Vang Vieng to Don Det was a bit of a haul. We took an initial coach to Vientiane, caught an overnight connection to Pak Se, rested for an evening before jumping on a minibus and then a ferry to Si Phan Don, the Four Thousand Islands. All in all the journey was the best part of a thousand kilometres.
What can I say? We could have travelled twice as far in one stretch and it would have been worth it. Don Det is beautiful.
Vang Vieng: infamous Laos party town; home of tubing; site of numerous drunken tourist deaths every year.
I'd heard terrible things about Vang Vieng. I visualised an endless, bobbing procession of Western kids, smacked up on opiates and buckets of Lao Lao whisky, floating on inner tubes, vomiting into the Nam Khong. Last year 27 tourists died tubing, from drowning or leaping into the river from a great height and breaking their heads open on rocks.
Whether it was a low-season lull or the fact that most of the riverside bars had been closed due to tourist deaths a few weeks before, we saw very little evidence of Vang Vieng's seedier side.
We saw was a quiet, if very tourist-centric, town on the banks of the river, surrounded by beautiful countryside. We found a nice guest house on the Southern end of town, called Jammee, and ended up staying for about week.
We were keen to get out and soak up some of the natural beauty that Vang Vieng is also famous for. Just ouside of the town, across the river, extends green countryside and limestone mountains. A few days after we arrived, we rented a couple of shoddy beach cruisers and attempted to the Phou Kham caves, site of the locally famous "blue lagoon". Our bikes were awful, the sun was blazing, and the road was atrocious. I think we managed to get about 4km out of town before we had to admit defeat and turn back.
Resolving to try again with better gear, we settled for Xang caves - a small set of caves extending into one of the surrounding mountains - just down the road from our guest house.
The climb up
The interior - best I could get with my camera phone
After a lengthy climb, the caves themselves were blessedly cool if a little small and underwhelming. A quick three minute walk from the entrance brought you out into the open air again.
The view from the top
At the base of the mountain, a river flowed out of the cave system on its way to the Nam Khong. The water was wonderfully cold. Shoals of fish nibbled at my toes.
My cave lust not quite sated, the next day we saddled up on some proper mountain bikes and made for Phou Kham once again. It was raining heavily most of the way there but the improved gear and temperature made all the difference and, after about an hour's ride past several places purporting to be Phou Kham, we found the real deal.
Unlike Xang there were no stairs and no lights in the caves. We rented head torches at the bottom and hoisted ourselves up a cliff face to the entrance.
The cave itself was very dark but large - no hand rails, no walkways as in Xang, just dripping limestone. It was excellent. My camera phone was woefully inadequate at taking photos in the dark but this video might give you an idea...
The Blue Lagoon
No... upper.. body... strength...
On the way back, the weather was lovely and I managed to take a few pics, along with a video. Feel free to mute before playing it.
Our guesthouse offers private minibus transport to Vang Vieng for 120,000 kip. This is marginally cheaper than the public coach, or VIP bus, from the coach station across town and leaves at a more sociable hour in the morning. We've found that tourist minibuses in SE Asia tend to be a bit more cramped than the coaches but where you can find them at a good price, compensate for the lack of space by picking you up and having fewer stops en route.
As we clamber into our transport at just after nine in the morning, we see a smattering of other backpacker types already seated. There are three Dutch girls, one English and two Aussies blokes, with a Japanese couple in the back. I'm pretty sure I'm the oldest in the vehicle by at least five years.
Our driver slides the side door shut, swings into the front seat. He wears enormous sunglasses, a CK tshirt and has his hair slicked back. We start our journey to Vang Viene. I'm pretty comfy. Alice and I are kitted out with cake purchased from the Luang Prabang night market the previous evening, egg and bacon sarnies from our guest house, and bottles of water. I settle into the seat and begin to read as we leave the town behind us.
An hour's drive outside Luang Prabang is Kuang Si falls. At the very entrance is the usual cluster of souvenir shops and restaurants that I'm now accustomed to seeing at every tourist attraction we come across. However, the few touts hanging around are very laid back and there's a generally relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. There are also a lot of locals around, on their way up to to the falls - always a good sign.
Luang Prabang is a relaxed town at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. Much of it seems to exist to support the throughput of Europeans and Japanese, so the extent to which the town itself exhibits true Laos culture is questionable. Nevertheless it has it's own sleepy charm, rather than being tourist-hell and we stick around for about a week, eating noodle soup and exploring.
The next two days where to be spent on the slow boat along the Mekong to Luang Prabang. Wikitravel suggested that the going rate for thr trip was about 250,000kip (£20). Our guest house offered a slow boat ticket, transport to the dock and a sandwich to eat on the journey for the same price. It's been our experience that buying tickets direct from the point of departure can save you a lot of money, with agents adding on massive commission but this seemed like a pretty good deal.
The next morning, we took a ride to the dock and waited for the guy from our guest house to sort our tickets. There were a few other backpackers with us, who had all apparently crossed the border that morning. Some had bought a package deal in Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang. Our guide handed out the tickets and set about giving us some advice on what to expect from the trip.
In both Thailand and Laos there's a form of public transport called a songthaew, which literally means "two rows". It's a covered vehicle with two benches in the back, usually either a large pickup or small minivan type vehicle. They operate like a cross between a bus and a taxi - you can flag them down from anywhere along the road, share them with other passengers and the driver will take what he considers to be the best route that links all the desired stops. They tend to be cheaper than taxis or tuk tuks, the price varying depending on the number of passengers and the distance to your stop.
The songthaew we took to the Chiang Mai bus station took a rather circuituous route. We intended to take a bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong, site of the main border crossing between Northern Thailand and Laos. By the time we reached the bus station the coach we wanted was full. Rather than wait four hours for the next one, we elected to take a coach to Chiang Rai and get a local bus further on to Chiang Khong.
Sabaidee boys and girls. We're in Laos right now, in a guest house on the banks of the Mekong. We're in Don Det, which is a tiny island of Si Phan Don: the four thousand islands.
It's our third week in Laos and loads has happened. I've got several blog posts typed and a ton of pictures and videos, but the upload speed here is painfully slow and I've not been able to get any media up.
So as soon as it's possible, I'll show you some photos. It's beautiful here.
