Vang Vieng: Day 3
Let me preface this by saying school started again and my head is about to explode from too much information. The second Basic Thai Intensive course just started and it’s no joke, hence the slow updating of the trip to Laos. Anyway!
We headed up north to Vang Vieng, which was described in the Lonely Planet Guide as a place you either love or hate, or love to hate. The landscape up there is amazing and picture perfect. A limestone karst terrain covered in lush green foliage thanks to the healthy proximity to the Nam Song river.
Our peaceful bungalow, the Maylyn Guesthouse, was on the west side of the river, away from the din of the “developed” side (i.e. party central). We had to cross a cable and wood bridge, and everytime we had to pay for a round trip to cross back. Not a tourist fee though. It seems everyone had to.
The bungalow had a lovely view of the rice paddies, the landscape, and little else! I have to say that I got a chance to walk barefoot between the rice paddies and felt strangely like I was built for laboring in the a rice paddy: wide feet and muscular for carrying loads of grass. Um, luckily this is not the case.
There’s a sense of recklessness there. Laos meets Lord of the Flies, where adults go to play at their own risk! The safety standards were nil, but that’s why I enjoy Southeast Asia sometimes. Less fuss. See the bamboo scaffolding? There’s a zip line attached to it. You swing down the line, someone throws one of those round safety things that float (sorry, I can’t speak English anymore) and you swim upsteam in hopes of grabbing hold of it!
It rained pretty much non-stop and the water level on the river was pretty high. I’m not going to say “dangerous”, but maybe pretty close. Regardless, we went kayaking downstream for a mere $10, transportation and lunch included!
Everything was hunkydory until one pair flipped their kayak. The guide circled upstream to go and help them. I thought that we should have continued on down, but Andy thought otherwise. Miscommunication. We hit some rough water sideways and flipped the kayak. Pain in the butt to flip back over with the water rushing so intensely downstream. I could barely stand up—luckily it was chest high! Andy got a tree branch in the stomach. It took a while but we corrected the problem and continued on. I think Andy nearly pee-ed his pants. Poor Andy!
We were supposed to go tubing into some caves as well, but the water was too high and we couldn’t enter. Fine by me!
Tired and sore, we ended the day with a massive fish dinner. (Sadly, not pictured as it was devoured all too quickly.)
