The North of Laos - Vang Vieng

Continuing with the adventurous journey to Vang Vieng. We had booked a ride in an air-conditioned minivan, which was packed to the brim with people. Unfortunately, someone forgot to calculate that most people also travel with luggage, which was then stacked everywhere in the aisles. At the only break during the 5-hour journey, everything was piled up again so that everyone could get some fresh air. Luckily, no one got sick in the meantime... which could have happened on this bumpy, apparently freshly excavated route through the mountains and always right on the edge of the cliff; especially when the driver answers the phone, drives without lights in the dangerous sections, and casually runs over a chicken in between... we arrived more or less in one piece, but skipped the famous Friday night jungle party in Vang Vieng. After all the other bars close around 11:30 p.m., you can take a Tuktuk to the jungle party, where apparently people party until the last one falls... ;) I don't know if that's really recommended.

The next day we wanted to try out the outdoor activities for which Vang Vieng is famous, "Ziplining" (sliding along ropes stretched between trees using a zipline and climbing harness) and "Tubing" (sitting in an old truck tire tube and floating down the river). Riana and the two of us, who were the only ones left from our group, met at the agency at 12 o'clock and were taken to Ziplining by a Tuktuk with our tubes. >it is recommended to buy a waterproof bag beforehand for tubing, as there are no rentals available as mentioned in the travel guide!<

In our group, there were only three of us with two other very funny Laotian guides. After a short introduction and a first zipline slide over the river, we had to climb the mountain to get to the starting height. Once we reached the top, everyone got a round of water and then we went to the first real zipline. The ropes were sometimes quite long and the valleys deep, but that's what makes it really interesting. And so we zoomed through the trees, from one platform to the next. It was a huge fun for all of us! On the last platform, we were lowered down 25 meters. One of the guides lowered himself first and was then responsible for the safe and slow lowering of us. Okay, maybe it was safe, but it was definitely not slow. Once you were in the air, you were completely at the mercy of the guide. And of course, he enjoyed dropping you a few meters before tightening the rope again. He topped it off with his colleague (or rather brother). He had already said before that he gets scared every time he is lowered by him. And it turned out that the 25 meters for him consisted almost entirely of free fall and he would have hit the ground with the elasticity of the rope. One couldn't stop laughing, the other sat exhausted on the ground.

Then we went directly to Tubing. So we put all our stuff in the waterproof bag, took out some beers, and off we went on the wild - well, actually very slow and leisurely - ride in large inner tubes down the Nam Xong river. The river flows really slowly and you can easily drift along and enjoy the sun and nature. And if you want, you can always fish yourself out of one of the many bars along the river with ropes to get yourself a new beer. Just before sunset, we arrived back in Vang Vieng, which was good because it was getting a bit chilly.

After a hot shower, we went into town for a bit, but since Tina still wasn't feeling well, we soon went back to the guesthouse and slept well.

On Sunday, the four of us (Georgi from Berlin has joined us) took a scooter tour to the Blue Lagoon. We imagined it to be a bit more idyllic. Instead, the place was full of Chinese people who, equipped with life jackets (because apparently most of them can't swim and have no body tension or coordination), jumped into the water like lemmings from a tree. It was a funny sight, but the lagoon itself was rather disappointingly small. However, for the entrance fee (what a Swabian pays, he gets), we could also visit a cool cave with many stalactites and stalagmites and a small Buddha altar high up in the mountain. >Bring a flashlight! (Thanks, Lea & Stefan :)

We continued with the scooters to a "Secret Lagoon", which was so secret that we could hardly find the way there through sticks and stones, between dried up rice fields, many cows, and shaky bamboo bridges... When we finally arrived, we found a dark hole in which you could supposedly swim, but we didn't try it because there was no one else there.

Then we spontaneously decided to take a (small on the map) loop through the countryside. The roads were bad and the rice fields far from green, but it was nice to see how locals live there with their children, chickens, pigs, cows, dogs, etc. We kept driving the loop and it got darker and colder... suddenly, we couldn't continue because a whole herd of cows was standing in the middle of the road. Somehow, we made our way through and continued through the night, with the dust of the road on us, the stars above us. Finally, we reached the starting point and were glad to arrive back in town, where we fell tired into bed after a curry and a hot shower...

After a good breakfast that our stomachs could handle, we booked the next minibus to Vientiane. According to the office, it was supposed to depart from Vang Vieng at 1:30 p.m. with a few minutes delay. Okay, at our guesthouse, it was punctual, and so we thought nothing could go wrong. After leaving our guesthouse, we went to a fancy hotel with a pool and everything, but after 20 minutes, no one decided to join us. So we went on to the next guesthouse. Here again, a bit of confusion: who has to join us and who doesn't? With 2 more occupants, we left the guesthouse and drove to Vang Vieng's makeshift airstrip. For initially inexplicable reasons, we waited here for another half hour. One of the fellow passengers had to catch a plane in Vientiane and became impatient, but that didn't change anything. Finally, a second minibus arrived, and a few more passengers got on with us, and then we finally set off at almost three o'clock. The driver apparently felt guilty and also wanted to catch the plane, so he drove like crazy... Bumps, oncoming traffic, cows, and curves didn't matter. They were all honked out of the way. Despite that, we arrived more or less intact, and the plane was probably still caught. However, our sensitive stomachs were not too thrilled...

However, we are staying in a very nice and clean hotel in Vientiane, so we can recover well here.