Brian on our hike
Ashlei with the view from town
Ashlei cave exploring
After our cave swim
On the way to Vang Vieng We took my favorite bus ride of the trip ( and we are at over fifteen buses now). We ended up on a locals' bus, not a one for the tourists. It was really fun and packed to the gills. People sitting on huge sacks of rice, hundreds of pounds of onions, goods, produce, wares, textiles and a chicken! My seat was a bucket in the aisle, others' was to stand in the doorway. We were the only non-Lao people on the bus save for one other who seemingly lacked the disposition that embraced such a change from what we're used to at home.
Vang Vieng is amazing. Well, the surrounding limestone cliffs in every direction you look are amazing and the winding Nam Song River is beautiful. The town seems to have become just another stop on the backpackers' party circuit with little to offer other than some uninspiring food and cheap beer. No problem though, there was plenty to do outside of town. That is, after all, why many people go there in the first place.
We traveled deep into caves, so deep in fact that had we not been with a guide and lost our lights we would have been hard pressed to ever make it out again! Amazing being so deep inside of the Earth. After we hiked into a couple of caves we got to enter into a cave via a stream, floating on huge inner-tubes. Again we floated very deep into this cave. We'll never forget letting the water carry us through the cave and looking back and watching the last glimmers of sunlight fade as we were swallowed by the dark...oooh....afterwards we hiked through fields and later kayaked down the Nam Song for a couple of hours.
It was a good stay but we needed to head off to the former capital and world heritage site of the city Luang Prabang - another bus ride awaits!
No comments:
Post a Comment