36. South to Vang Vieng...

So I left Luang Prabang and caught the 8am bus, which wound its way along Route 13 up and over the mountains to Vang Vieng. This journey is the most scenic that I have seen in Laos. It is like travelling on hairpin bends in the Alps, up and up and round and round, then down and down and round and round. The road surface is much improved... My daughter travelled this way several years ago and said that many people were sick, but the driver wouldn't stop... They had a hole in the floor by the door cut out for people to be sick on the move! I was in a minibus which is probably better than a big bus. I was at the back.... But I was fine! 

The scenery is scrub and forest, but on so much of the hillside the trees have been felled for timber, beautiful ancient teak forests. They are replanting in some places but a lot of the hills are now barren and bare. This affects soil runoff in the wet season and the land becomes unable to grow anything. So they move on elsewhere. There were huge areas which had been burned as well.... But I still saw eagles flying above. Passing through one village a lady was standing on the side of the road selling her wares.... Only her wares were two rats which she held by the tails... And they were very much alive and kicking! 

The 5 hour journey saw us arrive in Vang Vieng. This was the view from my hotel balcony....

And looking across the river

Travellers first came here for the stunning landscape, as in much of northern Laos it is limestone karst scenery. They came for rock climbing, canoeing, and mountain biking. Then the party goers arrived and VV got a very bad reputation for all sorts of things, including several deaths in or around all the bars on the river. So a few years ago the police were brought in from Vientiane and most of the riverside bars were shut down, only 4 remain. The town is still a party town, but I stayed just outside where it was quiet. It was quite noticeable though that in VV the locals do not like the falang... The foreigners. In most places, particularly small places, many people shouts Saibaidee... Hello... to you when you go passed, and the greeting is returned. But in VV they don't even look at you. Apparently they believe that there are bad spirits in the river brought by so many deaths, and although the children play in the water, the adults don't bathe there any more... Very sad, and although the travellers are to blame for the culture of the parties, so are the locals for allowing it to happen and for taking the money on offer.... 

The afternoon that I arrived I walked across the rice paddies to a hill nearby with a flag on the top. You can climb to the top.... So I did. This was the hill, the little one in front... It was still quite a climb tho...! You can just make out the flagpole at the top.

Up here

Then up here

When I got to the top I thought I heard a dragon breathing fire.... and I did! It was this beautiful balloon coming round the hill! This was the view from the hill towards the town across the parched and dry rice fields 

The next day I hired a bike to cycle to the Blue Lagoon. I cycled over this bridge over the river. Note the gate posts... bomb casings... I saw that a lot in Laos, the debris of war....

I explored a cave, and then had a swim... So beautiful and so cool and welcoming. 

Then back to town for lunch

Then after lunch I did the time honoured activity in Vang Vieng.... I went tubing! This involves sitting in a tractor tyre and floating down the river..... It takes an hour to float all the way down the river in the wet season, but when I was there in the dry season it takes three... That's without stopping...

But the idea is to float from bar to bar stopping at each one.... So I did. In the old days there were 24 along the riverbanks, now there are four. In each one you get out, if you want to, someone throws you a line and then haul you in, and at each bar you get a free shot along with a plaited bracelet as a sign of the rite of passage. So I got four..... The bars are only along the first part of the river, and no one ever seems to go all the way down for three hours. 

You can see how many people are there by the number of rubber tubes... I was number 187 that day. This was party town.... But kept well away from the town now

This was a lone tuber... But we travelled down in big groups from bar to bar.... Everyone was very friendly, chatted and looked after me... Hey I am old enough to be their mother, and for some of them their grandmother! But they were great fun! 

At the last bar the locals threw me a line and hauled me out. Then everyone piled into a tuk tuk and we got taken back to town, with our tubes on the roof. They have to be back by 6pm or the deposit is forfeit... And it's also dark shortly after. I had had a great afternoon. I was invited to join some of them for the evening til 2am.... But I gracefully declined and went home!