After Luang Prabang, we went to Vang Viene for some much needed partying and tubing! We arrived in Vang Viene after 6 hours of minibus hell. We got on this comfortable leather upholstered bus which took us about half a mile to a bus station where we found we had to get on a crappy minibus with no air conditioning with asbestos seats. Me and Al had seats at the back where I sat above the wheel arch with my legs crushed against the seat in front. I was sweating like a scouser at an identity parade getting more and more pissed off and more nauseaus zig-zagging along the mountain range but eventually we got there..
The nicest thing about arriving in Vang Viene was the fact that for the first time in nearly 7 weeks we found a really decent, really cheap guesthouse. 40,000 kip which is about 2 quid for a twin! The first thing you notice however, is that the area is incredibly touristy with restaurants playing dvds of friends and the simpsons. Needless to say, I loved it here! That night we chilled out with some bears and went for a curry at Nazim’s which was probably one of the best I’ve ever had. Ever.
The next day we decided to try out the thing that everyone comes to Vang Viene for.. TUBING!! We met up with Sarah and Rachel, the Irish girls and booked our tubes and dry bags and got on the tuk tuk to the Song river. Al, being the most unfortunate of whatever activity he partakes managed to pick the smallest tube in the world much to our amusement and we got into the river and proceeded for about 50 yards to the first riverside bar. We stayed there for about an hour drinking BeerLao (an amazingly good cheap beer, designed and brewed by Germans for Laos) and riding the zipline into the cool river.
As you can see from the photo, Al was doing his Jesus impression!
Uh, maybe not then.
One of the coolest parts of the tubing was when we got further down the river to find massive swings which went out over the river. Now, the rational part of my brain was telling me “yeah, it’s high but it’s relatively safe. You can do it Andy!” But it took me a good half an hour and a couple of BeerLao before I got the courage to do it. I was shitting myself! If you don’t think it’s that much of a big deal or it wasn’t that high, dear reader, then take a look at these next pictures!
(above) No, this isn’t a screenshot from Spiderman 3! It’s a photo of me shitting myself. You see, the hard part’s isn’t the initial jump, it’s actually letting go from the swing that’s difficult!
(above) Al, Aka monkey boy.
See me smiling? This is my look of relief when I finally came off!
After a few hours of swinging and beer drinking we decided to call it a day and floated for another few hours back to the town. The next few days we didn’t do anything but drink and relax. We did go tubing again though only this time we decided to jump off the highest point into the water instead of using the swing. Never, ever in my life have I done anything as scary as this! It took me a while to jump but I did, hurting my face and chest from the impact but I did feel a sense of accomplishment!
As you can see, I fell through my tube coming towards a bar.. Everyone laughed. Doh!
On the 3rd, we arrived in Vientiene after a rather easy, if not hot 4 hour bus ride. It still amazes me how much they piss about here. No form of transport ever drives off until they’ve crammed every last person they can find on! They even placed some chairs on the middle aisle in between the seats to fit more people on. Crazy.
Vientiene is the capital of Laos but it’s absolutely dead here! There’s nothing to do and nothing to see. There are various temples of importance around the city but to be honest, i can’t be arsed with seeing any more temples.. I’ve seen hundreds so far and I’m sick of them. I will see some in Cambodia though in Angkor Wat which is probably one of the most impressive sights in South east asia which is where i’ll be heading in a week.
4th March.. Well well, I’m finally up to date with the blog and I’m writing this in real time dear lucky reader! It’s currently 36 degrees with 35 per cent humidity. The only reason I thought I’d write this blog today was because this internet place is air conditioned! We slept in a room last night for the first time with air conditioning which I thought would be luxury but it blasted cold, mould infested air around the room and leaked all over the floor. I may very well contract legionnnaires disease so I don’t know how many more blogs I’ll be able to write! I’ll be heading back up north tomorrow or further down south. I haven’t decided yet but that’s the beauty of travelling.. I can do what I want!! hehe. x
