We have been in Vang Vieng now for the past four nights, and loving it. We have finally stopped somewhere and chilled out for a good amount of time and not in a hurry to leave just yet! We have met some great people each night when we've headed out for a game of pool - one place in particular has a warped table so it takes us hours to get through a game! It has been a great place to socialise though and there are many backpackers here. Admittedly on our first night, it felt a bit reminiscent of freshers week, but all the same we've met a varied bunch of people and had some great times.
Our first full day was spent tubing down the lake (forget the exact name, begins with N) which involved getting a tuk tuk to the starting point and being greeted by drunk gap year students waving cocktail buckets about and throwing themselves off swing ropes into the water. We stayed at the first stop for a while before jumping into our tubes and floating down the lake where we were pulled in by the next bar to participate in mud bath tug o war - very funny times. Time went quite quickly and before we knew it we'd been to each bar along the river and it was time to float back to return our tubes before 6pm. This was the best bit of the day, lying in a ring and being carried down by the current of the water for an hour under the stunning mountainous scenery of Laos - awesome. By the evening time I felt completely dead and am still covered in various scratches and huge purple bruises - am hoping I'll feel a bit more normal in a few days!! Lying down is a bit of a task at the moment!
We chilled out by the pool the day after tubing, and yesterday decided to do another activity - a 32 km bike ride/cave trip - and boy did we feel it, cycling all that way in mid day heat!!! We left at 9.30am on our mountain bikes, and didn't get back til 4.30pm that day....looking back it was well worth the struggle though! Our guide led us out of Vang Vieng town centre and round all the countryside, passing several villages where the children would run out and wave at us, shouting "sa bai dee!" (hello in Lao) so we did try to wave back where possible but at times it was so rocky that we decided it might be better to hold on to the handlebars and scream "sa bai deeeeeeee" back!! Too many brusies from tubing so we didn't want to injure ourselves anymore!
At lunchtime we stopped at one of the caves and climbed up 100 feet to the entrance - rather scary in sandals! The caves were amazing, quite risky as they were so slippery. We swear that if it had been in England there would be no way we could have done that trek - it was quite dangerous at times and health and safety would not stretch that far to backpackers with no experience in rock climbing and not even helmets (I bumped my head, ouch!). Still, cool adventure and once we were out and back to ground level we were able to swim in the lagoon to cool off while our guide cooked our lunch. It was THE BEST Lao food we have had so far - fried vegetable rice in banana leaves and sweet and sour vegetable kebabs, as well as fresh mangoes and bananas - the fruit out here it unreal - it all tastes amazing unlike all the imported stuff we have in the UK. The rest of the afternoon was the long cycle back to town - we stopped so much for water and all looking quite bronzed now too! We're ever so slightly flaked from that day so we're just taking it easy today! Might go kayaking tomorrow.
So things are good really, lots of socialising and lots of Beer Lao, gorgeous weather and cheap accommodation! Think we'll be here for a few days yet before heading off to Luang Probang - some 6 or 7 hours away by bus.
We're off to go relax! x x x
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