Whenever we spoke to other travellers about Vang Vieng, we always got the same reply, ‘Oh, everyone goes there… it’s so touristy… there’s more falang (foreigners) there than locals’ (sounds like Dubai!). In the guide book it was a similar opinion. We decided to try it anyway. What no one mentioned was how beautiful it is, how peaceful and fun! I guess there’s a reason why the falang flock here. Although we’ve been having an easy, lazy time here getting here was not so easy!
Friday morning we found our way to Talat So bus station in Vientiane however it was not like Thailand, we couldn’t figure out where to go, which bus it was… luckily a friendly Lao man tried to warn us that, ‘this bus takes many hours, maybe 5 or 6 and very crowded because everyone want to use it, very cheap’ he pointed out a yellow bus (like an American school bus), it sounded alright to us! Once again, it was so different to Thailand. Instead of an underneath store for our bags they were tied to a piece of rope and hauled onto the roof with the bags of dried fish and boxes. The gangway was covered in sacks of flour and we had to clamber over huge buckets of paint to get to our prefered seat at the back (leg room for Gary). Once we got going it was actually quite pleasant as we had lots of space at the back (no one else could be bothered to clamber over the paint). All was ok until all of a sudden there was an explosive sound and fragments flew through the air. The bus pulled over. We’d had a tyre blowout (although of course you imagine the worst… Gary thought we’d been shot at). But still the bus rambled on, one tyre down, round and round up the mountains. The scenery was stunning. Eventually we pulled up to a tiny village infront of a little shack. We got off and instantly two boys (about 12 years old) began changing the tyre, very adept they were too! Better than KwikFit. About half an hour later we were on our way again.
As the bus pulled onto a patch of tarmac (about the size of a football field) the conductor called out ‘Vang Vieng’ and we all disembarked in the middle of nowhere. This was their ‘bus station’ and apparently their airplane landing strip too. We instantly had the offer of a free tuktuk ride into town if we checked out this hotel, no strings. Sounded ok to us and it turned out to be a really nice place, we got our own bungalow for half the price we were paying in Vientiane, the cheapest place yet in fact! (Gary managed to negotiate a discount for a weeks stay as usual).
We’ve mainly spent our time here relaxing, drinking fruit shakes and eating baguette sandwiches. On the second day here we rented two bicycles and rode around the sorrounding area. It was really nice and the fields smelt of England, we found a country path to ride along but mainly stayed on ‘highway’ 13, although it’s not a Western image of a highway! We rode down to an organic farm that specialised in Mulberry, I tried mulberry tea, we had mulberry shakes and mulberry crisps. Got a bit mulberried out! Later on we got a flyer inviting us to a ‘full moon party’ with a ‘fireshow’ – this sounded good and we recruited our Norwegian friends (who are also in Vang Vieng) to come too. The show didn’t start until 11pm so we wasted some time and got there about. The place was wonderful with a big open log fire under the starts and platforms over the river with hammocks (which we tried at first but after a while the swinging was making Gary dizzy!) We had a lovely evening chatting with our friends but by 12.30 there had been no show, we came to the conclusion that the ‘show’ was the log fire… a translation thing I think!
The other thing that Vang Vieng is famous for is TUBING (Uncle Bob was making fun of this). You get taken upstream and given an inflated tractor inner tube to float down the river. It was really great! The water was a little cold but in the sun we soon got used to it. Soon we came to the first of many riverside ‘BeerLoa Bars’ (which also sold other refreshments luckily!) mostly made from wood, some locals ‘rescued’ us from the river with bamboo poles and pulled us into shore. From there you could sunbathe, have a drink and, best of all, use their rope swings. I admit I was a BIG WIMP and opted out (though I’m regreting it now) but Gary had a go. He climbed up a ladder onto a high platform over the water. You hold onto a wooden bar attached to the rope and swing out over the water! Gary found it exhilerating, the swing being as high as a house you would! There were more of these along the river (getting higher and higher it seemed) however at the third one Gary’s hand slipped and he twisted his middle finger knuckle. It swelled up instantly so he was out of actiong for swinging from then on (and also out of actiong for paddling, Deena had to pull him home once it started getting cold in the water!). Another side-effect of the wonderful day of tubng on the river was that Gary got sunburnt! And he’s still suffering three days on (I think we’ll be lathering on the sunblock from now on). So since then we’ve mostly been recovering and enjoying the lush landscpaes of Vang Vieng. 