Vang Vieng

After two days in the capital, we have now arrived in Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng draws loads of hippy backpackers along with the rest of us as it is a place that is famous for its mountains, its adventure sports, trekking and the chilled out way of life. We are staying in what is basically a hut next to the river.

The Riverside Bungalows where we stayed
Bungalows au bord de la riviere ou nous sommes restes plusieurs jours

Bars down by the river
Bars le long de la riviere

Up until around 10 years ago, Vang Vieng was untouched and consisted of a few mut huts by the roadside but since the tourists have discovered it for what it is, rightly or wrongly, it is slowly becoming more tourist orientated. But for now it still seems to be untouched to a degree and it has that authentic local feel to it.

Menus in the local restaurants also include a 'happy' section with pizzas, milkshakes and spaghetti with something called 'marijuana' on them.

We also ventured into two of the biggest caves in Laos, where we had to trek in the pitch black for an hour at least to get to an underwater 'lagoon' wearing only flip-flops, which needless to say our feet were left battered and bruised.

We have now done the tubing which involved floating down the river for six hours in a tube passing floating bars getting progressively more drunk. This also involved ropeswings and ziplines into the water, which after a few beers didnt seem as big.

Ropeswing bar we came across whilst tubing
Bar avec saut a l'elastique

James on ropeswing probably just about to fall off
James en train de sauter et sur le point de tomber

Tubing down the Mekong river
Nous sur les bouees sur la riviere Mekong

The main street at night
La rue principale le soir

We have spent the majority of our time in Van Vieng doing sweet fa which has been cool. We are on our way up to Luang Prabang tomorrow (25 Mar).