Vang Vieng -- What a place

The Blue water at the Blue Lagoon (kier jumped off the top of the big branch ;-)

Kier in Phu Kham Cave

Kier Climbing the slope to Phu Kham Cave

Sunset in hazy Vang Vieng

Our Bands Tour bus to Vang Vieng

The bus ride from Vientianne went windy, but well. It only took around 3 hours, so we got into town mid afternoon.

The guesthouse search was quite easy, we were happily surprised that it is much cheaper here than it was in Vientianne. (So expensive in comparison to the rest of S. East Asia)

We have taken it fairly mellow the last four days, absorbing the heat and taking in the beautiful mountains surrounding us. The first evening we got a little bit carried away with free buckets of rice whiskey and red bull across the river at the BucketBar. Needless to say my almost healed infection came back to bite me in the butt and we lost most of the next day wallowing in our own self inflicted misery ;-)

The following afternoon we finally made a go of exploring. We caught an overly expensive tuk tuk across the bridge and found a little slice of paradise at the Blue Lagoon and Phu Kham Cave. A steep 200 meter climb put as at the mouth of the cave, where we were astonished at the shear size and depth of the chambers inside. After a nice humid climb down we chilled by the Lagoon, talked to some locals and refreshed ourselves with a dip in the crystal blue water.

Yesterday we decided to go 'tubing', something Vang Vieng is quite renowned for.

WELL.. what an experience. We decided not to get tubes, for various reasons, and caught a tuk tuk to the first bar with another couple looking to get there.

To give some quick clarification to those who don't know... Vang Viengs river is fairly slow and there are numerous little shanti pubs and bar spots all along the river. The workers at each pub happily rope you in if you want to stop and drink. Every place has free shots and or something or another. Yesterday it was Ladies night and Lady boys night. So there were a number of men in drag, spray painting people with decals and obscenities (in car paint) on too their bodies. Pretty much the tubing experience includes the following: car paint, free shots, jiffy markers, hippy bandannas, lots of drunken people in swim suits (all mostly covered in paint) and numerous places to rope wing and or zip line into the river. (A bit sketchy might I add because there were quite a few surface rocks)

We ran into a couple we crossed the Vietnam border with and combined with the people we arrived with, spent most of the afternoon talking, dancing, (drinking a bit) and taking dips in the river. We only made it about 50 yards down the river, I can't see how some make it all the way down. Kier and his new friend Gareth went off the rope swing together... It was pretty cool and about a 40ft drop. ( I can see how easy it would be to injure ones self here, with alocohol and a touch of stupidity.)

We ended up leaving at the 5th bar after a young woman fell off the platform and split her forehead open.. There were plenty of people to administer help and first aid, so all went well.

The rest of the evening we hung out with our newly aquired friends and retired early this morning.

Today we booked a ticket out, to Luang Pra bang and bummed around for the day just taking it easy. We are definetly ready to be out of this town. Its a bit of a drunken sleeze of a tourist hole. Geez... and to think some people get stuck here.

CHEERS!!

Charissa and Kieran