Advertisement
Published: February 8th 2013
Edit Blog Post
After cramming 10 of us into a tiny tuk tuk (cramped to say the least), we were off to the bus station to catch our VIP bus to Vang Vieng (V V). It was a typically bumpy and jolty journey, but the scenery was incredible, huge mountains and valleys with rivers at the bottom, stunning to see some more of the rural Laos countryside. We arrived at V V much sooner than we thought and we hopped in a tuk tuk into the centre. We were happy to see the irish trio again, who keep popping up everywhere we go, and we actually introduced ourselves this time😊 We found a cheap place to stay called central backpackers and spent the next few hours chilling on our balcony with some beer laos. However we had abit of drama, kyles toe got caught in the chair and cut open pretty bad, so nurse kim and harriet were to the rescue, cleaning and bandaging😊 he should pull through😊
We decided not to tube the next day to give kyles toe abit of healing time so headed out to explore V V. After a tasty breakfast of banana pancakes and a couple of friends
episodes (pretty popular here, definitley catering to the tourist crowd, but we're not complaining😊) we took to the streets. We'd heard that there were some pretty impressive caves around V V, so we set off in search of them. After walking the wrong way for abit, not sure map reading is our forte, we found the sign for Xim cave. We followed what we thought was the path, mapped out by plastic bags on sticks and trekked across farmers fields and it finally opened out to the river, which was full of life. Loads of people fishing and swimming, there were water buffalo, after the quiet of the footpath we were not expecting that. We made it over the rickety bridges to the entrance where we were greeted by our guides, and when i say guides, i mean 12 year old boys. We were then presented with head torches and we begun to wonder what we'd got ourselves in to. The guide took off literally into the cliffs, and we followed, climbing over rocks and squeezing through tiny little gaps, was like proper caving! We reached this underwater lagoon, was creepy, like something out of a horror film. Was such
a random experience, not what we were expecting, but so much fun! Glad we did it😊 after a very sweaty walk back to town, we spent the rest of the afternoon drinking beer lao and playing connect 4, which kim was definitely the champion of😊
The next day meant tubing! We headed off around 11, and found the place easily and after paying and leaving a deposit we were off in a tuk tuk, with our tubes on top, basically just big rubber rings. We got talking to the other couple in the tuk tuk, and they were so friendly, from England too and on an 11 month trip! We got to the river, wet shoes at the ready, and kinda just plopped ourselves in and we were off! The water felt cold at first, but it felt so hot today that it was a welcome refreshment😊 was so peaceful just floating down the river, hardly any other people around, and the scenery was beautiful! After dodging lots of rocks in the river, you couldnt see them until you were right on top of them, we stopped for a beer lao. Talked more to the english couple, helen and
jay, they shared loads of travelling tips and nice places to go😊 back in the water and this time we encountered some faster bits, where the current was pretty strong. We reached the end after about 3 hours of floating down the river, had been really fun, would definitely do it again! Had another beer lao, and watched the sunset over the river and chatted to helen and jay some more. Had such a good day, but all that relaxing had really taken it out of us so an early night beckoned.
Another day, another bus. This time off to the capital, Vientiane. It was a pretty short journey, only 3 hours, and it flew by. Before we knew it, we were on the streets of Vientiane. Found a place to stay and headed out to explore. Doesnt seem to be as much atmosphere here as there has been elsewhere in Laos. we wandered to the river, but it was so quiet, everyone must have been sheltering from the heat! So we headed back to the guesthouse, and did some reading on the seats outside, and watched the crazy traffic! Me and kimmy had a lush dinner tonight, after
watching the sunset over the river😊 beautiful😊, had peanut noodles, papaya salad and tzaziki with pitta. really good!
We moved to cheaper accomodation the next morning. They were pretty small, boxy rooms but for 3 pounds a night, you can't really complain😊 there doesnt really seem like theres much to do in vientaine, but this afternoon we hopped in a rusty tuk tuk to go and explore one of the sights, the stupa. It was pretty big and gold, but kinda a let down, had sort of expected something abit more impressive.. was still nice to see some different areas of the city though. Spent the afternoon blogging and trying to skype home, but the internet is so slow in Laos that it was nearly impossible! Dinner was good tonight too, noodles soup (our fave) and spring rolls, yummy! After dinner, kim taught us a new card game, crazy 8's, was fun, think its gonna turn into a new favourite😊
The next day we had a sleeper bus booked down to 4000 islands, but it wasn't til 7, so had alot of time to kill. Did some more blogging and internet stuff before enjoying some more noodle soup
for lunch😊 in the afternoon we wandered to the park area next to the river, and ended up sharing a bench with this american guy, who has lived in laos for 6 years now! He was a pretty funny guy and even told us he wanted to impart as much of his wordly knowledge upon us as possible. Before we knew it 3 hours had passed! He must have given us alot of wisdom in that time😊 we were soon being piled into a tuk tuk, 13 of us in this one, (kim couldnt feel her legs by the end of the journey!) and arrived at our bus to take us to 4000 islands 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.178s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0462s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
King L
non-member comment
Yes people. Loving the blogs. Just read this one with a cup of Taiwanese coffee over lunch. Beautiful! I am liking the amount of beer you seem to be drinking...true cultural experience. Keep enjoying and living it. Looking forward to seeing you here soon. Lx