4 days of Vang Vien was... enough. I hadn't expected to find the Panama City Beach FL equivalent in Laos, but low and behold, there it was. Sitting in a nice pit stop location on the way to Vientiene, Vang Vien has earned it's reputation as having completely sold out to falangs. But enough generalizing, let's get to the specifics...
The first couple of days we ended up renting motorbikes and driving out to some of the local caves in the area. One of which was a river cave. Meaning, we rented tubes and floated off into the pitch black with nothing but our flashlight and boyish good looks to defend ourselves. Fortunately, there were no boogy monsters afoot. (I think the tourists scared them off) The last day we were there we went on the notorious floating trip. Now for those of you who have floated in the Austin area... multiply that times 10. There were ridiculous zip lines and swings set up all over the places (all safe and regulation size of course... no jagged rocks underneath. (read: sarcasm))... each with a conveniently attached bar selling not pints, not pitchers, but buckets. (pepsi+ tiger whiskey+ energy drink+ more tiger whiskey= many drunk Brits) I took the day off and had myself 3 or 4 nice fruit shakes... but everyone else seemed to be turning 21 all at the same time. At least everyone in our crew made it back safe and sounds. (sort of) There also seems to be some sort of fascination with 'Friends' bars in the town. By 'Friends' bars I mean exactly that: bars that play Friends on a continuous loop ALL effin day. It's beyond me.
On to the next city: Vientiene. This relatively lazy little capital city sits on the might Mekong bank... and let me tell you something... the Mekong is something else. (and by "something else" I mean muddy and not that impressive. maybe it'll change in Vietnam) The food here has been great, and the people equally nice. I parted ways with one Persian this morning, and in turn opened my arms to the entire nation of Laos! (they just haven't hugged me back yet... apparently they're not a very "hugging" kind of culture) I did have a nice conversation with a pair of young monks on the top of the Patuxai (Lao Champs Ellisee equivalent) this afternoon. Good kids.
Tomorrow I'm off to Savannakhet for a stopping point before 4 thousand islands. Should be a good one.
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