1 month of travelling!! Vang Vieng-Laos!

"Vang Vieng! Vang Vieng!"the bus conductor shouted from the front of the bus as the bus pulled to a halt in the middle of nowhere.

8.30pm and everywhere is pitch dark. Oliver and me walked on, hoping to find the town center in hope of securing a roof over our head. Problem is we had no idea where we are. Fortunately we chanced upon a GH where we quickly dumped our bags and asked for directions.

We were led to a huge tent area where loud laos music could be head echoing miles away. A wedding party! They had probably 70 over tables full of people, a huge stage with live band and singer and dozens of people dancing laos style in the middle. We asked permission to enter and took some pictures. Our first encounter with laos wedding! Newly weds!Ladies on the "dance floor"
Wedding pictures local and western style
Jan 11 Sunday. This day that marks my first 30 days of travelling! 6 more to go! Time really do flies quickly when you are having fun. On the bus here to vang vieng, we passed by really nice villages and we really wanted to go back and visit these villages. With a motorcycle we rented(58k kip=$10.50) the both of us rode on away towards the highway!
Local laos noodles which looks average and taste heavenly(10k kip=$2)
Cursed motorcycle[40k(rent) + 18k(gas) + 70k(repairs total $23)]
Great views along the wayAccompanied by the river
The first thing we encountered? Yet another wedding! this time on a much smaller scale and situated in the backyard of a house.
Local wedding No.2
Similar to other weddings, the folks would be at the entrance welcoming guests
You can only imagine how much beer is consumed in this 1 day
This is where guest will put their monetary blessings for the couple
Local kids
It is then that we encounter a series of bad luck with our motorcycle. While trying to move off on the motorcycle, out of nowhere the machine lost its balance even before moving and fell on its side, breaking the right brake lever into 2. In order not to let the owner rip us off by charging high for repair, we decided to repair it ourselves which really is quite expensive anyway for a lever(20k=$4).
Fixing the brake lever
Picked ourselves us and sped off away again stopping at a 3 sites along the way. Local delicacies

First one.At the side of the road where many young children ages 4-7 were picking up small rocks. Oliver thinks they are picking it to sell, i however did not think it is the case. We tried to ask and of course they did not understand what we were saying.Nonetheless we helped them with the rocks for awhile. Stop No. 1
Cheese!!

2nd.A village house with super hyper kids. The little boy would shout and wave hello and run into hiding. 2 seconds later, he would emerge and do it again. Whenever i motioned him to come, he would run and hide before being pushed out by his sister. LOL really cute kids Village house
Happy kids
Happiness doesnt mean you need to be wealthy

3rd. We stopped by this long row of Mandarin oranges stalls at the side of the road. We sat down and bought 1kg of orange(5000kip=$1) and out of a sudden, a flock of ladies, teens to young mums came to us. They probably dont see alot of foreigners down here. Talked to them in my every so limited laos and they got really interested in the language guide at the back of oliver's Lonely planet. At the end of the day, we made a few new friends Farm and Sai and a few others i cant remember. As the sun was starting to set, we had to make our way back to avoid riding the dark. Before we left, they even gave us another bag of oranges for free!!! What a kind bunch of people. Mak kiang(orange) for you?
Why is a planet lonely? Ah oliver! popular with the girls!
I cant lose out to him too eh!

As we rode on back, the road seems to be never ending. It didnt felt this far when we came. Every minute past and the sky grew darker. Soon, we were riding in complete darkness. To make things worst, the headlight on the motorcycle was very weak and i could hardly see beyond 5meters(yes i was riding). In order to get back as soon as possible, i started to speed in this empty road. 30mins of 70km/h in darkness, i felt my bike fishtailed! Fortunately i kept calm and not jam my brake which would lead to a fall. A flat rear tire!! What luck. Pushed our way to the nearest repair shop to get a new inner tubing(50k kip=$9). This is the 2nd time we fixed the motorcycle today! Was feeling very shitty that we had to spend 70k kip to fix a motorcycle we spend 40k kip to rent. Fixing our flat tire
As soon as it was done, we continued back again in the dark. Just when i thought the worse is over. We saw a car speeding towards us on a bridge and while trying to avoid it, i had swerved my motorcycle onto the side road pebbles. It started to lose control and we both fell over the skidding machine. Fortunately i had anticipated this and had slowed down considerably. We were hurt with some bruises and scratches and fortunately no bones broken. With blooded knees and palms, we rode on!!

Next we had another problem!! The fuel needle is at EMPTY!! I had to slow down and ride without consuming too much to finally make it back to town!! Lucky for us, the guy who rented us the bike was not around and is replaced by another guy who did not spot the damages on the motorcycle. Small wounds, nothing serious

Clean our wounds and spend the rest of the night in our guesthouse with our aching bodies. Dinner was the ubiquitous banana and chocolate pancake(10k kip=$2) aimed at foreigners in this town. Picture this, roti pratha with banana inside drizzled with chocolate and condensed milk. Mmmh Mmmh! A great way to end an eventful day!Banana and chocolate pancake(roti pratha)!

The next day, Oliver moved on to the capital of Laos, Vientiane. I had been on the move every day since i stepped into laos and needed a day of rest, basically doing nothing. The weather was hot with a hint of sun, perfect to do some tubing. Ask anybody about Vang Vieng and tubing(55k kip=$11) would be the first to come to mind. The name comes from the tractor wheels inner tubing which they inflate and you will use it as a float to drift down the Nam Song River 3km north of town.

A pretty relaxing thing to do i supposed until i realise that the water was going far too slow and if i am late, i would have to pay a "overtime" charge and i would have to be in the freezing water in the dark!! Argh!! Anyway along the river, there would be close to a dozen "bars" of sorts selling all kinds of drinks and full of westerners drinking and jumping away. It is great if you are into that sort of thing.

Fortunately i met Penny, an Australian who i met on the trip to the caves and waterfall(see last post) and she is on a kayak tour! She offered to give me a ride back to town!

Another favourite of vang viengs is the numerous restaurants serving laos and western food. All of which will have a TV or 2 inside screening either Friends, Family guy or Simpson's. If you are going to eat in this town, pick your favourite series instead of the place since the food will be the same no matter where you go.

After a slow and easy day, i am all charged up to move forward again! Plan for today, early kayaking(85k kip=$15) for some caves and immediately hop on a bus for the capital Vientiane.

Fake ocean pack about US$10 each. Quality is better than i expected
Our kayaks!
First up! Water cave!! The name comes from the fact that the whole cave is flooded with water and the only way to get around is to use one of the tractor tubbings and head torch. With our guide leading and singing his traditional laos song, we pulled/paddled our way into it. Even though there was not much to see inside, it is a fun experience. Recommended. Water cave
And off we go!Picnic lunch by the river side! Indescribably heavenly
I know honda dream and honda wave and when did they come up with a honda love?

After lunch we started our 3 hours kayaking down the nam song river, the same river that i had went for tubing the day before. In this tour, i met a few nice people including a guy from poland, a girl each from beijing, shanghai and hongkong. We stopped by one of the "bar" where the poland guy went to do his jump into the river. While doing so, he had left his wallet and camera on the bench covered by his hat. Even though a few of us were standing around there, someone had stole it away while we were watching him jump. A good tip if you are even going to do tubing or kayaking. Always leave your belongings with someone, or better yet, just bring small amount of cash for your drinks and leave everything else in your guesthouse! By bringing it, you risk losing and drowning our valuables!!

Brief instructions by our guide
Hong kong girl with a guide
tubing, a favourite past time of many in Vang vieng Jumping as well, especially when you are drunk

Remember i said i had planned to catch a bus straight after kayaking. Because of my newly made friends, i decided to stay 1 more night and leave early the next morning.... Dinner watching rerun episodes of Friends

It is on this bus that i met the most amusing bus driver i ever met. The moment he start the engine, his endless bus horn begins.. for the next 3.5hours. In a typical case, people horn to warn others of dangers to prevent accidents. For him, even though the next 200m was empty with no cars and no people, he still blast his horn away! Reason for doing so, to tell people he is coming and to take his bus!! Basically he wants to earn more money, so much so that he overcharge even local people which was often rebuked and he offered a refund of the excess anyway. Empty morning streets

Fortunately i had my ear plugs with me...