Day One
We woke up early in Luang Prabang to get on the 7am bus to Vang Vieng. Our hostel told us a shuttle would pick us up and take us to the bus station. We piled into the van, squished in the very back between luggage. As we began to drive down the Lao roads, Nico and I caught air with every bump, occasionally hitting our heads on the ceiling.
Eventually, the road began to wind. The town started to disappear behind us and what we thought was going to be a 5-10 minute drive to the bus station, stretched on. After some time, I came to the conclusion that this tiny van, in fact, was the bus the Vang Vieng.
After what felt like an eternity of windy roads and bouncing on my seat, we made it to a grungy little town. My first impression of Vang Vieng wasn't great but I was so happy to be off the bus.
Luckily, we got dropped off right in front of our hostel, Chillao. It didn't look particularly nice; the lobby was large and open but had pieces of random hardware piled on the floor. The was an old pool table and worn down tables and chairs. Upstairs, we stayed in a private 4-person room. It was a bit on the dirty side but was nice to have space and a private bathroom. We decided not to use the pillows as they were a little moldy.
Nico and I had the choice between sleeping on a springy queen bed or two very firm twins. We chose the queen, deeming us the parents of the fam and Kristen and Josh the kiddos.
Chillao Hostel
Dirty/grungy
Wifi not working in room
Free breakfast (I liked the pancakes)
Uncomfy beds
Friendly staff
Free drinks from 8-10pm (yes, free)
After dropping our stuff off, we decided to walk through town to find lunch. We stopped at Sakuraz, which had a very large menu that included burgers, pizza, Lao food, and Thai food. I ordered yellow curry soup, which wasn't great. I'm pretty sure the others didn't really enjoy their food either.
In the afternoon, we decided to take a tuk-tuk to Vang Vieng's main attraction, the Blue Lagoon. The name makes the place sound more attractive than it actually is. The Blue Lagoon is more like a swimming hole in a river than an actual lagoon. Still, it was nice to have water to cool off in and was worth the money we spent.
Another cool thing about visiting the lagoon was that there were caves nearby. A guide isn't needed to explore these caves but flashlights are definitely necessary. We only explored for about 30 minutes in order to get back to our tuk-tuk in time but the caves looked like they stretched back further and further.
For dinner that night, we decided to walk around and find a restaurant. Josh picked a random Thai restaurant on a street corner. I ordered cashew chicken but it tasted awful. The chicken was very dry and the sauce was flavorless. Everyone else's plates weren't that good either. The only thing that tasted alright to me was Josh's fried rice.
After dinner, we walked around to get a few drinks but didn't stay out too late. Many of the bars (including our hostel) gave out free drinks at a certain hour, so you could potentially drink for free all night if you're at the right place at the right time.
Sunset view from the hostel
Day Two
In the morning, Nico and I woke up early and waited downstairs for our tuk-tuk to pick us up for our hot air balloon ride.
The drive was only a few blocks to a big, open gravel runway where a balloon was already being filled with hot air. We were quickly ushered off the tuk-tuk and into the basket and only a few minutes later we began slowly rising into the air.
The view was amazing! We lazily drifted closer and closer to the pointed mountains that surrounded the town of Vang Vieng. Two other balloons floated at different heights at our sides. I took lots of pictures as the sun rose over the hills.
After about 45 minutes, it was time for our balloon to descend. It landed with a jolt in the yard or a nearby high school.
Nico and I arrived back at the hostel before Kristen & Josh had woken up, so, we took a little nap before getting on to the rest of the day. When everyone finally was up and ready to go, we had breakfast and walked out to find a tube rental company. Apparently there are two different companies: the red tube company or the yellow tube company. There are different opinions about which company is best but we easily found the yellow tube company in town.
After getting our gear, we were loaded up into a tuk tuk and driven up the river. The water was a pretty nice temperature. Both Josh and I (the token water weanies of the group) were able to get right in without any problems.
As we began to float, I'd say not even a minute in, we approached the first bar. Men on the shore through ropes weighted with water bottles at us to try to reel us in. After we were pulled ashore, we were greeted by other young travellers who seemed to have just stayed in Vang Vieng and got jobs working at the bars. They also seemed to have been partying every day. One girl talked about how she had just vomited over the side of the deck just the night before. The traveller-employees offered us each a free shot of whiskey and a bracelet before we walked up to the bar. We were probably the first group of people to arrive for the day.
At the bar, one of the young promoters offered to do a shotgun with Josh for his birthday (which he still had to pay for). The rest of us just sipped our beers and played a few rounds of beer pong.
After a bit, we decided it was probably time to float again and started to say our "goodbyes." But we ended up staying longer because one of the promoters told us that it was still early and the next bar wouldn't be open until 2. So, we swam in the river for a little bit before going back up to the bar to play the largest game of flip cup ever.
We finally decided it was a good time to leave and began floating to the next bar where we, once again, were reeled in by a rope weighted down by a water bottle. By the time we arrived at this bar, we were all getting pretty hungry. Unfortunately, this bar didn't have any food, so we each just got a drink and then left.
At the third bar, we just got some lunch and then continued the float. The river moved extremely slow and after a while we started to worry about losing our deposit (if we turned the tubes in too late).
Finally, we came to a bank with a sign on it reading, "tuk-tuk" with an arrow pointing up the shore. So we got out and decided it would be best to drive the rest of the way.
That evening, we went to have dinner at Gary's Irish Pub, which was rated #1 restaurant in Vang Vieng on TripAdvisor. I ordered beef stew, which was the first meal I was actually impressed with in Laos.
After dinner, we went to Sakura Bar for drinks, after which Kristen and Josh went back to the room to nap. Nico and I stayed out and met some travellers who were doing magic tricks, which was pretty cool.
After visiting a few more bars, we met up with Kristen and Josh again at our hostel before going back out to the bars. We went to the Reggae Bar where travellers could sorta legally smoke weed and drink. The plan for the rest of the night was to go to the jungle party that happens every week in Vang Vieng but Kristen said her stomach hurt and the boys weren't feeling up for it, so we went to bed instead.
This guy who worked at the hostel wanted to trade shirts with Nico
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