Vang Vieng, Laos
18° 55' N 102° 26' E
Jul 04, 2006 13:34
Distance 109km

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4th of july?

Text written in: English

(US holidays feel so random to me now.) hope you all had a fab day in the sun, drinking beer, barb-q-ing, etc etc.

after a day recovering in vientiene, I hoped a local bus to vang vieng. can already tell I'm going to LOVE laos. scenery is breathtaking and not crammed full of people! (you can actually see unpopulated green spaces). culture seems still pretty authentic. and best of all, the price they give is the same for everyone - locals and tourists alike - and they seem willing to bargain. this is SO unlike viet nam - a place that was really starting to get on my nerves (even before the border issues). 

vang vieng has its share of stunning scenery, but turns out it's also full of stupid drunk backpackers. the thing to do here is tube down the river and stop at the bars along the way. they've also added rope swings and cliffs to jump off of if you don't think alcohol and floating is a dumb enough combo.

it's great!

I met this awesome norwegian girl - christine and we've been having a blast. we jumped off the cliffs - about 2 stories high - highest I've ever jumped into the water. I think I brused my bum from how hard I hit (ow!). plus we ran into 1/2 the peeps from the bus-ride-from-hell while on the river. it's funny, our story is all over town: "so you're the girl who..." 

this is an intense party crowd and it'll be OK to eventually leave it. we met these english guys just covered in bruises, scratches, bandaids, etc - remnants of nights past with no real memory of exactly what happened. they are intense dudes...

today, for health reasons, we rented bikes to see these limestone caves. we got there JUST before the monsoon downpour hit. (the fact that it's rainy season hasn't been that big a deal until now - the past few days have produced 2-3 storms per day. the laundry place STILL has my clothes since you can't will the stuff to dry in this weather.) at least there was a lagoon at the caves so being wet really didn't matter.

in the down-time, since this backpacker central, all bars have big-screen tvs. great plan given the world cup, except my 2 favorite teams are now out (argentina AND brazil) and the brits are walking around stunned that england is out too (sorry mark!!) tonight it's italy/germany at 2am - for sure waking up (or will still be up) for this.

a few more days here, then back to vientiene to meet up with luke - a friend from hawaii whose coming over for a week or so. can't wait!!

ps - was just reminded le tour de france has started again!!!

 

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Photos / videos of "4th of july?":

sketchy laos busses - note the barf bags buying meat on a stick. I tried to capture the ones that still had little, tiny legs... such a dork, but I like this shot :) scenery getting close to viang vieng - limestone cliffs were amazing! loaded up with cash, ready to get into trouble (that's christine) the only good side to all that rain scenery out our window the day of physical activity but really we're dreaming about beer... I need a hair cut!! (that's the tubing river in background) yet another storm coming, but we're 7kms from home so have to keep going our prize - the blue lagoon! and a slippery, steep trail to the cave christine had to sacrifice her flip-flops to the jungle gods christine n me happy to be dry again rice paddies & limestone cliffs more rice paddies (the valley was wall to wall with em) blurry but one of my favs: our 2 laotian boyfriends who followed us for 6kms muddy. wet. puddles. how we killed 6 hours one day, THEN went out to the bars sick, but we had a great time
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