After leaving ECC we got on a bus to Vang Vieng. The experience was interesting for several reasons. Firstly, it took 5 hours which I didn’t believe when I first looked at the map, but the bus had to tackle numerous steep mountains in gear 1 for us to get anywhere’s and of course with a bus load of people it was slow. Secondly, a lady randomly starting handing out sweets to everyone on the bus. Thirdly, we stopped every 10 minutes for someone to have a cigarette or wee break. Lastly, about 3/4 of the way through the journey we stopped at some outdoor ‘restaurant’ type thing and everyone started getting off for dinner. We were the only brits on board and no one spoke English so we didn’t really know what was happening. In the spirit of doing as they do we ordered some rice, pringles and cookies to eat. Eventually we arrived in Vang Vieng, but the original hostel we booked was a bit dodgy. A basic outdoor bungalow type room which we would have coped with .. but then we realised the door didn’t even close or lock. I went to the bathroom and found a frog staring at me, which pretty much tipped the scale. Off we trotted to a nearby hotel.
The morning after we went tubing down the Nam Khong river, which is essentially an activity where you float in a rubber ring and stop off at bars. As it’s hot season the river was quite shallow and slow moving so required bit of paddling. The bars we stopped at had reps encouraging drinking games and the like, meaning some were very merry whilst bobbing down the river. This wouldn’t be allowed in England. Haha.
The day passed quite quickly and it got to a point where we wondered if we’d make it to the end before the sun went down. Thankfully we did!
