Vang Vieng

Hello from Vang Vieng, the wild wild west town of Laos!

We landed here on Monday after another long journey from Luang Prabang. The views on the way have to be some of the most spectacular we've ever seen - giving the Drakensberg mountains in South Africa a serious run for the money. We crossed over so many mountain ranges, no wonder it took 5 and a half hours to get about 200kms perhaps. Not far out from Vang Vieng, the minivan drew to a halt and the driver started gesturing to us to get out. Just in front of us was a bridge which was completely blocked by what looked like a massive generator on its side. The truck in front had clearly lost its cargo after a bump on the bridge. Well to see two lots of people from two minivans trying to push this thing back up on it side was hilarious and the only practical person appeared to be a guy from Alaska (used to this kinda thing?). Even the drivers of the truck reduced themselves to the not so well thought out plan of just dragging it along until it almost fell apart, but it was off the bridge. Anyway, mini drama over.

On arrival in Vang Vieng, we laboured with our backpacks down to a lovely spot called Riverside Bungalows - a paradise spot. Beautiful views of the limestone karsts that make the place famous. Anyway, we opened our door to the mad miaowing of a pretty mangey looking kitten. Now that we know him and his entire family quite well, we know this mad miaowing is neither special nor unique, nor anything to worry about. He must have been there for a while though, the poor little guy was parched. (Pic, view from our chalet)

We had read much about Vang Vieng and it's spectacular location, but the town itself is something to behold. A muddy/dusty street - depends on whether its dry or wet season, or if there has been a downpour! Many many restaurants and bars line the main street, all blaring out music and loud tv. We, along with nearly every one else, succumbed to watching some eventually.

So what to do in Vang Vieng? Well the town is most known for two things: caves and tubing. Well actually it's famous for three things, but the Laos police have clamped down on the third thing big time. So we decided to do a little of both - caves and tubing that is - yesterday. (Pic, downtown Vang Vieng)

We started off first however, with breakfast (that did not involve a baguette thankfully - see What's Hot, What's Not!). Michelle found herself victim to a deranged bottle of ketchup, which exploded all over her on opening. There was ketchup everywhere from most of her to the wall to the table to the bag - somehow the explosion avoided Sancha - considering it got everywhere else, this is something of a wonderment to us...The owner/manager seemed mortified but unless he forgot about the price of one cup of tea, maybe not mortified enough when it came to giving us the bill.

So off we went in the afternoon, about 15km towards a small Hmong village, where we saw one of the caves called the Elephant Cave. Then we walked on a good bit to another cave, which had a river running through it, so we were able to tube through that, which was great craic. Little batteries hanging off us, little lights on our foreheads, tubing/hand paddling our way through the river in the cave. Lights out, pitch black of course! Then once we drip dried, we walked on to another Hmong village where we came across about 10 young women and one young man stitching cloth which we were told was going to be sent to the USA. They were all giggling and laughing and it took a while before Sancha realised it was her they were laughing at. They told our guide that I obviously didn't work in rice field cos I was so white. They kept staring at my legs because quite honestly, even though tourists pass through there every day, they probably really haven't seen anything like that kind of "luminous" white colour... I told them we had no rice fields in Ireland, which he translated as "she comes from a cold country". Our two guides were great craic.

The last two nights have been noteworthy also for the crazy thunderstorms that have blown in. The first night we arrived, we essentially were locked in cos of the thunderstorm, lightning and mad hailstone that drove us right to the back of the restaurant to seek shelter. It was cool really! No hailstone last night, but some pretty loud thunder all the same. Walking back down the muddy street in the dark (powercut) after was like walking with cement blocks on our feet cos the earth was so sticky on our flip flops.