Vang Vieng and Vientiane

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Our journey from Phonsavan to Vang Vieng wasn't quite as hairy as the one to Phonsavan! We were also the only people in the minibus, so we sat up front so we'd be thrown around less!

Vang Vieng is a very surreal place, built specifically for backpackers. The main attraction (or most commonly visited attraction) is the tubing, where you hire an inner tube from a tractor tire drive to a point upstream and tube down the river. Both sides of the river is lined with bars, offering lots of drinks and slides, swings and all sorts. Compared to the calm, serene beauty of the rest of Laos, its definitely a very strange experience. Our favourite day was when we took a tour which including both caving and kayaking. We would pull ourselves along a rope to explore the water cave, and saw the elehant cave where a (mostly) naturally formed rock is in the shape of an elephant. I was really impressed by this until I found out that they had added concrete to "emphasise" its shape...kind of cheating! The kayaking was really fun though. We started much further up the river than the tubing and without all the bars the scenery was stunning. When we got to the bar area we stopped at one place where we could go on a rope swing, which was quite scary, but lots of fun! After that we kayaked further down the river where we we once again impressed by its beauty.

Vietiane is very calm for a capital! After a day and a half we had seen pretty much all the sights. Some we couldn't see because they were closed for Laos new year, which takes place on the 14th-16th, but has some considerable build up! For Laos new year, the whole country engages in a water fight. Two days of our time in Vientiane were spent on the streets, with water guns, having a massive water fight. Its difficult to explain just how massive this event is. Every street was lined with people. All businesses/houses ran a hose pipe to a bin for people to use to refill their buckets/guns. There were lots of trucks driving around full of people on the back throwing water and talc over everyone in the streets. The Laos people would even open the doors of passing cars and throw buckets of water inside, no mercy!
On the first of the 2 days we stumbled across a work party outside a shop. We started celebrating with them and they gave us beer, whisky and food. That evening the owner of the shop, Vong, met us and took us to a rooftop bar and a dim sum restaurant. These people were lovely, and we spent the whole day dancing (more me than Jamie!) and throwing water!

On the morning of the 15th we took an early flight to Cambodia. We got to the airport around 4.15 and it was shut! The entrance was blocked by shutters. Our taxi driver said "you're the first passengers" and then left us, where we sat on some plastic chairs waiting for the building to open. After a while a man came and opened the shutters but then we had to wait inside until people got to work and came to the desks! This is particularly funny because we weren't THAT early, and they told us we had to be there 2 hours before departure time, but this was before they showed up! The plane made a stop at a different airport so we could go through immigration! But it was a great flight and we are excited to visit the Angkor Wat area tomorrow.

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