Vang Vieng / Vientiene

The day started well as we were upgraded for free from the local chicken bus to the VIP bus with aircon, TV and free refreshments – all because we'd arrived 2hrs early for the bus we wanted! Our next destination was to be Vang Vieng....the Lonely planet says some people love it and others loathe it...on first impressions we couldn't understand why anyone came here at all! We were dropped off in the middle of what looked like a dusty, one street town in the middle of nowhere with only one guesthouse in sight – dismayed we booked into the guesthouse and went off to explore why the hell we'd come here! Turns out that beyond the initial bleakness lay a whole bustling little town on the other side of the disused airstrip....extremely tacky & touristy but the accommodation was extremely cheap, so we made haste and rescued our bags, much to the anger of the landlady! The towns only attraction is an activity called "Tubing" no more glorified than floating down a river in a giant inner tube, while stopping at various riverside bars to ensure an empty wallet by the end! This however, as good as it sounds, was never going to make a full days activity for us so we opted for a more adventurous daytrip that consisted of 'Tubing' through caves, followed by 14km of kayaking over small rapids, passing the many slow to progress 'tubers'....until we the suspense proved to much and we pulled over to a bar ourselves to enjoy a couple of ice cold beers and fathom out what all the fuss was about! The highlight was getting a turn on the bars main attraction a giant 30m high rope swing over the river...more like a trapeze but instead of circus tricks you just plunged into the river below, a 15m drop! Vang Vieng may well have been beautiful before it was put on the toursit map with stunning limestone peaks rising up out of the jungle to tower over the Mekong below – but this has been somewhat spoilt by the endless streets of TV bars and neon lighting!
Not ones to overstay our welcome we were up and out on the 6.30am bus the following day – making a beeline for the Capital of Laos, Vientiene. It was a very slow beeline with this being a particularly slow bus, stopping at every available shack or hut to pick up someone and their produce, notably a squealing little piglet in a bag that did not shut up for the 5hr journey! The city held little appeal for us, as far as Capital cities goes it has got to be the smallest and quietest we've ever encountered. We spent three days there meandering around the markets and stopping at the local bars to sample the one and only Beer of choice 'Beer Lao' which was most needed due to the unrelenting dusty dry heat! Our long stay was not out of choice but more that we had to wait to get our Cambodian visas before heading on. Visas in hand we headed off on the 3rd night to the South of Laos.

The only attraction in Vientiene: a L' Arc de Triumph copy made with US concrete they were supposed to build a runway with!

Planning our onward journeys

Beer Lao by Sunset!