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So after finally making it to Laung Prabang me and a Canadian couple who I went on the Gibbons experience with, found a cool guest hour just off the made drag. Laung probang is a small town with a really french kind of feel to it. Apparently it has grown really quickly with the increased tourism but it has done so in a controlled manner which allowed it to keep much of it's character.
I am official a millionaire, it didn't take hard work, a good education or even winning the lottery, all I had to do is exchange around 120 Cdn. The Laos currency (the Kip) is close to worthless, there are no coins with the highest denomination being a 20,000 kip bill. So when I exchanged 120 Cdn I got a stack of bills probably an inch high all in 20,000 denominations. Everything is really cheap but not really proportional. I had a nice room with a king size bed that cost me 30,000 Kip a night, but then it cost me 25,000 Kip to do a load of laundry, and 20,000-30,000 Kip to have a decent meal, it just doesn't seem right.
The first day
in Luang Prabang I spent exploring the town, i first went to the grand palace museum. Laung Probang used to be the capital of the country many years ago. The museum of the old palace was surprisingly fascinating. You could go through pretty much all the rooms of the palace including the kings entertaining rooms, the kings bedroom and even the kings military planning room. All these rooms were decorated with all sorts of old artifacts. Once room was filled with gifts the king had received from all the different countries in the world. Canada had given him a fancy pen set, while the American had given them a foot high model of the lunar module, I found that quite funny. After the palace I climbed up 318 stairs to a temple that really wasn't that nice, the view over the city was nice and made the climb well worth it.
The following day I took a van tour to a famous waterfall about 1.5 hours outside of the city. The water had carved it's way through this huge limestone rock formation over the years to make this beautiful waterfall. Cooper (an American I met on the trip)
Waterfall
If you look at the second small drop near the top. That is where we were swimming and I climbed up to the top of the waterfall walked across the knee deep water climbed down a little bit and found a pool of water which was a great swimming spot that was right before the big drop off. It was really cool you could lean over the side of the pool and look down over the huge drop.
So after a few days relaxing in Laung Probang I took a 7 hour bus ride to Vang Vien. This was probably the worst bus ride I have been on yet, firstly the bus was packed beyond full , they have little stools that they put along the aisle to be able to cram on more people. The roads were horrible we honestly were twisting and turning on the sides of mountains for 6 out of the 7 hours I was on the bus. The views were absolutely amazing and they definitely helped the time travel more quickly. It was really bizarre how every 5-10 kilometers we would pass through an extremely poor mountain village. There would be a row of houses on one side of the highway, then on the other side, there was a huge drop
off, but somehow they managed to fit in houses which floors would not be anywhere near the ground. These villages were full with animals roaming around and kids playing near the road, but the bus driver wouldn't slow down he would just honk his horn the whole way through the town.
So I finally made it to Vang Vieng, I have heard so many great things about this town from so many other travelers. Vang Veing has also grown very quickly with the increased tourism but unlike Lang Prabang it has not been controlled and has lost all of it's character and Laos culture. When I first walked the main stretch of this town my stomach was turning. It was just like the islands, rows of guest houses and bars, with all the bars playing friends episodes on repeat with the odd one playing simpsons. I still don't understand why or how so many people can sit in a crappy bar in the middle of beautiful Laos and watch many episodes of friends. Anyways i spent the first day in Laos relaxing I walked around to the sections of town that had no tourists, there is actually an old
abandoned runway which apparently use to be an American runway that was used in the Laos and Vietnam war back in the 60's and 70's.
That night I finally crack and had my first western meal of my whole trip, and was that ever a mistake. I ordered a pizza sub with ham and bacon, the meal gave me food poisoning and I spent the next day in a half in bed at my guest house. I have eaten all different kinds of foods from all different places and the one meal that finally gets me is a stupid western meal. So after two days of doing nothing I was finally feeling better and went out tubing, the event Vang Vein is famous for.
Who ever came up with this idea is a genius. For 35,000 kip they give you an old tractor inner tube and drive you to the launch point 3 kilometers up river. the first section of the river has 7 or 8 different little pubs. They have Laotians on the banks of the river with large bamboo pulls on strings that they get your to grab and then they pull you into there
little bar. Some of them have giant rope swings that are probably 30-40 feet tall. The best bar had a zip line that went about 30 feet up river, it had a 40 foot tall rope swing, probably 10 little huts to chill in where you can order food and drinks and 3 volleyball courts. So you spend most of the day hanging out with other tubers, swinging from the huge swings at the first bars on the river. Then around 6:00 you hop in your tube and have about an hour of floating down the river as the sun goes down. Again the views were amazing the one side of the river is lined with these huge rock formations.
And finally this morning I hoped on a bus and now am in Vientiane which is the capital of Laos. This city is very small for a capital and all the areas I have seen so far are pretty much under construction. I am only here for a few days to get my Vietnam Visa and flight figured out.
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