Laos - Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng (V.V) is a small town in Laos that is known for its scenic beauty and outdoor recreational activities. It is also a popular backpacker party town. One of the fun things to do here was tube down the Nam Xong River and bar hop along the way. Unfortunately, there were several drownings and the government closed all the riverside bars. I don't think you can even tube with a beer anymore.

How did we get here? The Lao-China Railway. From an engineering viewpoint, it's amazing. The line has 75 tunnels in total, allowing the railway to pass through approximately 198 km (123 miles) of mountains and forests and 62 km (39 miles) of bridges – more than half the length of the line. It connects China to Vientiene, Laos and 80% of the railway is used for frieght. Pretty sure there weren't years of 'environmental impact' studies. The passenger trains travel at 160km (100 mph). Here is our experience:

- Ticketing process is a nightmare (see our previous Luang Prabang blog for more detail).
- The railway station is huge, brand new and beautiful in a sterile sort of way. We had to show our passports and tickets just to get into the railway station.
- Our luggage was x-rayed and we were wanded down before passing through mag detectors. Evidentally my can of shaving cream posed a risk and I had to dig into my carry-on to show the agent.
- Enter the huge wating area. That's it. Just seats. There are restrooms, purified water dispensers and VIP lounges at either end. It appears that shops, maybe restaurants, will be upstairs at either end someday. 
- The restrooms. Mens room is your choice of squat hole, toilet and urinal. Watery soap and no way to dry your hands. I peeked into the toilet stall out of curiosity. No TP dispenser and no spray hose! WTH? So gross.
- After leaving the air conditioned restroom, I realized how hot the train station was. No AC.
- All the signs were in English, Lao and Chinese. 

The train was ultra modern and ride smooth and comfortable and it only took 30 minutes. It took us longer to get from the railway station to our hotel! Somehow we picked the worse mini-bus. Our other option from Luang Prabang to V.V was a mini-bus. Google Maps said four hours. The gentleman at the hotel said 10-12 hours because the roads are so bad. Glad we took the train.  

Our taxi to the train station

Where did we stay? Confetti Garden. I hate roosters (and pretty much anything that interferes with my sleep). Those little bastards were up at O-dark thirty every morning and crowed constantly. We had a large room and balcony overlooking the pool. The balcony was really a walkway to the hotel rooms. There were five pool lounge chairs made of wood with thin padding so we only lasted about an hour. The breakfast wasn't very good (we've gotten spoiled) but the cook who made scrambled eggs made the best we've ever had in SE Asia. Directly out front of the hotel was a night market with food vendors and 'stuff'.

What did we do? Our first day was figuring out how we were getting to our next destination, Vientiane. After that, we walked around and checked out the town. We crossed two bridges with wooden planks all held up by various cables. There were a lot of broken boards with holes in the bridge. Not really plunge-to-your-death holes but more like break-a-leg or ankle hole. 

Our second day we hired a tuk-tuk and traveled about 30 minutes to Blue Lagoon 1 and Phu Kham Cave. There are three Blue Lagoons you can visit. Blue Lagoon was pretty but super touristy. There was a swing, rope swing and jumping platforms. People were having a lot of fun. We hiked 120 meters to the mouth of Phu Kham cave. We did not have proper shoes (flip flops) for either the climb up or the cave. We went a little way into the cave but decided not to venture too far. 

Back down

After the trek back down we stopped for lunch. Sharon sat down at a table and was sitting on a bench with her back leaning against the table. I turned around after ordering food and the table was fulll of people sitting with her. I wish I would have gotten a picture. So we moved to the next table. Weird

Sharon was sitting where the woman in
the maroon shirt is sitting

When we left to head back to our hotel, we had two additional people and a busted up motorbike 🏍. Not a good day for them but luckily no one was hurt.  

Superbowl Sunday was very different from all our other superbowl Sundays. First it was on at 6:30 am Monday morning. We watched while drinking coffee in bed on our little tablet screen via Hulu. Couldn't get it to screen mirror onto the TV. Congrats KC fans. Sorry Eagle fans. We thought halftime was horrible.

Where did we eat? Our first dinner was at Gary's Irish Bar. They are famous for their fish 'n chips. We split an order and couldn't finish it all. It was ok. The next night we had our annual birthday celebration dinner for Nick at Bamboo Bistro Garden. It wasn't quite our usual extravegant birthday dinner but it did have white linen table cloths.  

There were a lot of younger 'backpackers' in the town with plenty of guesthouses and hostels. One the things to do was a hot air balloon which we both sort of wish we would have done. We liked Luang Prabang much better and could have skipped coming here. 

"Every day is a journey and the journey itself is home.”~Matsuo Basho