As we arrived in Vientiane airport, we all agreed that we wanted to head straight to Vang Vieng! So we proceeded to the taxi booking office and ordered a taxi for the 4 of us which should take 3-4 hours. Our taxi driver was very quiet to begin with, but he soon livened up when I asked him to put some music on. They love music in Asia and it is always an ice breaker! It was not long before he was singing along to the tunes coming out of the stereo, and a mix of english, thai and laos music was on offer so we could join in with some songs! I asked him about his family and he said he is married with 2 kids and pays to send them to school. He taught me a few words like thank you etc so I could get by and when I asked for a toilet break he just pulled over at the side of the road and we had to just get out and find a bush!!! Thankfully it was dark by now, and the journey seemed to be taking longer than expected as the roads are not that good here! We finally arrived about 8pm ish. We asked our driver to find us a cheap but nice hotel and he obliged. We stayed near the river in the centre of town, which was handy for getting around!! We left him a hefty tip as he was so nice and to help pay for his kids school fees (suckers) and went in search of some food before heading to bed!
The next day we decided to hire some cycles and go exploring some of the caves, lagoons and surrounding countryside. It is very scenic around here and it was a beautiful day, blue skies and sunshine all around! We found some bikes and headed off towards the blue lagoon, stopping at a cave on the way, which we hired a guide to show us. It was pitch black so he gave us all a torch and we followed him in one by one. It was hot inside and really small. We had to navigate our way up and down makeshift ladders, which did not look at all stable. When I shone my torch on the wall, which I did anytime I had to hold onto it, I could see spiders and crickets and God knows what else is lurking in there!! Although it was fun, I was glad to be back out in the sunshine again once completed!
We got back on our bikes and headed for the Blue Lagoon and cave for a refreshing dip and some chill out time! It was beautiful there, with many fish in the water, swimming around and rope swings to play on if you were ready to brave the cold water. I was happy just to have a paddle and watch the fish. We had to have the bikes back by 6pm and the sun was going down so we headed back to town, had dinner and just chilled out for a while to prepare ourselves for tubing tomorrow!
Finally the big day had arrived!!! The reason most people come here, to go tubing down the river, floating on some big inner tubes whilst stopping at as many bars on the way to drink beer, buckets, shots and partake in pretty much anything else you like, popularly consisting of free splits with every bucket bought! However it seemed that most people did not get past the first couple of bars as that is where all the action was, and also all the sunshine as it got shady further down which made it a bit cold! The inner tubes were hardly needed and some people just came to the river without them just to hang out at the bars and party! We headed back into town around 6ish and whilst waiting for a ride, met some guys who we met up with later in the bar near our hotel and just spent the night hanging out and chatting. It was nice to finally start meeting some other people and hear all their travelling stories!
The next morning we left for Luang Prabang! This involved about 7 hours on a bus, and if that was VIP I dread to think what the standard bus would have been like! The road was really winding, going up through the hills, and I felt quite sick by the time we got there and tired from the journey which was not at all comfortable. I am so glad i have decided to fly to Chiang Mai and not take the bus, which is about 20 hours!!!
We arrived in Luang Prabang at night and headed straight to the night market for a wander round and to find some food. I wanted to book a trek for the next day and no one was ready to decide what to do so I just booked something for myself as I wanted to set off early so as not to waste the day, as I only have 2 days here. I am going to do a trek and a river cruise along the Mekong to visit some caves while I am here.
There was only myself and an american couple doing the trek along with our guide called Man. They were from Texas and had horses so I really enjoyed chatting with them and hope to keep in touch as Melissa has travelled a lot of places I want to go and is a great source of information and vice versa! We visited some of the local villages, and some waterfalls, through some beautiful countryside, everything is so green and lush here! Eventually we ended up at the elephant camp where you could ride the elephants. I decided against that as I was going to be doing this in Chiang Mai. I ran into Nicola and the others here who were riding the elephants and snapped some pics of them, it looked like a good time!
We then took a riverboat back to our waiting taxi, swapped contact details and headed off our separate ways! It was a really enjoyable day!
The next morning I was doing my river boat tour down the Mekong to visit the caves which are sacred to the local people and are full of hundreds of Buddhas which have been left there over hundreds of years! The river was very cold this time of the morning as the sun was refusing to come out today, but the scenery was beautiful which made up for it and I got to finally see the Mekong and meet some of its occupants, who did not seem to understand what hot tea is, but were very keen for us to try snake, scorpion or centipede whiskey which they make out of rice.
I met a couple of guys on this tour, French and german, we chatted a while about our travels and respective countries and when our trip was over we said goodbye to our french friend, and Andi and I went off to get some lunch, he then showed me the main temple where we stayed to watch the sun go down, the views were fantastic and you could see the whole town from here. It was a real pleasure meeting him and I really enjoyed hearing all about Germany. Everyone we meet from other countries all speak pretty good english, and it is a bit embarrassing that I do not really know any other language, so I am also, along with Nicola, going to try and learn a bit of Spanish while we are in South America. We said our goodbyes and I headed home to pack and get ready to leave the next morning on my own for Chiang Mai. The others are staying a while longer, so I have decided to go ahead and spend some quality time by myself to explore Northern Thailand for a few days!
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