Laos in Nutshell - Pt. 1: Vang Vien

I didn't really like Laos at first. I went to the main tourist cities, which did not seem representative of what I thought Laos would be like. I imagined it as pretty "pure", since I have been reading about how it's the last "real" Asia. You don't really see that until you are outside of the city; in the smaller towns and rural areas. I didn't have time to venture out too far, but I liked what I saw, especially on the drives outside of Luang Prabang. So here were my impressions of the 3 cities I visited: Vang Vien, Vientiane, and Luang Prabang.

Vang Vien
Good Lord. This place is a hedonistic party paradise. It was the train wreck you just couldn't stop looking at. But day time, the surrounding areas are gorgeous --lovely jagged mountains, rice fields, river views--with lots of nature-related activities to do. To get there, Simon and I had crossed from Nong Khai, Thailand over the Friendship Bridge to Vientiane, Laos, and caught a 4hr bus ride (which made me feel pretty nauseous towards the end.)The bus dropped us off by an old airplane landing strip, which felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. But we followed some backpackers and found our way in the town center.

After we got in, we walked around a little bit. It only took us about 20 min to walk the whole center. There were bars playing "Friends", "Family Guy, or "South Park". It's like I never left America.






We only had about a day and half really (excluding travel time), so we booked a tour that included caving, trekking, and kayaking. Caving was really fun. We took tubes into these water caves and floated along inside until we reached a spot where we could climb out and wander around.




stacking stones

Trekking...was not really trekking. It was just walking to and from where we had to go :P Nice and scenic at times though.



And kayaking was a lovely way to see the Nam Song River, but it was super tiring. On our way back home, we stopped by one of the tubing bars. It was pretty surreal passing by crowds of people dancing to blasting music, seeing people jump off of tarzan swings into the water, or sliding down a water slide. I just kept thinking, who are these people?! We're in Laos???


Tubing in Vang Vien


Kayaking: Simon doing all the work. hehe.




End of our route

Night time was even more nuts. There's an area called "The Island", where there are about 4 bars that pretty much open one at a time. So when one closes, everyone moves over to the next one. To get to the Island, you have to cross this rickety wayward bridge that really messes with your head if you are tipsy or "happy".

Simon and I met these two nice ladies, Rachel (Ireland) and Marin (Estonia), from our day tour, and we ended up hanging out with them that night. We started off at Bucket Bar, since there were free buckets of drinks before 9:30pm. We met so many random travelers there (even one from San Diego!) who were just buzzing and having a good time. By 12 or so, they shut down the bar and we all moved next door to Limbo Bar. The main attraction here was (you guessed it), a limbo bar lit up with fire. Now combining this with drunk people...recipe for disaster. I tried it, but when the bar was at a decent height. There were several guys who went under the bar at a really low height, but got up too soon and had their hair caught on fire. I think that was the worse that I saw. We stayed up probably until 3am before stumbling back to the guesthouse.


Me, Marin, Rachel, and Simon


Bucket Bar


Limbo Bar - Rachel and I barely made it.

Oh and the nice thing was, once you went back across the bridge, there were Asian pancake/sandwich stalls just waiting for you. The pancakes here were different from the Thai ones. They were crispier and less greasy. Yay for banana nutella crepes after a long night!

Vang Vien was nice...for one time. I don't think I will need to go back there again. The highlight for me really was kayaking along the river, and the pancakes.

Vang Vien, Laos!

I got up bright and early this morning at 6:15am to go to the Thailand-Laos border, with my fellow volunteer, Simon. In order to get to Laos, you have to cross over the Friendship Bridge on a bus (20 baht*). It was a pretty easy process to get the Lao visa. I filled out an application, my departure/arrival card, and submitted those forms with my US passport, $35USD fee, and passport photo, and was ready to go in 15 minutes.

After we passed immigration, we caught a local bus to Vientiane (5,000 kip), where we had to catch another bus to Vang Vien (30,000 kip). Thank goodness Simon had been to Vientiane before, because I was pretty confused about where to go and how much things were. I have to get used to using another currency (that hurts my brain in the beginning :P). But after walking around the bus station and grabbing some last minute snacks, we were off for a 4-hour bus ride.

I love being able to see the rural areas via bus, but this ride was a little bit tough. We had to get through some curvy and bumpy roads. I purposely didn't eat the whole ride, because I felt a little car sick during part of the ride. 4 hours later, we were dropped off on the side of the road, next to an old airplane landing strip, and the Vang Vien town center on the other side of it.

Simon and I checked out a couple of guest houses and then settled on Phouna Guesthouse, one that was a little hidden (there are still loud, obnoxious backpapers here. Darn.) Vang Vien is a very small town, but tons of backpackers come here to go tubing, kayaking, caving, rock climbing, and/or water rafting (I'm sure there are other sports that I am not aware of). Other than that, there's restaurants with "happy" items on the menu. We'll probably try something at one point. There's a row of bars/restuarants where (I swear) every other one was playing "Friends" or "Family Guy". I don't think I saw any other shows on besides those.

We'll be here for only 2 nights, but that will be plenty of time in this town. We're going on a tour tomorrow for hiking, kayaking, caving, and tubing. Let's hope we survive the whole day!

*I thought I would add some more details, if anyone is searching for more info.