Vang Vieng is a cozy little town in the valley of the river Nam Song, surrounded by limestone mountains and rocks. The locals are without an exception either hoteliers, restaurant owners, tour guides or motorbike renters. If it ever was a normal Lao town, it changed its orientation into taking care of tourists only. And it is surprisingly enjoyable. In the very first evening, we chose an Irish pub for a dinner, Gary’s Irish Bar, to be precise, and kept on going there faithfully every day of our stay. A bunch of mostly English guys invited us to join them in a Killer Pool game, which is a great thing, especially for meeting new people and getting them know, you will find the rules among photos. Soon, some of us (ehm) took over the coordinatin of the game (and people) and Gary liked us for it, even got some free drinks for this voluntary job… and dancing. We stayed till closing that evening and not for the last time. We have also met Jordi, a fun Catalan guy, who joined us for a moto ride to the Blue Lagoon the following day. People were saying it was nice there.
Monthly Archives: May 2014
From Luang Prabang
Laos is awesome. Or at least most of it is awesome. After our Vietnam experience, we are enjoying the greenery everywhere around, travels through mountains, pictoresque villages and social life. The Lao architecture is kind to our eyes. In Vietnam, everything was a bit dirty, every meter of a nice building was accompanied by 0.5 metres of wavy sheet metal. Here is more space and less people, that’s perhaps why. (Perhaps, yeah: in Vietnam there are more than 92 million people, in Laos 7. Both countries are similar in size.) So beauty doesn’t need to be destroyed so much. Even the temples are prittier and more decorated (apart from the Chinese temples, or churchies, how Mr. Black calls them, in Hoi An, the temples in Vietnam seemed a bit humble… and their surroundings dirty). Even Vientiane, the capital, seems more like a provincial small town, despite it has about 200 000 inhabitants.
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