Vang Vieng

Getting to Vang Vieng required a 7 hour bus ride through some of the windiest roads I've ever been on. My stomach bounced around for pretty much the entire trip - ugh. On the bright side we stopped about every 90 minutes at various road side markets. At one of them I found this little monkey just sitting around eating an apple.



Either I'm getting more used to the toilets or they're just getting better. Must be the latter because I can't imagine the former actually happening. This set of three was found during one of our many stops. Cute...but I hate to imagine being in there at night - no lights, no nothing!



When you arrive in Vang Vieng you're dropped off pretty much right next to this huge tarmac that the United States built at some point. Very ugly, and makes you a bit scared about what this town will actually be like.



This is a very popular town with travelers. It consists of two dirt roads each about 2 blocks long filled with guest houses and restaurants. All the restaurants have tables with big pillows where you can watch movies all day and night. "Friends" seems to be quite popular here as it's played all the time in constant rotation at at least three different joints.



Speaking of joints, that's the other appeal of Vang Vieng. Almost all restaurants offer a variety of "happy" foods - pizza, shakes, pancakes, tea - you name it, it comes in a "happy" variation. This again adds to the appeal of watching Friends all afternoon. On the bright side of this being a real traveler town, the food is slightly better and I had something that almost tasted like a Boboli pizza AND a glass of cheap red wine. Having not seen any wine in a month I was pretty excited.



We've also been hanging out with our new friend Serge. We met on the bus coming to Vang Vieng and have been sharing meals and stories ever since. Serge is from Montreal and has been traveling for six years - pretty impressive. Yesterday the three of us went tubing down the Nam Xong river. All along the river are homemade swings, zip lines and jumping points, some up to 20 feet high. So the drill is you float a bit, get a Laos Beer at one of the many riverside coolers, and every so often take a jump off a big ledge. Or, if you're traveling with Michael and Serge, you stop at every swing, zip line, etc and do your thing. It was great fun to watch and a very relaxing way to spend the day. Some of the videos are pretty crazy to watch - check out Michael's blog for some good pictures.

As we finished our tubing we came across Rainbow Island where there were many little bamboo floats in the water for reading and relaxing. This is where I spent most of the next day while Michael rented a motorbike and toured around town and beyond. I did a bit of driving on the bike but that was plenty for me.



Tomorrow it's time to leave happy land and head 3 hours south to the capital, Vientiane.