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Vang Vieng 17/4/12-21/4/12
Vang Vieng where do we start! After yet another incredibly bumpy (what was supposed to be 6hour mini bus) 8hour ride we reached the lovely, or not quite, town of Vang Vieng! What a dump. After the beautiful sights of Luang Prabang it was a culture shock. We really didn't know what to expect but we thought the town would be similar to Luang Prabang. The town was dusty,( you need a cloth or something to cover your mouth when in the back of a tuk tuk as the dust and dirt gets right down your throat) , run down and full of westerns walking around out of it half naked. Not what we really expected.
We found where the other guys were staying and checked into the guesthouse. We opted for a riverside view which wasn't really a breath-taking sight more like a dirty river with a building sight underneath. We got it for a very good price and the room seemed clean and spacious which was a bonus. We heard from others this town was a party town yep it was. It was no different from Ibiza or Ayia Napa. We headed out for some food with some of the gang with 2 new editions Iris and Mario who we met on the bus. It really was true what we heard about the "happy menu" which consist of cannabis on pizzas or in shakes etc. Or even mushrooms of the magic sort or even opium for the hardcore types ha ha how crazy! We didn't try any of course! We stuck to "normal food". There are loads of promoters trying to entice you into their bars with the free bucket before 9.30pm-why not we all thought. They were whisky buckets topped with coke, sprite and redbull, we opted for the mixture! They took a while to get used to! We stayed in the smile bar til around 1am then called it a night as we were off tubing the next day!
Tubing for those of you who have never heard of it is where you use the inside tube of a tractor tyre to float along the river! Along the river there are various bars which throw you a line with a plastic bottle on and pull you into their bar. You then on entry have to take a shot of either whiskey or vodka!! Yeah it gets messy!! Me and Dai shared a tube as we heard the river was so low you can either walk or swim to the bars. We stuck to the first 4 bars as that's where the party was happening. We played basketball, beer pong, musical tubes and danced a lot in the sun. It was like a mini festival on the river. All the bars seemed to be run by northerners. It did take away the true meaning of Loas as it was very touristy. None the less we did enjoy ourselves no end. After 7 hours of drinking we called it a day and returned back to the guesthouse for a shower and change and then back out.
Next day we decided to go and explore the blue lagoon and try out caving. As there were 7 of us we managed to haggle a good price with a tuk tuk. The blue lagoon was lush with many fish swimming in it. There were swing ropes and a tree to jump into. It was so refreshing . We all needed a chill out so we did a spot of sunbathing to top up the tans and visited the cave.
WOW was our first impression after climbing s*** load of steps to the cave. It was enormous. We had a few torches between us which was a challenge. As we went further into the cave it was quite creepy…we all turned our lights off to see how dark it was…yep it was pitch black. There were limited signs and it was tough trying to climb (stupidly) in flip flops! Dai definitely learnt his lesson as one of his flip flops broke oooppps. You can imagine the swearing that came out of his mouth haha! It wasn't that funny at the time (especially as we managed to get ever so slightly lost) but we are laughing at it now. I thought it was best to keep quiet at the time. In the cave there were formations of Stalagmites and there were handprints of people in there. Dai decided to add his own handprint to the collection. We were absolutely filthy from the cave so we jumpedstraight back in the lagoon before leaving.
That night was messy! We went straight to the bucket bar and each started with 2 free buckets each. The night went on, everyone was hammered! Good times before the group split to go their separate ways L. Next Vientiane.
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