Arrived 11/6/2011
Sun, sweat, downpour, sun, dry out, sweat, downpour….
Vang Vieng adventure capital of Laos and tourists galore. Tourists, guest houses, restaurants and shops galore. There is loads to do here (tubing down a river between bars, kayaking, rafting, walks, boats, caves, rock climbing, getting drunk every night, everything) and you could easily end up spending a fair bit of time and money, but to be honest it was just not quite my type of town and most of the stuff I can do at home for free and looking into the brown river wasn’t that enticing.
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| One of the entrances to the caves |
Me I hired a motorbike, apparently a ‘manual’ but there was no clutch so and half cross between manual and auto. I checked out some caves and as it poured down the night before it made for some fun biking down the dirt roads. Some of the access roads to the caves involved a bit of pushing, riding and skidding down clay slopes great fun! The caves were pretty cool one had a budda inside it and small swimming hole, although the water wasn’t as warm as I was expecting.
I thought sightseeing was going to be a cheap and generally free option but anything you do here costs something. The main bridge from town over the Song River to get to the caves: 4000kip to walk across, 6000kip to cycle across or 10000kip (about $2 NZ) for a vehicle including a motorbike. Thought I’d be clever and hire my bike on the other side but the cost to hire was just 10000kip more than in town! Then the bike had no petrol so buy petrol. 70000kip later I was off. The caves, a natural wonder, they’ll be free… 10000kip per cave. Then the guides (always agree on a price beforehand) 20000 first time then 10000 next one. Being me I was dumb enough to leave my headlight in my room so I reliant on the guides and their headlights. The second guide was a pretty funny came up to me and said he’ll take me for 70000kip – ah, no and I started to walk off. He quickly came back to me at 10000kip. Only 60000kip different, cheeky.
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| The main bridge over the Song River |
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| Walkway to one of the caves |
To finish off my day I spotted a viewing platform at the top of one of the massive rock mountains (krasts maybe?) so headed in search of how to get up there. Cost me 10000kip to walk up. I pay someone for me to sweat out every pore on my body (fingers and all) to walk up to the top?! Awesome view though.
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| The view |
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| And me!! |
Vang Vieng adventure capital of Laos and tourists galore. Tourists, guest houses, restaurants and shops galore. There is loads to do here (tubing down a river between bars, kayaking, rafting, walks, boats, caves, rock climbing, getting drunk every night, everything) and you could easily end up spending a fair bit of time and money, but to be honest it was just not quite my type of town and most of the stuff I can do at home for free and looking into the brown river wasn’t that enticing. 
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