Day 23 - Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, Laos

Another long bus ride today to Vang Vieng, a six hour ride through the windy mountain roads. Just to show you how windy they are here is one short stint. An absolute nightmare if you suffer from travel sickness. Luckily we don't! 

We board the bus at the southern bus station. Not quite as nice a bus as the last one in Thailand. Smells a bit funky but you get used to the smell after a while and it turns out to be decent enough. Could have been worse. The non "VIP" bus is packed to the rafters, complete with chickens on the roof!!

Strange seating arrangements on our bus too though. This is for locals who pay a lot less. They really are the 'cheap seats' - just a small plastic stool in the aisle for a six hour trip!!

The ride is 187km and ends up taking just over seven hours. A whopping 27km per hour average. On the whole journey I don't think we travel in a straight line for more than 100ft max. You get thrown about a bit too which makes sleeping difficult, especially when on 60% of the corners along the way the driver blasts his horn! We also met two great people on the way to the bus, Trent and Sasha 

from New Zealand. We shared a Tuk Tuk to the station with them in Luang Prabang and they are also heading to Vang Vieng. 

Absolutely fantastic scenary along the way. The pictures below do not even begin to do it justice. I have driven through mountain ranges many times but haven't experienced such a vast range with such stunning scenary. It is truly epic. Like Halong Bay on land. 

The road wasn't too bad along the way although I am glad they drive on the right hand side so we were not looking off the side of a cliff the whole way. 

What is really surprising is how populated the whole route was. There are so many little villages. All with houses precariously built over the edge of steep cliffs. Such industrious little towns too. Every house seems to have their own occupation mainly around growing or building something.  

Overtaking cattle. Not the first time today.  

The local footie match. Strangely everyone is either a Real Madrid or Chelsea fan over here. Even a guy in the hill tribe had a Real shirt on!

We arrive at our hotel and arrange to meet Trent and Sasha for drinks later. 

Our hotel is absolutely amazing. Well worth pushing the boat out for this one. This is the view that welcomes us. 

It's called the Riverside Boutique Hotel

http://www.riversidevangvieng.com. 

Hot air balloon. We are planning on doing this in a couple of days time for sunset. Never been in one before.

Yet another rickety bridge which our hotel bar overlooks. This is be main one in town! All wooden flooring again. 

The pool with our home for three nights in the background. Ground floor second from the right. 

Gorgeous lanterns in the tree outside the restaurant. 

After a quick dip we meet Trent and Sasha (or Trasha as they shall henceforth be know as) outside the hotel and head into town for a few drinks. 

Vang Vieng is not what we were expecting (as has been the same pretty much everywhere we have been so far). A couple of years ago Vang Vieng was the party central of south east Asia. But the government has clamped down quite heavily on the boozing, drug taking and drunken antics over since then. As a result it's got a bit of a feel of arriving late for a party. It's high season but pretty dead but has a host of bars that look like they would have been pumping in their hey day. 

Western chavvy holiday habits clearly transcend borders though. There is a whole row of bars that just have Friends playing on the TV! What happened to Only Fools and Horses? 

Once you get past the "Friendsathon" the bar was pretty good. Our waiter was hilarious. His 'thing' was to talk in a really squeaky high pitched voice that I am sure only dogs can hear! He also does a mean cigarette lighting trick setting his hand alight to light the fag. 

After we all head around the corner for some food in the only bar that is busy at 10.30pm. Not what the guide books made out but probably a nicer place because of it. 

It's been a top night with our new buddies Trent and Sasha. Lovely people. We make plans to go hot air ballooning and tubing with them and head for bed (obviously not together).