Our Walkabout

Planet View: N18°55.282′ E102°26.792′

Street View: N18°55.282′ E102°26.792′

The bus trip from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng was an amazing journey through the mountains of northern Laos, taking us up to elevations above 4300 feet a number of times along the way.  It took us almost seven hours to travel a mere 300 kilometers, I doubt if there was more than a single kilometer during the first six hours of the trip without a hairpin bend on the single-lane road, but it gave us a chance to take in some of the brilliant mountainous jungle scenery.  (Unfortunately the windows of the bus didn’t open so I didn’t take any photos.)  We spent a couple of nights in the small village of Vang Vieng situated alongside the fast-moving Nam Xong River, stopping to break up the trip between Luang Prabang and Laos’ capital of Vientiane.  The jagged limestone mountains jutting almost vertically out of Vang Vieng’s surrounding rice paddies made for some beautiful surrounds and reminded us of the mountains in Kalambaka.  Unfortunately the influx of tourists to Vang Vieng has stripped the town of most of its traditional culture, the main street is littered with bars and restaurants playing reruns of Friends or Hollywood movies for the plethora of British backpackers that seem to be drawn to this tiny town in northern Laos.  If we were missing western food (which we’re not!) we’d have no problem finding anything from pizza to hamburgers and French fries at any one of the Vang Vieng eateries.  You can supposedly pay a little extra at some of the restaurants for a ‘happy meal’ which entails having marijuana, mushrooms or opium mixed into your dish!

We spent our day in Vang Vieng exploring one of the limestone caves for which the countryside around town is famous.  Thamchang Cave is located a couple of kilometers out of town across a footbridge over the Nam Xong River.  While not as grand as the massive limestone amphitheater we visited in Vietnam’s Halong Bay, the small opening of Thamchang welcomed us into some brilliant caverns that stretch back into the cliffs for hundreds of meters.  An opening in the cliff face provided us a fantastic bird’s eye view of Vang Vieng and the surrounding rice paddies.