South to Vang Vien

March 15, 2008

I booked a ride on a minibus from Luang Prabang for the five hour ride to Vang Vien. The minibuses make getting around very easy in this part of the world. They hold about 11 passengers, and go to most of the major tourist destinations. You can usually book one through your guesthouse, and they’ll pick you up right at the door. While I was waiting to be picked up, the grandmother of the family who ran the guesthouse I was staying at performed a baci ceremony for me. She didn’t speak any English, but her grandson told me it was to wish me good luck for my journey. The baci ceremony is unique to Laos, and consists of tying white string around both wrists, while reciting wishes and blessings.

The bus was completely full by the time they picked everyone up, and they decided to split us into two other minibuses that weren’t quite so full. Unfortunately, I ended upwith a group of six young Israelis traveling together, and no other passengers. They spoke English and were perfectly polite, but I felt like the odd person out.

Vang Vien is rather notorious for being an example of what Laos doesn’t want tourist development to end up like. It’s a small town, and the reason for visiting there is to see the incredible scenery, and to visit the caves and go tubing on the river. It’s also become kind of a party town, full of bars.

I stayed in my cheapest hotel room to date, at $4 a night. The places I checked when I first arrived were all full, so I ended up at a rather shabby guesthouse on the main street. I was going to move to something a bit nicer the next day, but it was clean and pretty quiet, so I didn’t move since I was only planning to stay a couple nights. Unfortunately, I got hit with a bit of diarrhea the next day. Not too bad, but I ended up relaxing at a bar next to the river instead of going tubing.

I’d met a Belgian couple before they split up the minibuses in Luang Prabang, and met up with them again for sunset at the Smile Bar by the river both evenings I was there.

I booked a seat on the VIP bus to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, rather than a minibus, since it was a bit cheaper and a shorter trip. I thought the VIP bus was a large coach bus, but this one ended up being a small 28 passenger bus with seats that folded down into the aisle, so it was pretty crowded. We were all complaining until we made a rest stop and the large passenger bus stopped just before we left. They had over booked that bus, and had people sitting in the aisle on backless plastic stools.

Posted in Laos