Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Vang Vieng: Famous once for its partying and tubing, I expected a very generic backpacker place. Although the town itself fitted my expectations, the scenery beyond was incredible. Huge limestone karsts set amongst the green Namkong river and low lying rice paddies. We opted for tubing on the first day so we rented 2 old black tractor inner tubes from the scariest laos people we have yet to meet. Only one shop in the town rents the tubes, and you can see why... You wouldn't want to mess with those guys! We hopped on the free tuk tuk and quickly made friends with the four other people on it. We all didn't know what to expect as we had heard that after the tubing ban, there were only three bars allowed to stay open and the death slides/rope swings had to go. That was in fact correct, you could see the remnants of what there once was and you can really see how so many people died here. The river is very shallow at points and quite fast. We stopped at the 2nd and the 3rd bars collecting our free shot of lao lao whiskey and cup of beer with our new found friends. In total 30 people tubed that day, which is very little considering there used to be 300+! But we still had a good time! We started heading back in our tube around half 4 with 2.5km to go. We went through a particularly fast bit and I fell off my tube after hitting a rock. The river pulled me under water and I scratched my back on the rocks below. I tried to get my footing but kept slipping being dragged under by the currents. I finally stood up, grabbed my ring and it was only when we stopped that I could see the damage to my back. Many scratches all over, thankfully not deep, but very painful. Tubing was an interesting experience- I loved the scenery and you would be mad to miss it but once I had fallen out, I just wanted to get back!
The next day we went on a whole day kayaking/caving tour with our friends from the day before. We were taken to a 'water cave' first where we sat in an inner tube and went through a cave underneath one of the limestone karsts which was filled with water. Once we got inside we had only our head torches for light. You could see the amazing stalagmites that have formed and you could hear the screeches of bats above! At one point the guide told us to turn off our head torches so we followed the rope in complete darkness. Very scary!! We turned back and headed out, I was very happy to see the outside light again! After lunch we travelled further up the Namkong river from the tubing spot yesterday and kayaked 11km into Vang Vieng. We stopped off at the first tubing bar on the way and it was much busier than our rather subdued tubing experience the day before. Still only about 70 people in total though. Overall kayaking was a lot of fun, a lot more than tubing. Much faster and there was a lot less chance of me falling out! We even had a local boy swim out and sit on the back of our kayak whilst we paddled under the bridge.
Vientiane: The baking hot capital of Laos was a short 4 hour journey away. We stayed at a really good guesthouse called Mixay Paradise right in the city centre and at the end of our road was the Mekong and then Thailand. We walked around and visited the Arc de Triumph equivalent called Pat Uxai (locals call it the vertical runway) built using the concrete that was going to be an airport runway! This had some great views but was not at all as good as the real thing in Paris.
It was the big Buddhist festival this weekend which celebrates the end of the rainy season in Laos. The celebrations started at the end of the road, with huge crowds and music lining the banks of the Mekong. We ate here at night, sharing a huge fried mekong fish and sticky rice. The Laos people were giving offerings on the river, which were large decorated floral wreaths lit up with a candle and left to float away in the river. Some were also sending the Chinese lanterns up into the sky (but some failing and almost ending up setting someone's head on fire!). The next day we visited two temples, one of which features on all the Laos kip notes. We also went to the COPE visitor centre which is a charity funding the victims of UXO's (unexploded ordinance's). You could buy someone a new prosthetic leg for $75 but we just opted for a small donation. A great museum! Our last day in Vientiane was hottest day we've had on our trip. We walked down to the Mekong to watch the boat race. The banks were lined with thousands of people appropriately dressed with umbrellas and sunhats. We had neither so sat in a riverside bar and saw a few races from a distance. We surrendered and left the race to find a hotel with a pool. We paid more than our room price out of desperation and had a few hours in a luxury hotel- but it was worth it- I think!
That evening we caught the 'sleeping bus' en route to Pakse in southern Laos. They said it left at 7 but we were still waiting in the city at 8. We finally got to the bus station and were given our bed for the night. Ours was at the top front above the driver and came with blankets and pillows. The comfort factor was pretty high but being at the front meant I just watched the coach avoid every pothole, buffalo and giant lorry in the pitch black. Early morning the driver picked up a local with a bag of live chickens. We only knew this when at sunrise we heard 'cock-a-doodle-doooo'. In our tired states we found this very amusing! We watched the sun rise and then it was time to get off at Pakse 10 hours later. We waited for about 3 hours for the next bus to 4000 islands being told different things such as our ticket wasn't valid, 'where is your original ticket?' Etc even though other people had bought it from the same place! We sorted that and made a mental note to always take a picture of any tickets we get, just in case they get collected by the various middle men along the way! Another three hours later on the bus we arrived at the 'ferry point'. We got the 'ferry', a rickety wooden fishing boat and waded across the fast flowing Mekong towards Don Det, the backpacker hub of the 4,000 islands.
Don Det: All the accommodation on this island is about £2.50 a night but it was our mission to get the best bang for our buck. We settled for a clean bungalow overlooking the river on the 'sunset side' of the island with a private bathroom and wifi in the room. We felt quite smug after walking past others on our bus who picked the dilapidated shared bathroom bungalows with river water showers near the ferry point for the same price. We had a sleepy day on the hammocks and had Mekong river fish for dinner. The next day we hired bicycles and explored both Don Det and the island joined to it by an old railway bridge called Don Khon. We saw many rice paddy fields, water buffaloes and rang our bells to scare the chickens off the paths. It was very hot but we made it the 6km to the waterfall on Don Khon. This was very spectacular, not like any waterfalls we've seen before on our trip and definitely the noisiest! We cycled then to the 'beach' which was a huge area of sand on the southern end of Don Khon. We dipped our feet in the Mekong and watched the locals arrive in their fishing boats whilst others were having a wash with their water buffaloes. We decided that after a full day exploring and being delirious from the unbearable heat, that we wanted to leave this area, as beautiful as it was. The electricity was come and go and this made it a very hot place to stay in a tin roofed bungalow! So we got up the next morning and started the long journey to Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Stats:
Buddhist festivals- 1
Hottest temperature- 37 degrees (+humidity)
Buses taken- too many
Islands visited out of 4000- 2
- comments
Corina & Peter Hey, Jippie! We made it and found your interesting blog...finally we know why our shower water is slightly brown :) After our horror-bustrip from vientiane to pakse (non-AC-4.5h-busstop due to a flat tire) we needed some days to relax. So we missed you in Don Det. cu in cambodia ;)
Charlotte You found us!!!! I'm afraid to tell you that the bus journey into Cambodia is worse lol! 17 hours to siem reap from don det and the a/c 'broke' as soon as we entered Cambodia! It was awful! Siem reap is awesome though and we are here until Saturday/ Sunday if you want to come party in 'pub street' with us! By the way make sure you change all your Laos kip into US dollars for Cambodia as its 8000 kip to 1$ in Laos but they won't accept better than 11000 kip to $1 in Cambodia! So we have had no choice but to lose money and change it here! Ahh! My Facebook is Facebook.com/charlotte.nisbet if you want to add me :) xx
Corina&Peter Sorry for answering so late, didn't have a good internet connection. Unfortunately, I can't add you on facebook for some reasons.... we arrived in siem reap last night. are you still here? I left you my email address, so we can keep contact this way :)
Charlotte You're in siem reap!! I don't get the email addresses when you post anything on here so I don't know your email ahh! If you get this in time do you want to meet in pub street later at temple bar at 8:30?
Charlotte My email is [email protected]