Alright, so I've finished blogging about Borneo and, while I still have a lot to catch you all up on in my recent goings on in BKK I've decided it is time to make a huge push in my March-May travels in lieu of the nearing 1 year anniversary of some of the trekking (and because my mom really wants to relive some of the hilarity that occurred when she came to visit.) So here I go picking up from my last entry from the saga (as a recap: Mark, Josie, Emily and I had just celebrated a wet and wild Buddhist New Year in Luang Prabang Laos...
April 16-18 2010: Luang Prabang, Laos-->Vang Vieng, Laos-->Bangkok
We ate breakfast on the sun-warmed patio at our guesthouse and grabbed our bags to get on the mini-van to Vang Vieng after our amazing
experience in Luang Prabang. Our van was packed to the brim as is the typical nature in Asia, so we relished in the bit of extra space as away we went through the Laos countryside. This trip turned out to be a bit more bearable than rides past as the road between the two cities was actually paved! We were enjoying the endless stretches of tree-covered mountains and vibrant green rice 
paddies until we felt a huge THUMP and CRASH on our way up a mountain switchback. What could that possibly have been we were all wondering as we pulled over to the side of the road and were asked to get out of the car. It turned out that the spare tire holder had broken off and was dragging under the van with the spare tire in tow. I mean it really wouldn't be an Asian road trip without something like this happening.
Seeing as there was nothing we could do until the driver reattached everything, there we stood amidst the Laotian mountains on the side of the road. Pretty soon there was a small gathering of
locals who stood staring shyly at this troupe of foreigners looking helpless next to our modern transportation. It was quite the juxtaposition as East met West in the most unlikely of circumstances; it's definitely humbling being the outsider in a situation like this and makes you really appreciate the necessity of being respectful of and not judging those you meet on your journeys.
We finally pulled into the Vang Vieng 'bus station' where we gathered our gear and threw it into a tuk tuk bound for the center of the action. As it was still the New Year celebration, we were sitting ducks along the main street as locals and tourists alike chucked water balloons and doused us with buckets as we tried hastily to roll down the plastic curtains on
the otherwise open cab. A bit wet and weary from our day, we found a place to stay and quickly made our way to the nearest sandwich stall as we hadn't had a real baguette sandwich in eons. These stalls are everywhere and are a remnant of the French colonialism as local Lao chefs fry up whatever you want and slap it on a warm loaf of heaven. We ate as we walked and took in the 'sites' of the town which basically was comprised of tons of shops, pubs and restaurants with a largely backpacker/laidback/hippie vibe. It was definitely a place to kick back, put up your feet, digest your travels and eat, eat eat. That night we made our way to a local pub for some food and free buckets before hitting the sack in anticipation of the main attraction of Vang Vieng: innertubing down the river!
The day I had been waiting for (probably for months since reading/researching VV) had finally arrived. We woke up, scarfed down another baguette and made our way to the tube rental
guys who drove us to the starting point of the famed Vang Vieng tubing circuit. This completely unique and unhibited stretch of river is renowned for its carefree attitude; it is literally like a playground for adults. The sides of the river and lined with restaurants and pubs one after another, each with its own special activity. Some of the highlights included tasting snake wine (literally a bottle of rice wine with a real snake inside), high-platform jumping into the water, zip lining and trapeze swinging all to the soundtrack of the latest jams, laughing people and splashing water. It is truly bizarre to see this sort of haven in 
the midst of the untouched, rural Laos, but it was one of the best days I've experienced.
We floated down the river with our new friends Sevastian, Carolina and Aya and made our way to the highlight of the day: the massive waterslide. It was pretty hysterical bouncing back and forth across the river as workers on the docks would throw out a rope with some floatable object tied to the end and pull
you in. 3 out of the 4 of us absolutely loved the waterslide--Josie was pretty reluctant to go on it as we'd heard that there is usually one death a year as a result of improper sliding technique, but we somehow convinced her to get up there. As is want to happen, Josie took some advice from a 'seasoned rider' who told her to sit up straight and slow herself on the way down. Emily and I waited patiently for her to scoot her way down the track, filming her entrance into the water; we waited and waited and then slowly but surely we saw her feet, then her legs and, due to lack of momentum, she just kind of tipped off the edge in sort of a fetal position fall to the river below. Copious 
amounts of laughter ensued until she emerged sore and shaken from the drop at which point we felt pretty terrible and a bit guilty for making her go down--at the time it wasn't funny, but the 'epic fall' has sort of a cult following nowadays (kidding Josie!) Needless to say, Emily and I took our turn down the chute and, doing the exact opposite as Jos, got rocket-launched joyously into the middle of the river.
Of course, all of our lollygagging saw us floating and paddling as the sun was starting to gain speed towards the west and dark was starting to settle in; the basic rule of the river was to be off by dark. Us, being the savvyest of innertubers thought we could make it to the ending point; boy were we wrong. Pretty soon we were getting a bit panicked until lo and behold a flurry of milk cartons sniped there way within our grasp and we were pulled to shore by a local who was clearly an expert in the art of tourist tuber-fishing. He conveniently had a tuk tuk waiting and began to tie our tubes to the roof. Aware of our own stupidity, we were still wary of the situation and tried to reason with the driver that we would pay him the agreed upon (and inflated) fare once he brought us safely to the tube rental station. Granted we were in no real position to barter, we were also in the middle of an abandoned field in an increasingly blackening dusk and we didn't want to end up like one of those movies that seem to have a strikingly similar setting as the one we had found ourselves in.
The driver would not drive us unless we paid him up front (even after we showed him we had the money and offered for one of us to ride in the front with him until we got there) and we refused to pay him until we go there. Reaching a complete stalemate we untied our tubes from the top of the truck and stubbornly stomped away up the only road in sight--each of us crossing our fingers that it was leading us in the right direction. He has to come get us right guys? There's no way he would pass up the money, right? He'll totally cave... At least we hoped our rationalizations would come true as the 4 of us caveman-rolled our tubes over a seemingly deserted stretch of road. We finally spotted some semblance of life and were able to begin initial talks with a new driver when, as if by magic, our original river-marauder pulled up beside us and happily accepted our offer to pay him upon our arrival; funny how things somehow work out (if you want to call what happened working out!)
After getting our tube deposit back we went to meet our friends, but after a bit of waiting decided it was a much better sounding idea to get some street sammies and head to bed. It's tough work paddling all day! There was an enormous thunderstorm that night which work us up as thunder provided a booming bass to the lightning-strobe light night club our room had become. When the power finally came back and the fan was able to start blowing again, we were able to salvage a few more hours of sleep before check out and the long long bus journey back to BKK.
The storm made way for an extremely beautiful and clear morning with some fog around the mountains which was a perfect picture to store as a rememberance for the strange an
d exciting oasis that is Vang Vieng. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful with a long bus ride to the Lao border, a skip, hop and a jump acros the border into Thailand and an overnight journey back to home. We all looked at eachother when we got off the bus and, without speaking, knew we were all thinking the same thing: what did we just do for the last 2 weeks? how did we survive? and how incredible was the whole entire thing? Sleep came naturally as visions of everything from the Vietnam war, to overnight buses, to bordertowns, to border crossings, to water fights, to adventures and endless amounts of dust floated in and out of our dreams.
April 16-18 2010: Luang Prabang, Laos-->Vang Vieng, Laos-->Bangkok
We ate breakfast on the sun-warmed patio at our guesthouse and grabbed our bags to get on the mini-van to Vang Vieng after our amazing
experience in Luang Prabang. Our van was packed to the brim as is the typical nature in Asia, so we relished in the bit of extra space as away we went through the Laos countryside. This trip turned out to be a bit more bearable than rides past as the road between the two cities was actually paved! We were enjoying the endless stretches of tree-covered mountains and vibrant green rice 
paddies until we felt a huge THUMP and CRASH on our way up a mountain switchback. What could that possibly have been we were all wondering as we pulled over to the side of the road and were asked to get out of the car. It turned out that the spare tire holder had broken off and was dragging under the van with the spare tire in tow. I mean it really wouldn't be an Asian road trip without something like this happening. Seeing as there was nothing we could do until the driver reattached everything, there we stood amidst the Laotian mountains on the side of the road. Pretty soon there was a small gathering of
locals who stood staring shyly at this troupe of foreigners looking helpless next to our modern transportation. It was quite the juxtaposition as East met West in the most unlikely of circumstances; it's definitely humbling being the outsider in a situation like this and makes you really appreciate the necessity of being respectful of and not judging those you meet on your journeys. We finally pulled into the Vang Vieng 'bus station' where we gathered our gear and threw it into a tuk tuk bound for the center of the action. As it was still the New Year celebration, we were sitting ducks along the main street as locals and tourists alike chucked water balloons and doused us with buckets as we tried hastily to roll down the plastic curtains on
the otherwise open cab. A bit wet and weary from our day, we found a place to stay and quickly made our way to the nearest sandwich stall as we hadn't had a real baguette sandwich in eons. These stalls are everywhere and are a remnant of the French colonialism as local Lao chefs fry up whatever you want and slap it on a warm loaf of heaven. We ate as we walked and took in the 'sites' of the town which basically was comprised of tons of shops, pubs and restaurants with a largely backpacker/laidback/hippie vibe. It was definitely a place to kick back, put up your feet, digest your travels and eat, eat eat. That night we made our way to a local pub for some food and free buckets before hitting the sack in anticipation of the main attraction of Vang Vieng: innertubing down the river! The day I had been waiting for (probably for months since reading/researching VV) had finally arrived. We woke up, scarfed down another baguette and made our way to the tube rental
guys who drove us to the starting point of the famed Vang Vieng tubing circuit. This completely unique and unhibited stretch of river is renowned for its carefree attitude; it is literally like a playground for adults. The sides of the river and lined with restaurants and pubs one after another, each with its own special activity. Some of the highlights included tasting snake wine (literally a bottle of rice wine with a real snake inside), high-platform jumping into the water, zip lining and trapeze swinging all to the soundtrack of the latest jams, laughing people and splashing water. It is truly bizarre to see this sort of haven in 
the midst of the untouched, rural Laos, but it was one of the best days I've experienced. We floated down the river with our new friends Sevastian, Carolina and Aya and made our way to the highlight of the day: the massive waterslide. It was pretty hysterical bouncing back and forth across the river as workers on the docks would throw out a rope with some floatable object tied to the end and pull
you in. 3 out of the 4 of us absolutely loved the waterslide--Josie was pretty reluctant to go on it as we'd heard that there is usually one death a year as a result of improper sliding technique, but we somehow convinced her to get up there. As is want to happen, Josie took some advice from a 'seasoned rider' who told her to sit up straight and slow herself on the way down. Emily and I waited patiently for her to scoot her way down the track, filming her entrance into the water; we waited and waited and then slowly but surely we saw her feet, then her legs and, due to lack of momentum, she just kind of tipped off the edge in sort of a fetal position fall to the river below. Copious 
amounts of laughter ensued until she emerged sore and shaken from the drop at which point we felt pretty terrible and a bit guilty for making her go down--at the time it wasn't funny, but the 'epic fall' has sort of a cult following nowadays (kidding Josie!) Needless to say, Emily and I took our turn down the chute and, doing the exact opposite as Jos, got rocket-launched joyously into the middle of the river. Of course, all of our lollygagging saw us floating and paddling as the sun was starting to gain speed towards the west and dark was starting to settle in; the basic rule of the river was to be off by dark. Us, being the savvyest of innertubers thought we could make it to the ending point; boy were we wrong. Pretty soon we were getting a bit panicked until lo and behold a flurry of milk cartons sniped there way within our grasp and we were pulled to shore by a local who was clearly an expert in the art of tourist tuber-fishing. He conveniently had a tuk tuk waiting and began to tie our tubes to the roof. Aware of our own stupidity, we were still wary of the situation and tried to reason with the driver that we would pay him the agreed upon (and inflated) fare once he brought us safely to the tube rental station. Granted we were in no real position to barter, we were also in the middle of an abandoned field in an increasingly blackening dusk and we didn't want to end up like one of those movies that seem to have a strikingly similar setting as the one we had found ourselves in.
The driver would not drive us unless we paid him up front (even after we showed him we had the money and offered for one of us to ride in the front with him until we got there) and we refused to pay him until we go there. Reaching a complete stalemate we untied our tubes from the top of the truck and stubbornly stomped away up the only road in sight--each of us crossing our fingers that it was leading us in the right direction. He has to come get us right guys? There's no way he would pass up the money, right? He'll totally cave... At least we hoped our rationalizations would come true as the 4 of us caveman-rolled our tubes over a seemingly deserted stretch of road. We finally spotted some semblance of life and were able to begin initial talks with a new driver when, as if by magic, our original river-marauder pulled up beside us and happily accepted our offer to pay him upon our arrival; funny how things somehow work out (if you want to call what happened working out!)
After getting our tube deposit back we went to meet our friends, but after a bit of waiting decided it was a much better sounding idea to get some street sammies and head to bed. It's tough work paddling all day! There was an enormous thunderstorm that night which work us up as thunder provided a booming bass to the lightning-strobe light night club our room had become. When the power finally came back and the fan was able to start blowing again, we were able to salvage a few more hours of sleep before check out and the long long bus journey back to BKK.
The storm made way for an extremely beautiful and clear morning with some fog around the mountains which was a perfect picture to store as a rememberance for the strange an
d exciting oasis that is Vang Vieng. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful with a long bus ride to the Lao border, a skip, hop and a jump acros the border into Thailand and an overnight journey back to home. We all looked at eachother when we got off the bus and, without speaking, knew we were all thinking the same thing: what did we just do for the last 2 weeks? how did we survive? and how incredible was the whole entire thing? Sleep came naturally as visions of everything from the Vietnam war, to overnight buses, to bordertowns, to border crossings, to water fights, to adventures and endless amounts of dust floated in and out of our dreams.
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