Vang Vieng

Tuesday

We set off from Luang Prebang on our 6 hour mini bus journey. It was a really really bumpy road full of bends that would make anyone car sick. Luckily our trusty armbands and travell sickness pills meant we were fine. The scenery was spectacular with paddy fields, rivers, jungle and huge mountains everywhere you looked.

We finally arrived at our destination, the small town of Vang Vieng. Our hotel was really nice and overlooking the river.

The view from our garden on to the river.

Our bungalow

Mark took us on our orientation walk around the town. On first impressions it was like the Magaluf of Laos! Loads of young travellers all dressed in swim shorts and bikinis drinking their heads off.

One very popular one is River Tubing where you sit in a rubber ring and drift down the river. I was keen to try this out as I had read it was good. Heidi and I took a Tuk Tuk to check it out and immediately we thought…no. What we saw was hundreds of near naked bodies getting very drunk at bars on the river bank and jumping from platforms and swings into the river below. It all looked quite dangerous and Gap Adventures does not allow its guides to promote it because there have been fatalities in recent years. There were only about 3 people doing the actual tubing and they were struggling to get down the river as its dry season and the water was low. They told us it would have taken 3 hours baking in the sun and drifting slowly and aimlessly down the river. Not for me. I was imagining rapids and fast flowing rivers.

In the evening we ate a nice meal together on a restaurant at the rivers edge. It was nice to eat a good old fashioned Pizza after lots of days eating Asian food, which is very tasty, but a change is always good.

Our tour group: Heidi, Rhonda (canada), Carolyn (London) and Mark (Blackburn)

Wednesday

After brekky we hired some mountain bikes and rode into the incredibly scenic countryside.

Super mountain bikers

We loved the scenery, it was spectacular cycling through it.

It was an awesome morning! There is basically a big dirt track loop that you can cycle or motorcycle along. On either side of the track, every few hundred meters, there are trails that lead you to some caves in the huge limstone outcrops that form the landscape. There are loads of different caves to visit and as there are so many you are normally in there on your own.

Banana trees and the limsetone rocks in the background where the caves can be found

We brought our headlamp along with us and ventured into the first cave, WOW! It was amazing. You could literally walk for ages and ages into this dark hole scrambling over rocks in the pitch black with only your torch for light. It was really good and felt very adventurous.

Ooooh it was scary in the cave

When we came out there was a nice pool of natural cave water that we could paddle in and get refreshed after the hot and sweaty caving.

Paddling in the cool pool outside the cave

Heidi relaxing in the morning sunlight

We cycled another 10km or so until we reached our next cave that we were promissed was very impressive. It was! At the entrance of the cave is a turquoise blue lagoon of water from the caves. It was beautiful with silvery fish swimming inside and a tree with rope swings on it.

Blue lagoon (with little fishies at the bottom)

The cave itself was a 10 minute walk up the side of the limestone rock. When we got there and peered inside it was very impressive. A huge cavern awaited at the entrance and after exploring further a golden Buddha shrine lit by the natural light was situated at the bottom. We walked further in until it was pitch black. It was so much fun!

The cavern at the entrance was huuuge!

Light at the end of the tunnel

When we came down we were very hot so we literally just jumped straight into the cool and refreshing lagoon. Ah bliss!

That refreshing cave water was soooo nice!

In the afternoon we gave our bikes back and had the rest of the afternoon to chill by the river and watch the sunset and the hot air balloons go up across from our hotel.

We could hear someone huffing and puffing and blowing really hard and then we saw why…blowing up balloons

Heidi looks on as the yellow balloon gets squashed

After a precarious start, the balloon floats off into the mountain siloueted landscape

B..A..utiful!

We have really enjoyed Laos so far!