Vang Vien

Oh dear- my challenge for the day. Trying to describe this most random collage of a place. A little ‘Thai island’ flare mixed with coma-inducing outdoor cafes playing ‘Friends’ and ‘Family Guy’ (looped 24/7), cheap knock-off shopping, bookshops, dirt roads, Christmas light signs, swinging bridges to get to the next bucket bar, and the most fantastic view to knock your socks off- when you arrive in the dark and wake up the next morning! Welcome to Vang Vien- a party person’s paradise. Anything goes. To be perfectly honest, we didn’t get the greatest impression of the place initially, still a little bitter about missing the early morning monks in Luang Prabang, and a very long and windy mini-bus ride down south. However, the picture-perfect view brought redemption the next morning.

The mountains here look like something out of a fairy tale- rocky limestone cliffs on tall slender mountains with lush greenery that could be in a rainforest. Reminiscent of those beautiful old Japanese paintings- but I’ll move on from my obsession with the beauty of the place.

We enjoyed eating our brekkies cross-legged, sipping on fresh fruit shakes along the river. Lucky for Britt- she was the only one still healthy as a horse at this point, and V & I had fallen to the stomach bugs famous in SE Asia, running to the toilet more often than is lady-like to discuss here. Lucky you, catching us in a lady-like hour.

We started out paying $1.50/night for our ‘luxurious’ accomadation here, and splurged on an upgrade for an additional $1.50 (CDN) to a river and mountain-view room, with windows from the floor to the ceiling and a balcony to watch the sunsets from.

And now for the 1-word reason travelers come from far and wide to visit Vang Vien: TUBING. The farthest thing from a Laos cultural experience- but a necessary experience nonetheless. You’re welcomed at Bar 1 with the colour-of-the-day wristband, this way everyone can tell if you’re a tubing ‘virgin’ or have been at it for days on end.

We had a blast swinging from zip-lines (flying foxes) that would spin you into oblivion on spring-loaded lines into the shallow waters below. Leaving us no time to think about it, our friend Johnny had V & I up on the first swing- Bar 1. Sooooo ridiculously fun! The platform is approx 10 meters up in the air, you grasp the hockey-taped handle and swing back & forth over the river (with a full audience @ Bar 1) until braving the fall to the river below. After building up bravery over a few days- I thought it wise to double up on the swing with a friend.

Choosing the wrong time to jump can prove to be a fatal mistake- I could hear the painfully sympathetic ‘ooooohs’ from underwater on Day 3 as I let go of the handle, and landed head first, smacking the side of my noggin’ on the water below. Ouch. Speaking of fatal, there’s definitely been some deaths on this river. And if you really want a vision of this place- I’m sure there’s heaps of U-tube videos for your viewing pleasure.

We strayed from the river crowd for a day to enjoy some wicked rock climbing with Green Discovery. The climbing was great, and ballooned our female egos as we out-climbed the boys. It’s all in the legs fellas- regardless of how much you insist on using that masculine upper body strength.

We had an awesome group that day, and the lucky lads had the privilege of watching V & I fall to our misery. Not from limestone rock walls. No, no- we thought it was a brilliant idea to double up in a hammock during lunch hour- and swing in it together until we splattered our bottoms onto the hard dirt floor below L. Ow…the tailbone was a killer for the next few weeks. War wounds from traveling adventures are often bittersweet though; so while I grimaced during rough Tuk-Tuk rides in the weeks to come, I smiled remembering Vang Vien, rock climbing, and the fun shenanigans along the crazy river. xoxoxo Dd.

Welcome to the One Place in the World I'm a Millionaire: Laos...

Before Asia, I always swore I would never backpack with an actual backpack. I was a suitcase girl and thought I was quite clever for being such, instead of having to rummage to the bottom of the backpack for every little thing I could just unzip and flip open my suitcase and have everything in plain view. Due to a hunch and the kindness of Perth friends, who supplied a backpack for each of us, we ditched our suitcases in favor of the traditional favorite way to backpack. Please let this be warning to all, do not attempt to backpack with a suitcase here ever(!) unless you are a glutton for punishment. After only six days into our trip in SE Asia I can plainly say that if I had, in fact, brought my suitcase along on this trip I would be hating life and probably would have abandoned my suitcase and all belongings five days ago. Case in point; we arrived at the Laos (pronounced La-ow) capital, Luang Prabang, and as we disembarked our long-boat we found ourselves standing on the river bank staring up at a steep hill with a narrow, v. steep staircase that would lead us to the city and all I could do was think of the hour that it would have taken me to slowly bump my way up the staircase if I had stubbornly brought my suitcase. Thinking this, I was blown away when we saw some locals carrying 50 kg bags of rice on their head up the hill and passing the foreigners with the backpacks as we climbed up.

Luang Prabang, a gorgeous slow-paced capital, pop. 52, 466 is thought by Lonely

Planet to be the most sophisticated, photogenic city in all SE Asia. It is easy to see why; nestled between 2 rivers, the Mekong and the Nam Khan in northern Laos, you are easily won over its many charms, most noticeably, the orange-robed monks hurrying down the streets. As I previously mentioned, I love the monks. My finger itches, wanting to take a photo, every time I see a monk. The stark contrast between the brilliant orange and the old city streets is striking. I was also won over its many french cafes and bistros scattered throughout the city; half-way around the world from Paris, we could wake up and stroll across the street and find ourselves having savory breakfast crepes for only $1.50. We were expecting the previous two highlights but the last, my favorite, took us by complete surprise.

A 45-min tuk-tuk ride and a short stroll through greenery and we found ourselves at the first of many, many breathtaking multi-tiered waterfalls tumbling over limestone formations into a series of cool, turquoise pools. Our mistake was thinking that 2 hours was all we would need here. I could have spent a full 8-hrs there easy strolling between the natural, swimming pools. One particular waterfall was a young kids dream swimming hole, complete with a rope swing and a deep, cool pool.

There is, and the end of the series of small waterfalls, is the big one, and if you were smart, unlike us, and left enough time to climb up it, we heard of a quasi-secret random pathway you can follow off the beaten track that will lead you to a gorgeous, secluded swimming hole. Next time.

After a day of adventures we had an evening of $3 massages (we're sold... one per day sounds good to us), market shopping and the difficult task of

choosing what to eat for dinner amongst the dozens and dozens stalls at the night food market... If I were more adventurous we could have tackled the mystery meat on

stick or goulash-type surprises but in the end we settled for a booth w/ traditional veggie, pasta, rice, and meat concoctions. For 10,000 Kip (note: 10,000 K = roughly $1 CAD which allowed for a cheap thrill; taking money out of an ATM and my anemic bank account revealed me to be a millionaire in Laos... woot woot) we received a large bowl that we filled to the top from any dish.

Sadly, we had to move on from this gorgeous town and so we headed off to our next destination via mini-bus. We were pre-warned that traveling in Laos can be slow and prone to breakdowns but regardless, I was blown away by our travels. I reckon its a good thing that we are never in a hurry cuz it could only lead to sky-high stress levels. I was riding shotgun and I swear our driver never passed 50 km/hr, even on the highway. Some hills he wasn't even topping 10 km/hr. It was a long journey. Originally 5 hrs (to drive 140 km), it was stretched into 8 hrs thanks to a flat tire. We loved our delay

though. As our driver diligently worked on fixing (not changing) the tire we watched a gorgeous sunset and took the opportunity to venture into the tiny village in search of a toilet. Due to the remoteness of the village, no local spoke english and, of course, we spoke no Lao so through a combination of butchered Laos words (thanks to Lonely Planet's Basic Laos Vocab) and ridiculous gesturing we were able to convey our mission. The locals are so sweet, a lil boy led us all the way to his own house and his mom let us use their squat toilet. Driving slowly (v. slowly) through the windy road gave us a fantastic chance to see country side, villages and locals. We were blown away seeing full families doing manual labour on the roads, toddlers, elderly and all, digging trenches/ditches, beating fern leaves on the road (not sure what that's all about) and placing fern leaves on blackened hill sides... Apparently, the Lao people have a slash

and burn farming tradition that dates back hundreds of years that have left only 10% of Laos w/ original growth forest compared to 75% a hundred yrs ago.

xoxo

V