Day 7 - Bullet Train to Vang Vieng

The alarm clock went off at 8.00am on the dot and we sprang into action. We showered and packed up our rucksacks in less than an hour.

We went down to breakfast and ticked off our usual food request. The food came out minus my pancakes, assuming I had forgotten to tick the box I contented myself with munching through 4 thick slices of baguette, 2 yoghurts and a bowl of fruit. I was just finishing my, when my pancakes, banana and honey arrived. It would have been rude not to force them down as well.

In contrast, Jackie nibbled on half a slice of toast with a coffee. Apparently she was still full from eating my mango and sticky rice the previous evening!!

At 10.10am we settled up with Nou in reception, then waited for our 10.30am taxi which he had booked, allowing us sufficient time to get to the China-Laos Vientiane Railway Station for our high speed bullet train to Vang Vieng.

Our taxi arrived 10 minutes early and we arrived at the enormous Railway Station at 10.50am. I think Nou was being over cautious about the time to check in or just glad to see the back of us. Upon entry to the terminal we were confronted with airport security scanners operated by a bunch teenagers for both our luggage and person.

Jackie and I were both required to open our rucksacks for confiscation of our inflammable aerosols, which apparently included suntan oil sprays, deodorants etc. Jackie had numerous prohibited aerosol cans, but she whipped out just one can of sunscreen, which seemed to satisfy the teenage security guards. I rummaged and rummaged through my rucksack looking for what I believed to be the offending item, a can of mosquito spray. I resorted to emptying my clean, neatly ironed clothes into Jackie’s arms as I delved deeper and deeper into my rucksack until the security guard got bored and told me not to worry. I stuffed my clothes back in my rucksack.

We had a 90 minute wait in the huge departure lounge before we boarded our $14 US dollar bullet train to Vang Vieng. The whole boarding process was ultra efficient and the medium to high speed bullet train silently and smoothly rolled out of Vientiane before reaching speeds of 161 kph, although it felt like we were hardly moving.

On the short journey, we received the Election results for the Gorton and Denton by-election. I was ecstatic to discover that that disgusting creature Starmer and his Paedophile Apologist Labour Party had come 3rd behind the Green Party and Reform. I could go off on one about my opinions of Starmer and the Labour Party, but this is not the time and place.

Jackie has absolutely no interest in politics, so she concentrated on Laos Facebook posts and discovered that all aerial pursuits had been suspended since the 25th February so that authorities could enforce tightened up safety procedures by air balloon and paramotoring operators. We had planned to go air ballooning in Vang Vieng because it is one of the cheapest places anywhere in the world. I’m not sure if I was disappointed or relieved.

Jackie still had time on the train ride to discover to her horror that our next hotel only rated as GOOD, with an average score of just 7.7 out of 10. This gave her something else to fret about and was already saying that we would have to change hotels if it was only that ‘good’.

We arrived at Vang Vieng Railway Station about an hour later. We somehow managed to get off the train first and boarded a Tuk-Tuk bus with 6 other tourists into Vang Vieng centre. We were dropped off outside our hotel last, the fare costing just £1.40 each.

Our £24 per night hotel has a double identity, known as Vang Vieng Phongsavanh Resort AND Sansan Resort and Restaurant. From our initial impressions Jackie described it as scruffy and overgrown, I described it as shabby chic. Reception was located in a big empty building the size of a school gymnasium with a few breakfast tables off to one side.

After checking in, we went to our allocated room and walked mud all over the lovely wooden floor. Jackie quickly identified that there were no towels, glasses or coffee despite having a kettle. I was dispatched off to obtain the missing items.

Upon my return after a successful mission, Jackie was still scouring the room trying to find fault, but finally conceded it was fine. In fact it was very nice and better than the previous hotel.

I hung up my now creased to buggery linen shirts then we headed out to explore and seek refreshment. It was not long before Jackie was moaning again. Between us and the town centre is the country’s main thoroughfare - Route 13. Two lorries rattled along the road into front of us kicking up clouds of dust. We ran across the road into a bus station car park and continued a 10 minute into the centre of town.

We headed straight for the Nam Song river and found the poshest and probably most expensive hotel cafe, Phubarn Terrace Cafe, in Vang Vieng. We sat down on the terrace overlooking the Nam Song and ordered 2 large beers and a plate of fried pork belly. It was so lovely that I was happy to order a 2nd round of beers, whatever the cost. We drank our beers in the sun and watched the comings and goings of kayakers on Nam Song. It actually wasn’t that expensive.

It was late afternoon when we returned to our lovely shabby hotel. Whilst Jackie was getting ready I connected my ‘legal’ Amazon Stick to the television. I couldn’t turn the television on so I went down to reception only to be told that none of the hotel televisions were working. That buggered up my plans to watch the cricket later and football on Sunday!

We went back into town for dinner and stopped at Kook sawarng restaurant. We had to select our dinner from banners on the wall. We chose Pad Thai chicken, more crispy pork belly and morning gorly (their spelling, not mine).

Without wanting to sound like a broken record, it was utterly gorgeous, then we finished the night with a nightcap on our 1st floor balcony and had an early night.

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