Vang Vieng

I made a one-day stopover in Vientiane, because I wanted to buy a book or two. Here also it was mainly hot and the city made a "dead" impression. Not many people were on the streets, a few times the wind was blowing clouds of dust around. In the evening I ended up again in these two blocks which are in my opinion the most "authentic" in Vientiane's center, Chao Anou Road and the night market. After a dreary and sweaty day I liked the city again...

Early sunday morning (10\07) I took a bus to Vang Vieng. I didn't hear a lot of positive things about a part of this town, but more so concerning the landscape. Both turned out to be true. Vang Vieng lies at the bank of a river and is surrounded by magnificent limestone mountains with many caves, which are easily accessible. You can do some hiking there, climbing, rafting, and more. This turned Vang Viengs center (it's a very small town) in the course of the years into an endless row of guest houses, restaurants and the usual "travel agencies", who all offer exactly the same. It's like a light version of Bangkoks Khao San Road. Fortunately there are some guest houses on the other side of the river. In one of them I got my own little bungalow, next to a creek, and from its small veranda views over fields and some mountains. It was one of the best places I ever stayed on this journey. Butterflies everywhere, birds, lizards, one or the other mean looking spider, and besides that almost complete silence... I could have stayed there one week without problems, but as I mentioned in another post, the expiry date of this journey is getting closer...
This ambience did of course not incite to move around a lot, more so as the weather remained hot. Yet I managed to climb into a cave and to "explore" the surrounding area on bicycle. One afternoon a gorgeous rainstorm swept over the valley, I sat on the veranda and enjoyed the force of nature. There was only one flaw: it didn't really make the temperatures descend...