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Published: December 19th 2007
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The square around nam phou fountain
its very peaceful and quiet, there wasnt alot of people at all! Sa bai dee!
We flew in with Laos airlines, which, if you ever happen to do, we will pre-warn you if you are not a good flyer - dont bother! It was a really small plane that got thrown about alot and the landings were on one wheel, swerving down the runway. Me and Rob must have looked like really nervous flyers because we were rigid in our seats, gripping the arm rests, but we honestly thought we might die!
Our first thought of Vientiane was how French looking it was. The hotel we booked into was so French looking we could have been there! The town was small, with a fountain being the central point. We had dinner around there that evening as it was a really popular spot. Everyone seemed to be really friendly.
The next day we went and had a look at a temple called That Louang and visited Vientianes very own Champs Elysee, which had a Laos style Arch de Triomphe at the end of it, the only difference was it had Buddha statues all over it. Not so French! Although its a pretty little town there wasnt that much to do there,
Where we ate
how french does the restaurant look! so the next day we made the short trip to Vang Viang.
Sa bai dee (from Vang Viang),
We caught the bus for 3 hours using a compant called VIP, but the bus was rubbish, really dirty. However, we got there and were surprised at how remote it was, it seemed like an old western town. I was half expecting cowboys to ride past us or gunshots from a saloon or something! But we could immediately see why so many people came. The whole place is built for tourists to do all sorts of adventure sports. The most popular being tubing, which involves an old tractor inner tube blown up, and floating down the river on it all day, where pubs on the bank through out ropes for you to catch and pull you in for a drink. People get hammered and some have even died! We couldnt do it though as we only had one day and wanted to go to the caves instead.
We had to rock climb up a cliff face to the top (as thats where the cave was), with no harness and flip flops on, really not safe but we made it.
The fountain
all lit up at night time! Then we got into the cave where after 5 minutes was pitch black, so we turned on our little head lamps that we had rented at the bottom. We felt like miners! It was cool, but the guy who was taking us expected us to rock climb again in the dark, was he nuts! It really wasnt safe and I said no as i was already trying to grip in bare feet because my flip flops were slipping so much on the rocks, plus the dark was scaring me, ive watched too many bad films! We headed back out the way we came, the descent was hard going and scary but we managed slowly. At the bottom there was a blue lagoon with rope swings and jumping spots. It was really good fun so we spent some time there.
Later, after having a good shower we headed out for dinner. We have trying to find a few western dishes as rice all the time is wearing thin at times! We went to this place, where you sat on this bed type thing, with a table across it, it had pillows so you could lay down too. They played friends
Han all dressed up
actually wearing make up for a change. constantly so we found we were there for ages, we kept on saying we will watch the end of this episode then go, but we were glued!
When we finally made it out we went across this wood foot bridge to a bar called smile. They have loads of outdoor parties around campfires. We got a few drinks in with our new friends from australia that we met on the VIP bus. We sat around the fires, swung in hammocks and relaxed with the Irish resident DJ banging out some tunes. The later it got the more popular it became, everyone from the island seemed to come here. Unfortunately, we had to go as we had another early start to Louang Prabang the next day. We booked up on a mini bus as it was an hour quicker than the big buses and a bit more comfortable.
So until next time ... rah rah rah
p.s. dont forget to add your comments for us to read!
Han and Rob
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Walter
non-member comment
Get you tent out!
Miss you xxx did you like it up the dirt track? xxx