Vang Vieng

From Luang Prabang, we took the mini-van to Vang Vieng. We had heard a lot of negative things about the mountainous drive, but for us it was quite relaxed. After a journey of almost 5 hours with a beautiful view, we arrived in Vang Vieng.

Vang Vieng used to be known as the party paradise for backpackers. Most people went there for tubing, floating down the river on a truck tire and stopping at the bars along the shore to get drunk. However, due to several deaths, this activity was banned and some bars along the shore were demolished. But we weren't there to party anyway...

For the first two days, we just wanted to relax in the hammocks at our accommodation. After having pizza on the first evening, we wanted to have a quick beer at the Irish Pub. But there we ran into two English guys who we had already been on the bus with in the morning. After that, the relaxed evening turned into a wild night;-) A beer turned into several, and then we went on to the Sakura Bar to play beer pong. We ended up staying there for a while. We watched the Asians and their interesting dance moves and we ended up drowning two of the popular Sakura shirts:-)

Blue Lagoon and Caves

The next day was all about relaxation. On the third day, we took the scooter again. First stop was the Blue Lagoon, which wasn't really blue but rather green. Besides a few Asians paddling for their lives in their life jackets, it wasn't really interesting there. The neighboring Phou Kam Cave was much better. We could climb quite far into this stalactite cave. It wasn't always easy, as it was often very dark and a bit slippery.

The next stop was a viewpoint further along the way, which we had to climb 250 meters in altitude. The route was not always easy, but the view from the top was definitely worth it.

After a lunch break, we headed to the last stop of the day, the Elephant Cave. We had to ride the scooter for quite a distance, but unfortunately the cave itself was not really worth it. We thought it was a proper cave, but it turned out to be just a big rock with a stone at the bottom that vaguely resembled an elephant. Since we still had some time until sunset, we explored the surroundings a bit. That's when we came across a truly blue lagoon. It was much more beautiful than the first one. Unfortunately, it was already too late to jump into the water. For the next day, we booked a kayaking and zip-lining tour.

Kayaking and Zip-lining

At half past 8, our tour provider picked us up and took us to the starting point for kayaking. Besides us, our group consisted of two very friendly Koreans. From the starting point, we kayaked 7 km until we reached the zip-lining course. After the briefing, we embarked on a over 1,300-meter-long parcour. There were 7 zip lines that we could slide down. It was really exciting and a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I can't upload the videos here:-( After zip-lining, we kayaked back until we reached the endpoint of our tour after about half an hour. All in all, it was a very successful trip.

During our stay, we also decided to make a detour to the 4000 Islands on the border with Cambodia. More about that in the next reports.