Beauty and the Tiny Beasts

After seeing Guilin, I didn't think that anywhere else could have scenery as beautiful....that is until I set foot in Laos and in particular Vang Vieng with it's breathtaking limestone karst scenery that dwarfs the small town.

Vang Vieng is popular for kayaking and caving but particularly popular with backpackers for 'tubing'. Basically, you rent these rubber tyres from the numerous places around the town and get driven upstream some few kilometers away where they drop you off and you float along down the river on your rubber tyre. Along the banks of the river are a number of makeshift bars - you see one you like, you put up your hand, they throw you a rope, haul you in and you have a drink. Then you get back on your rubber tyre and carry on floating down stream until you see the next bar you like!

After a 4.5 hour bus ride from Vientiane (it was meant to be only 3 and was pretty much how all fellow travellers had described - late start, numerous stops along the way for the driver to pee or just to speak to various people along the way!), we finally arrived in Vang Vieng to be greeted by.....more bugs (anyone notice a similar theme with my travel entries?????). My back pack had been tossed to the floor so I picked it up and threw it on only to find myself covered with ants - and I don't mean the tiny little black ones in England, I mean, gigantic orangey brown ants with long spindly legs that must have claws because these were the type that you couldn't get off by blowing - you had to 'ping' them off! Considering I was covered in them - on my shoulder, on my legs, all over my clothes, I think I was relatively calm - see what 2 months on the road does to you! It really toughens you up! I freaked out abit at first but then just tried to ping them all off. I must admit - it felt abit like a horror movie - ever see aranophobia? - I'd ping one off only to find another crawling on me or out of the nooks and crannies of my back pack.

Our place on the river was so so but the view was amazing - green hills following the river into the distance.

The town really is small - it's basically made up of 5 streets so you really can't get lost whatsoever ( It's funny because Michelle went 'oh, I might get lost' and I was like 'no, really, you can't!') and is packed with guesthouses (particularly along the river), travel/tour agents, restaurants (all playing re-runs of Friends just like Haad Rin in Koh Pha Ngan) and bars. It sounds very touristy and yes, it is catered for backpackers but Vang Vieng turned out to be one of the best places we'd been to.

There were a number of memorable moments that I won't ever forget.

The first night we were there, we met up with the boys that we had met in Vientiane in this little bar called Ooh La La. Considering how small the town was, it was almost as if all the backpackers in the town had crammed into this little place and sat drinking as the rain poured down outside. It was a very fun night. Firstly, there was this girl - I call her the 'let me show you my t#ts' girl - ok, not very nice but she wore this extremely low cut strappy top, made a scene of showing off her enormous assets and tried it on with all the boys! (She pretty much ignored me and Michelle and every other girl there!) I mean, she tried to kiss Brian 4 times! I mean, take the hint girl! If a guy rejects you once, surely, that's enough, but to embarass yourself 3 more times - come on! Get the hint! I seriously have no time for people like that. (It was funny as Brian told me off later for leaving him with her when he was trying so hard to get away from her!!! Haha!! Also funny was when Michelle told me that at one point Big Booby Girl - as Michelle calls her - leaned towards Brian for a kiss but Brian leaned so far back in the opposite direction that he fell off the step he was standing on!)

Dillon played cards with these Slovakian guys who were very nice and friendly but so damn drunk as it was their last night there. It was funny because one of the guys asked me for my email even though I had just met him and had one conversation. I noticed that he was taking down almost everyone's email. I can just imagine him waking up the next day with this A4 sheet of paper filled with email addresses of people he did not know who the hell were! (Needless to say, I've not actually heard from him but I can't remember his name or put a face to him either so that's ok!)

Oh and I remember the owner pouring out shots of Lao Lao for everyone - eugh - I think it's a type of rice wine that they made themselves but it is awful - someone compared it to Absynthe - it is that bad! I had flashbacks of Spain and Ouzo!

After Ooh La La, we braved the rain to go to the only other bar that was still open after midnight - I think called Full Moon or Moon Light - something like that. On the way, we lost Dillon and poor Brian went out in the pouring rain (along with 'let me show you my t#ts girl as she wouldn't let him out of her sight!) to look for him.

What was extremely memorable was Hugo - nicknamed the 'crazy french guy' got one of the guitars from the bar stage and did a rendition of 'Twist and Shout' to which everyone joined along!

To see Crazy Frenchman's rendition of 'Twist and Shout' see this link to YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v= _4Ri1M-J800

The night ended with a walk home in the pouring rain (no brollies or anything!) - haven't done that for a long time. It was funny, Kyle's really tall so I tried to get him to hold out his hands and walk behind me to shield the rain! He didn't do a good job though as by the time we got back, we were soaked to the skin. Michelle thought it was hilarious and took pictures - seriously, I looked like I had entered a wet t-shirt competition!

Kayaking down the river is another thing I will never forget and I would do it again in a heart beat. As we had arrived into Vang Vieng late in the afternoon of the first day, we really had only one day for activities. As much as I wanted to go tubing, two tour agents that we went to advised us against it as we were weak swimmers and the water was high and flowing fast. So reluctantly we opted for kayaking down the river instead and boy, am I grateful we made that choice. The kayaking down the river was probably the best activity/excursion that we had done so far on our travels. The tour agent drove us some few kilometers upstream to this really quiet and peaceful part of the river and then left us with our guide Bon to kayak down the river. It was so amazing. Had we gone tubing, we would never have seen that peaceful part of the river further upstream, dwarfed by the beautiful karst limestone scenery. We had the whole river to ourselves apart from one or two local villagers fishing on the banks of the river and as we laughed and sang our way down the river (I taught Michelle 10 green bottles - the only song I know! - and we even got Bon to sing to us in Lao!) I remember thinking ' how amazing it was to be there and how 6 months ago, I never would have thought I'd be where I was now and how happy I was to be doing all this. To make the kayaking trip even better, we eventually reached the part of the river where the tubing took place and where all the bars were so it's not like we missed out on too much! Seriously, if anyone ever picks Lao as a travelling or holiday destination, I would highly recommend the kayaking.

Another memorable and highly embarrassing moment had to be back at the Ooh La La bar the second night. Since the boys had only ever seen us in our dirty travelling clothes ( I went to a bar]club in a t-shirt, baggy trousers and flip flops for crying out loud!), we decided to prove that we were in fact girls and wore our dresses. Anyways, the owner of Ooh La La had this really cute little boy - about 2 years old maybe and he is adorable. Well, that is until I held him and with a huge, cheeky grin on his face, he reached over and grabbed...uh erm...one of breasts! My god, boys learn quickly these days! It wouldn't have been so bad had people not seen but come on, a moment like that, you know you're guaranteed at a small audience. Alcohol may not turn me red but this certainly did and I promptly passed him back to his dad and decided against going near him after that!

Oh and a final bug story - like we haven't had enough of those! A lizard decided to join us in our room one evening and again we had to get reception to come get it out. Ok, so a lizard wasn't as scary as a huge hairy spider but can you imagine waking up to a lizard next to you in bed or even worse, him inviting his many friends to come join in the party!