Molina Bungalows, Vang Vieng, Day 1

Well, it's another moving day. We don't leave until mi morning so get a small lie in and time to eat some breakfast before we jump on the bus. It's not a minivan which is nice, but it is still a very small bus without much legroom. Ahh well, we're kind of getting used to long journeys in small places anyway now. The couple sat behind us very loudly discuss their drunken antics last night, that end up in a sick covered staircase at 4AM and it makes me feel very glad I'm not hungover, as the roads in Laos aren't made for smooth driving.
It's a bumpy journey, and after a few hours we stop at a roadside cafe for a rest and some food. When we get back on, they have invited more people on the bus, meaning the pull down seats in the aisle are used, and we have even less room. We are also sharing the bus with a box full of baby chickens or ducks, I'm not sure, but they squeak away until the engine drowns out the sound of them.
We bump along for another few hours, while the views get gradually better. Hills line each side of the road and the city buildings of Vientiane make way for large green fields. We stop in Vang Vieng a short walk from our hotel, and we immediately love it. Ninh Biinh in Vietnam was a special place, and this seems on par with it in terms of natural beauty. It is a very small, and not a very developed town, but it is certainly something good to look at. Vang Vieng was once famous (or infamous) for the drunken tubing down the river, which is where tourists on rubber rings floated from bar to bar, supping booze at every one. This has now stopped due to a large number of tourists dying while doing it. I read somewhere around 20 tourists dies while tubing which is an insane number! Anyway, the government shut down all the riverside bars, and Vang Vieng is now a hotspot for people because of it's surroundings.
We dump our bags in the nice bungalow we have booked for a few nights, and head out for some dinner. After a wander around the town, which is great as most streets offer a straight view to the mountains at the end, we find a great restaurant right on the riverside, with unbelievable views and cheap sandwiches. Both are taken advantage of as we frantically look at maps of the area around here and plan what to do.
It is already mid afternoon so we don't plan on getting bikes and wandering around today. Instead we take a short walk down to the river and have a walk around. It is amazing. It is so peaceful, with nothing but a few kayaks and some workers plucking away at something under the water to bother us. We wander in all directions, through fields and down dirt tracks, before we finally arrive back at the town, and back at our hotel.
We end up eating in the same place as we ate dinner. It is a cool place that show Friends repeatedly all day on massive televisions, so Amy is happy. We have a couple of beers before deciding to go back to the room and chill out, so we can be fresh for a long day cycling tomorrow. On the way back we wander down a busy street, and a club promoter tries to get us in his bar. This is common now for us, so we get ready to shun him, until he says the immortal words 'free whisky'. We inquire about what the catch is, and it turns out their isn't one. A line of whiskys has been poured on the bar and you can just go and grab one. The club is unsurprisingly packed, and everyone seems to have taken advantage of the free booze a lot more then we have. One guy in particular entertains everyone with some actually very impressive drunken dancing. Amy is not impressed by the whisky though, and after a couple we head back.
As we are heading North, we really start to feel the cold now, and it feels great to wrap up in bed in a cold room that isn't due to an air conditioning machine blasting down on you. It feels very cold, but at least we have a belly full of whisky to keep us warm.Leer más