trip... in little bungalows on stilts.
Anyway, after about 5 hours, Donna and I finally arrived in Vang Vieng. The town is another bizarre, somewhat sleepy town with some spectacular scenery. Vang Vieng is known for a bunch of things....tubing down the Nam Song river.... random bars and restaurants playing endless re-runs of Friends....caving....kayaking....and finally, a good party scene.
Well, all that stuff basically proved true. First we checked into our bungalow at the Thavisouk Resort; we got a decent bungalow right near the river. After cleaning up (and covering ourselves with DEET mosquito repellent) we headed into town. We spent the rest of the day hanging out at one bar which played bootleg dvds on a big-screen tv, and went to go and check on one of these legendary "Friends" bars. Long
Beerlao
nice to beat the heat. story short, the rumor proved true. It was so bizarre...there were these little bars...literally right next to each other, and across the street from each other which just played endless re-runs of Friends. There must have been around 8 bars which were like this. Occasionally we'd find some that strayed from the path and played Simpsons or Family Guy re-runs.
So the next day, Donna and I got up and embarked on our tubing adventure down the Nam Song river. It was a really great time. They dropped us off at this one point and basically it was your basic tubing down a river with a couple cool exceptions. First, every 3-5 minutes, you run into a make-shift bar along the riverside. Local Lao people set up these bars and would offer you free jumps off their swings if you bought some Beer Lao. So there were these huge swings and zip lines which dumped you in the river. I couldn't get enough of them. They really were a blast. The river was also a nice relief from the Laos heat!
The next day Donna and I went to go check out some of Vang Vieng's legendary caves.
What ended up happening was way more than we expected out of the days' adventure. After renting a couple of beach-cruiser style bicycles, we headed out to check out one of the best caves. After a good bike ride and hike we ran into these two english girls who were just coming back from the cave. They did not seem overly impressed with their experience and appeared to be clean and comfortable (not looking like they had been through any rigerous experience). So we went up to the cave and paid our entrance fee $1 per person, and followed these two little Laotian boys into the cave.
At first they took us into this big cavern complete with bats overhead and a huge Buddha statue built to the top of the cavern.... pretty cool. Then they just kept walking along through these smaller and smaller holes. Donna and I just assumed that since the english girls never said anything about this that it was nothing to worry about. Anyway, as it turns out these two little Laotian boys led Donna and I through this RIDICULOUS caving adventure. Donna and I found ourselves crawling on our bellies, at times COVERED in
mud, squeazing through tiny holes, with only our flashlights and two little Laotian boys guiding us. In the end, it ended up being an amazing experience that we are both proud of having done (especially after seeing the movie THE DESCENT).
That night we cleaned up, went to the Simpsons bar (to spite the Friends' bars), and then went to bed.
The next day we got up at the crack of dawn and took a public Laos bus to Vientiane (the nation's capitol). We decided on the public bus because it was cheap, and fit approximately the same time frame as the more expensive aircon and VIP buses. Surprisingly, the trip was fine, and the lack of aircon was actually not too bad.
Vientiane is a very sleepy capitol city. It is right along the Mekong river (like Luang Prabang) but bigger. It is also not the most exciting town. While there we checked out the famous Pha That Luang stupa. It is this large golden stupa in the middle of the city...pretty cool, but not amazing. Following that, Donna and I checked out Vientiane's own Arc de Triomph...also cool, but far from mind-blowing.
Tomorrow, Donna
and I are flying to Hanoi and we will update the blog as soon as we can.
Also, the internet cafe that I'm at right now doesn't have a card-reader....so I can't upload all my pics....so long story short....more pics to follow!
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Sissy
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I am not so sure I would have liked the cave experience --being a bit clastrophobic---but it sounded exciting. The swings look really neat and fun. Glad you are both having such a wonderful experience. Love, Mom