My eBid Cap Trip to Laos & Cambodia!

[suesjools]

Oh wow, just amazing! I love the elephants, can't imagine riding them, (scared of heights), but I'll bet it was lots of fun.

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[Oldandintheway]

Vang Vieng Last Day

Well this their last rainy day in Vang Vieng was spent getting pix where they could, including 'round town, the local Wat & a nice lunch at the Phangsavanh Resort. Now it's off to the capital of Vientiane - see ya there!
Again I'll let bros blog do the talking.

Hello all.
Well we have had some WiFi issues but it's early as I write this and it seems to be working OK at present.
The cool and rainy weather has continued for pretty much our whole short stay in Vang Vieng.
This town really pitches itself at the younger traveller with the main tourist activities being hot air ballooning, caving in the nearby hills and mountains, 'tubing' down the local Nam Song river (i.e. floating down the river on truck inner tubes), drinking, 'zip-lining' into the river, drinking, lounging about in bars drinking and watching re-runs of "Friends", rock climbing, kayaking and drinking.
All good fun but the Government had to intervene in 2012 as the tourists were getting killed at a rate of one a month whilst enjoying themselves.
Combining alcohol, dope, speed, opium &/or Red Bull + shots with a river full of submerged rocks turned out to be a very bad idea for many.
Things are apparently a lot less crazy now but this place is still a bit of a magnet for a certain type of tourist, despite the locals now catering for the more traditional visitors.
Des and I came here more for the scenery but continual rain prevented much site-seeing unfortunately.
What little we managed to photograph around town late yesterday is or will be in the Photo section sometime soon.
We leave today for Vientiane by bus. Another four hours on the road.
Cheers.

Karsts










cont. over:

[Oldandintheway]

VV cont.










An Elvis Buddha!


cont. over:

[Oldandintheway]

More VV cont:

Lunch











Next stop - Vientiane

[suesjools]

Wow, what an amazing place, the scenery is just spectacular! I especially like the Buddhas, the reclining one seems to know something the rest of us don't.

Can't wait for more, thanks muchly for sharing this.

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[sucadot]

Shame the weather didn't clear for them, but still lovely to see the pics. Hope Vientiane is warmer and dryer

[Oldandintheway]

The Joys of Travel - to Vientiane!

Oh dear, I'm glad I'm in my cozy castle. No pix as yet, but you didn't want to see a broken down bus anyway

We finally left Vang Vieng about 2 hours late as the courtesy mini bus that was to take us to the Bus Depot didn't show. It arrived late to pick us up and then meandered around Town picking up other passengers from their Hotels.
When we finally reached the Depot we found it was actually quite close to our Hotel and we would have been better off to have walked to it.
We would have been able to grab better seats also.
The road to Vientiane is, let's say, a work in progress.
It may be a coincidence but about 3 hours after we left V.V. the bus ceased its forward movement.
Smoke had issued forth from one of the rear wheels and I believe a wheel cylinder had failed - brake fluid is not supposed to be black is it?
In any case, the wheel had locked up and the bus could not continue.
Around an hour later a couple of smaller, local buses arrived and on we went to Vientiane. The new substitute bus was not as tidy as the broken one but it was faster so an improvement was achieved.
As luck would have it our Hotel (the Douang Deuane) was quite near the bus drop-off spot and we were able to walk to it. Just as well really as we don't know how to spot a Taxi here as yet - I haven't seen any.
The Hotel is a cut above what we normally use - our room is quite large, on the top (5th) floor and has a balcony, AC, Cable TV, a Fridge, Safe and the best shower so far. We even had to use one of them new-fangled Elevators!
Desley has already hit the Night Market - God help me, it's only across the road!
We had dinner at a nearby Bangledeshi Restaurant and it was so good we'll be going back for sure.
This is the 3rd time I have typed this up - I don't think I'll use this Blog Site ever again as it is 'buggy'.
I'm out of here before it carps out on me again.
Ciao.

A few final shots of Vang Vieng:

[deanosaur1972]

Memories come flooding back seeing these excellent posts.......

Vang Vieng - I remember the runway through the centre of town, the equivalent of having a runway in London on Oxford Street. Also helped build an irrigation system (a waterwheel) with a farmer about 10km out of town - I arrived at his place out of curiousity, saw he was having problems and returned every day for the next week to give him a hand. His wife's cooking was excellent.

Keep the posts coming - when they get to Cambodia my memories will increase about 10 fold!

[Oldandintheway]

Some Vientiane Pix are in!

Bus 1 VIP = Very Irritating Passengers says bro!

Bus failing to proceed

Bus 2 nice & squeezy

HELP! Get Me Out of Here!

Finally made the Hotel (Vang Vieng)

In room 507

The luxury balcony

View from same

Beerlao time

A local Wat (what)


Cont. over:

[Oldandintheway]

More Vientiane

Beside the Mekong

Eye of Newt, Nose of Toad etc. (runs & hides)

The night market - in daylight

Bro busking for their lunch money

Lunch at the Dhaka Bangladeshi Restaurant = A1

Busking paid for drinks as well!

Including complimentary Lao Whiskey (Champa = Frangapani flavoured)

Now that's better than eye of Newt

And then - an after lunch snack of Banana & Chocolate Crepes