Well, the last few days have been a bit relaxing, but also full of many travel decisions.
After Luang Prabang, I headed south on a bus to Vang Vieng. The road there was absolutely gorgeous. It's a shame that this time of year is probably the worst time to take pictures as there is haze everywhere! The road is very windy and heads through valleys with huge limestone cliffs on each side. Very picturesque! After 7 hours on the bus, I arrived in Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng is a very small town that has a very large backpacker scene. Almost every restaurant has a tv that is either showing a movie or an episode of Friends. I'm serious about that, they won't show any other television show...just 'Friends'. There is one spot that you can stand and hear 4 different episodes going simultaneously! The worst part is, that I'd go to one place, watch some episodes and stop to visit some people I met and then I'd be seeing the same episodes again!
The most popular activity to do in Vang Vieng is tubing down the river. A group of 5 of us, hopped onto the truck, they brought us 4 km upriver and we were off. Actually, we stopped for our first rest break even before we got on the river. There is an organic farm that has amazing mulberry shakes. So we each got one of those and then jumped in the river.
River tubing is not necessarily the most active sport. In fact, we spent much of the 6 hours drinking and chatting. Along the way, Lao people have set up cliff jumps and rope swings. The way you get to do them for free is that you buy a beer. So needless to say, everyone on the river is quite pissed by the end of the day. I definitely enjoyed the different rope swings and such. Well, after 6 hours, we got about 2 1/2 kms. We decided to hire a truck back since it was starting to get dark.
The next day, I walked around town and also hiked to some limestone caves in the area. It was a pretty lazy day, made lazier by the fact that it was raining on and off throughout the day. Overall, I enjoyed my couple of days there.
Instead of bussing south to Vientienne, I decided to take a kayaking trip there. It's about 3 hours of kayaking, and 4 hours of truck driving. It was nice to get on the river and travel that way, although I did get a bit sun burned! There was one really huge rapid, but otherwise it was just paddling down the river. Of course, like any good river, we got to cliff jump a bit. The highest being about 8-9 meters.
I didn't stay in Vientienne very long. Actually, I was spending my day alone, decided to leave, bought by bus ticket, and then ran into a bunch of people that I knew. So in hindsight, I might have stayed one more day. D'oh! I did make it out to the Buddha Park. A small area with a ton of different buddha statues. On the way back we stopped at the Beerlao Brewery. It was pretty fun to walk around and see how they bottle the beer and all that fun stuff. I think 99% of all the beer in Laos is Beerlao. You can get bottles that are 2/3 of a liter for about 80 cents! Not bad.
Last night, I hoped on an overnight bus to Bangkok. I'm thinking of heading to southern thailand tomorrow. Hopefully spend some time on the beaches, scuba dive for a bit, and just enjoy the really damn hot weather!
So some observations. The Lao language is much easier and more fun to speak. It just naturally leads to smiles. Sa Ba Dee is hello. Kap Chai Li Li - thank you very much. etc. But Laos adults aren't very friendly. They acknowledge you, but won't really say much. Kids on the other hand smile and wave and shout Sa Ba Dee....Hello! Thailand is known as the 'Land of Smiles' so it's a bit different there.
Laos food is also not as good as Thai food. I'm really looking forward to a lunch of Pad Thai today!
Well, that's all I can think of right now. I hate that I had all of these great ideas in my head to write in my journal, but can never remember them when I sit down to write in my journal. Hmm...
Love,
C
ps. I can often be found on Yahoo Messenger (cyfer13) or on AOL Instant Messenging (cyferchad13). Feel free to look me up and say hi!
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