Laos - Vang Vieng & Luang Prabang

After a great 3 weeks traveling through Vietnam we were ready to move onto our next country. Laos.
We flew into the nations capital, Vientiane and just spent the evening at a lively pub watching the first game of the World Cup. Laos has a nationwide curfew of about 11.30pm but that was extended due to the crowds watching the football.
The next morning we took at 4 hour bus north to a little place called Vang Vieng....known for it's party atmosphere and tarzan swings and ziplines on the mekong. The entire town is built up for tubing down the river, with waterside bar, ropeswings, ziplines, mud wrestling, so there is a little bit of something for everyone. Not much tubing get done after you hit the bars. We actually got stuck at the first four because the buckets of vodka redbulls were just going down too good. We met up with a group of Aussie blokes that Amy knows from back home and met a group of Canadian guys from Vancouver, so between the two groups we definitely had our hands full. The first day we spent touring the town, buying a few souvenirs and laying down in the restaurants with a fruit smoothie watching the endless episodes of Friends they've got playing on the tv. Exactly what the lifestyle is like all over Laos....very laidback. They have this saying when in Laos (PDR - Please Don't Rush)....so that's exatly what we did :)

We spent a day on the river with a tube, however like I said we got stuck at the first few bars. The first had an epic rope swing and you could sit at the side of the bar with your legs dangling watching all the drunk daredevils trying to show off. I managed to do the swings a couple times with minor injuries! As I attempted to float down the river to observe the beautiful surroundings, all of a sudden I had a mini floatation device on my lap attached to a rope and on the other end was a Laos guy yelling at me to pull myself into the side to come join the festivities at his bar!!!! Wow...great service I thought, so we headed into the next circus. After a memorable night out on the river with great friends and surroundings we decided to do it all again the next day. But before that Amy and I did a bit of exploring. We hired a tuk tuk for the morning, went out to the Blue Hole which is fresh, turquoise runoff from the mtns where we were delightfully cooled off after climbing 200m straight up to view Tham Phu Kahm cave.
We had another evening out on the river after one of our favourite meals, a road side chicken baguette....this was our last night so I decided to make it last until the early morning...after more swinging on the river, buckets and beer bong, we headed to QBar to watch another football game, then out to Bucket Bar where the music and entertainment last all night. One moment I'm dancing and the next I'm doing a rain dance in a the tropical storm with fire dancers, fire limboers, flashing lights and music all around. It was a pretty surreal night.
The next morning Amy and I took a 6 hour bus north to Luang Prabang. This bus ride was absolutely beautiful, driving through the mtns and small villages of this very under developed country.
Fables, riverside Luang Prabang, with its lantern-lit streets, Indochinese architecture and heady fusion of Gallic and Asian cuisine, is truly something to experience. Many regard it as the Pearl of the Orient, with it's World Heritage status to protect its sacred peninsula of crumbling French villas and glittering gold-and-emerald wat. This was a perfect place to recover from a few days in Vang Vieng. After a nice sleep in we got in a tuk tuk and headed out to the 100m waterfall about 25km through the hills where we hiked through the national park to see the Moon Bear rehabilitation centre and ending up in the pools of cool, blue waters from the falls to cool off in. We spent a few hours exploring the forest and swimming in the pools before heading back to town and climbing the 350 steps (100m high) to Phu Si temple overlooking the World Heritage town to watch the sunset. We wandered through the Hmong night market a seemingly endless ribbon of colourful textiles, paper lanterns, T-shirts and weavings align the candlelit street, that come alive once the sun sets and the world cools down, when we were shopped out we stopped for tradition Lao food (bbq grilled fish, chicken, bamboo salad, ricenoodle salads, fresh spring rolls)... at the night food market..
The next day was just getting organized to head to Houai Xai...we caught a 15hour overnight bus to the Bokeo province where my knees hit the seat infront of me, it was over hot to start and then freezing cold and the seat didn't recline more than 90degrees...haha not the best experience of my life, but tolerable, at least I slept a little bit. It was nice to wake up in Houai Xai where there was literally nothing to do so I didn't feel guilty about napping during the day :) One day to gear up for our trek into Gibbon territory....