Day 24 - Vang Vieng, Laos

Vang Vieng this year is very different to last. It used to be absolutely mental with an "anything goes" spirit and a hell of a lot of drug taking and debauchery that made Magaluf look like the Vatican. A prime example of what happens when a place becomes a major western tourist attraction. This year it is a lot more quaint and a lot less lively. The back packer crowd has dried up a lot but Vang Vieng still has a hell of a lot to offer. Down town away from the now sleepy Main Street and now desolate party island in the middle of the Nam Song river is a lot of nice guest houses and boutiques. The town still lacks any really nice restaurants and is the opposite end of the spectrum to Lauang Prabang. Vang is now more about the fantastic outdoor activities such as kayaking, caving, climbing, trekking, cycling and tubing (more on this later!). For more details on this see "Nat's special report". 

Anyway back to the day.  We wake up to the misty mountains this morning overlooking them from our room and breakfast. 

Time to get back on our bikes today to visit the Kaeng Nyui waterfall, a 30 meter high waterfall that is about 8km outside of town. Luckily this time we have proper mountain bikes as the road was awful the whole way. 

 

Tarmac has obviously not reached these parts yet. All we get is a dust track with huge boulders and rocks along the way. 

As well as lots of steep hills that half kill us as we have no chance to pick up any speed going into them due to the treacherous conditions. 

Our route (if you can make it out). From the bottom left on the river to the top right up in the mountains.

Note to self. Never wear tight swim shorts when riding a bike. I have to pull them right up like hot pants in order to peddle. Sexy. 

It's so hot riding up massive hills. Especially with a heavy back pack on. You can literally wring water out of my vest. 

We do love a good old rickety bridge. This one was the most rickety so far as it really swung as you were walking on it. Kept thinking of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom scene with Short Round jumping on the bridge above the alligators. It could have actually been this bridge as half way there was a plank missing although thankfully no alligators below!

Little waterfall before we get to the daddy. 

We arrive at the daddy falls aka the Kaeng Nyui waterfall. The water is really low as it is dry season but at least the fall is still flowing. Still beautiful scenary though. 

Ready to jump...

Strong push off... Will she make it? 

Made it!

Sitting under the waterfall letting the water shower down on us was absolute bliss. So refreshing after our hot bike ride. 

Next bounty advert model right here. 

It's official. I am what you find at the end of a rainbow. I am the pot of gold all those leprechauns have been looking for. 

Looking up into the falls. 

Sexy Nat :-)

Didn't fancy the food on offer back at the bottom. Small bird (not sure what sort) and bat (the black stuff). With complementary flies. 

Proper bikes this time (although I did have to teach Nat how to use gears!) 

The ride back was so much better and easier on the legs. Well needed. 

We rode back to town, got some money out, arranged tubing for tomorrow and booked our bus tickets to Vientiane. A three hour journey which is not bad for £3 each! Good 10 mins of admin sorted. Just need to find a laundry now. Running out of boxers!

We head for a drink to get out of the sun at a bar on the river over looking the old infamous party island that is now deserted. This is the start of it now. 

When short cuts go bad. Hand to ride through a deeper than I originally thought ford on the way back. Nat made the right choice taking her trainers off or they would have been very wet! I left mine on which was unfortunate when the water was deeper than the bottom of my pedal. 

We were tempted to visit the caves which was a further 8km there but opted for this instead...

Lovely sunset this evening. 

As I was looking at the sunset this little fella crept up behind me!!  We are booked on this tomorrow. Can't wait!

Arty picture alert! Nice reflection in the pool. 

That evening we go to a lovely little French restaurant that is rated #1 on trip advisor (although the competiton is not that tough in this town). It's called Le Cafe de Paris. We go for the terrine to start and the plat du jour, a delicious beef bourguignon for main. Damn tasty. 

After we go for a walk around to walk off dinner and head back to the bar from earlier for a few games of cards then retire for the evening. It's 9pm after all! 

One for Caroline. We have booked you in for Saturday. 

Evening Boules tournament.  

PS. We made the mistake of not putting sun tan lotion on today thinking our "base tans" were sufficient. We were wrong. Nat now has a penis shaped white patch on her back. I wish I could say I had cast the shadow causing this but I'm just not that well endowed :-)