Vang Vieng

From quaint, friendly Luang Prabang we travelled yesterday down route 13, successfully avoiding the local bandits (the last recorded hijacking was over 2 years ago so we felt fairly safe!). You can see why it takes twice as long in the wet season: much of the road was full of enormous ruts and holes. It would have also been quicker were it not for our bus driver stopping at every cafe/drinking establishment on the way to collect his commission...

We arrived at Vang Vieng with the temperature hitting 35 degrees. The scenery takes your breath away. It's so beautiful with a river winding through huge karst mountains. We sat on the grassy slopes, sipping a Beer Lao watching the sunset.

There are numerous limestone caves here to explore or you can go kayaking down the river. The big 'rite of passage' though that everyone does in Vang Vieng is to hire a tractor's inner tube for $3 and float down the river, taking in the scenery, occasionally stopping at the shore to climb up a set of wooden/bamboo scaffolding and jump off a ludicrously high platform into the water or zoom down a deathslide. Great fun!!!

Sadly, night-time transforms Vang Vieng into a trashy street with 'TV-bars' which show episode after episode of Friends. But, we've found a few hang outs which are less touristy and let you soak up the atmosphere without too many noisy tourists from certain countries which we won't mention...

We're going to stay here for a bit longer than planned before heading off to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.