After Luang Prabang (LP) , we took ourselves on a minibus ride through the hills to Vang Vieng, and were pleasantly surprised to hear that the locals had heard we were coming, and had arranged for a new road to be built! Thus, a six-hour journey became a four-hour journey, and it was good.
Vang Vieng is a quiet place, though we were taken by surprise when the tuk-tuk to our hotel was ambushed with several buckets of water, giving our chill out more of a Damascus vibe. Still, it was hot, the water was nice, and our valuables survived, so we were able to see the funny side!
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| Karst an eye over this... |
VV, as it shall henceforth be known, is home to many more of the limestone monoliths we now know to be called karsts, chunks of earth that spring up out of nowhere into the sky, pulling jungle up with them to impossible heights. On day two, we rented a couple of motorbikes, and went to see one or two of them up close!
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| As always, click to embiggen |
In particular, we went looking for one called the Blue Lagoon - supposedly a beautiful body of water hidden up amongst the trees. After some minor roadside kerfuffles, we made it to the base, and were stunned to see just how large these things were up close! Plus, new years celebrations were *still* going on, so there was a massive party in the river at the foot of the karst.
So, in the 40 degree heat, we started climbing the stairs to the cave at the top. These were quite steep! And in case it's not apparent, 40 degrees is quite hot! Still, we eventually made it to the top, where a huge cave opened up in front of us.
The size of the cave was only made more impressive when we remembered how high up we had come. It was strange to think that something so tall and so hot could be the result of millions of years of water movement, yet it was! We explored the cave a while, spotting a reclining Buddha in the distance, but quickly found it much tougher going than we expected, and we decided that discretion was the better side of valour, and made a retreat before ankles were twisted. The blue lagoon may have eluded our grasp this time, but it's just a reason to go back one day!
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| See small boy in red for a sense of scale... |
That night, curiosity got the better of us, and we went out for Laos-Austrian fusion food, because when else in life might we be able to experience such a combination?? I can vouch for the Vang Vieng Bolognese, and Zoe has fond memories of their chocolate pudding.
For our third day in VV, we were excited to go tubing! This is a must-do in Laos, and we can totally see why. Some smart person years ago came up with the business idea of renting people tractor inner tubes, and dropping them off several kilometres upstream. Not complicated, but effective!
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| Artist's impression |
We had a great time drifting downstream at a leisurely pace, broken up by the occasional patch of rapids, and one very pleasant stop at a riverside bar. Apparently, a few years ago there was a lot of trouble in VV, as there were many more bars to tempt tubers, and drugs were a lot more available. This, unsurprisingly, led to several deaths by drowning and even heart attacks(!), but gladly this had all been cracked down on, and the place seems all the calmer as a result. Still, we saw a few people trying very hard to get very drunk at one of the two big bars, but at least the river was calmer due to it being the dry season.
This was a very pleasant way to spend the day, drifting languidly amongst the beautiful landscape and contemplating our navels. One or two sections were a tad slow, but a little paddling and they were soon traversed!
That night, we took shelter in a Belgian restaurant playing the Foo Fighters as a thunderstorm played out around us.
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| This is the food we ate somewhere else, just to confuse you. A sampler of Laotian delicacies! |
At this stage, we felt that we had seen what we wanted to in VV, and we jumped on to a minibus back to LP, to see what it was like in the aftermath of the new years celebrations, and to start heading towards the North of Thailand.
It was a big surprise seeing just how different the place was, a few days after it had given us Apocalypse Now flashbacks. Now, Luang Prabang was a cosmopolitan haven, full of pleasant riverside strolls and tasty bakeries, thanks to a history of French occupation.
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| We visited a temple atop a hill, overlooking the city... |
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| ...which was apparently moved there from Sri Lanka by the gods! |
We spent a thoroughly lovely three further nights in LP, sorting our lives out in anticipation of the next leg of our journey, up the Mekong river to the Laos-Thailand border. One notable spot we found this time, was a tiny pizza place in a cute candlelit garden, which was ran by a Canadian guy with a woodfired oven, and he certainly deserved it's place as the number one place to eat in LP! 10/10, would eat again, yes yes, *****.
On our last day in LP (for real, this time), we headed to some nearby waterfalls, which came highly recommended. And, and! As a plus, we had heard about a cool place just next door dedicated to rescuing bears from their wicked captors.
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| Spot Zoe... |
Firstly, the bear sanctuary. This was tucked away in the forest, and provided a great home to these lovely animals, who had been rescued from the cages of those who wanted to farm them for their… bile? Because obviously it has “traditional” medical properties. (As an aside, Tim Minchin put it best when he said “There's a name for alternative medicine that's been proved to work - medicine”) When we saw the size of the cages they were previously kept in whilst being harvested, it made their new woodland home all the more impressive.
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| "WAIT A MINUTE" |
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| "... they were going to harvest my WHAT?" |
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| "Not cool dude, not cool" |
So we were very happy to see the bears being looked after, and shortly after I was very happy with my new T-shirt supporting them!
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| Zoe made friends with another dog! |
After seeing the bears, we moved on to the waterfall itself, which was a beautiful blue colour, hidden amongst the trees and with many tiers - several of which made for natural pools, which were extremely tempting, particularly in the heat. So, being only human, we got into our swimmers (which we had prepared earlier), and had a little splash. It was lovely! So cool and lush. However, shortly after getting in, Zoe started screaming, which was a bit of a surprise, to put it mildly. After a few seconds, it transpired that some of the fish had found her (and her mosquito-bitten legs) to be particularly tasty, and had started nibbling and biting her! So, she was out of there in a flash, and we said our goodbyes to the beautiful waterfall.
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| Photo taken in aftermath of fish attack |
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