The area is made up of numerous bars perfect for chilling out. The bars come equipped with cushions and mattresses and episode after episode of Friends or Family Guy. The food was pretty good; a lot of barbeques and western grub so we enjoyed the 6 nights we spent there. On day 2 we decided to hire a tube and get down to the river.
The tube hire all goes through one company so you pay your money (55,000kip + 60,000 deposit = £8.50) and jump on a tuk tuk which is already loaded up with several tubes. The tuk tuk takes about 12 people and hey presto the party begins! The first stop = bar 1... It is packed with people sun tanning, barmen giving out free shots, dance music blasting out of loud speakers and the occasional person swinging from a high rope into the river. It was awesome!! We stayed there for a few whiskey buckets and then toddled off to get into our tubes to head down the river ready to get pulled into bar 2... But our tubes had been stolen! So we walked the few metres to bar 2. We had soon forgotten about the lost tubes and were dancing with a bunch of Manchester students in the hot sun. I then went on mission: ’find the tube’ where I grabbed two tubes and kept them to one side ready to actually use them.
So you get the idea… we soon moved on to bar 3 where Rich lost his tube again and had to swim to bar 4. It was already past the cut off time for getting the tubes back but we still rushed to the tuk tuk in the hope we wouldn’t lose part of our deposit. The tube guys weren’t having any of it but after such a great afternoon partying we didn’t mind… food was the next thing on our mind! Our last meal had been breakfast before 12 so we grabbed some BBQ chicken, had another whiskey and headed home. We were in bed by about 8pm and woke up with the normal mysterious bruises that come with a great night out.
Our other tubing experience involved actually tubing rather than partying. We did the entire 4km route with only about 4 bar stops and we saw some interesting things… mud volleyball, hash brownies and opium shakes - surreal! We stopped only for a whiskey bucket and some photos along the way, we also floated into a herd of buffalo, got pushed over the shallow water by some local kids shouting “money money money” (I dutifully obliged - they were so cute!) and eventually made it to the end of the route with about 15minutes to run the length of Vang Vieng to make sure our tubes got back before 6pm. We had great success (Borat style)!
After another day chilling and a day trip to see a few caves and a pretty lagoon we booked the bus which would take us on winding roads over a mountain range and into Luang Prabang. The roads were so windy they could give you motion sickness! I was sitting in an aisle seat and spent most of the 7hour journey trying not to fall out of my chair… I was so pleased when it finally came to an end and we arrived (on 14 Feb) in Luang Prabang.
Luang Prabang is a cultural world heritage site… it has pretty streets, old buildings, GORGEOUS bakeries and French restaurants and a lovely night market selling gift type things. It was a pretty place to visit and we spent one morning watching the monks receive alms - daily food from the locals. Unfortunately it has become a tourist event with tour groups giving alms and most of the locals staying away (we got up at 6am to see it! Disappointed!). Anyway, we were keen to get into Thailand and so we hopped on a cheap flight to Chiang Mai at the earliest opportunity.
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