Cynthia and I are on our last day in Vang Vieng, Laos. It has definitely been a change of gears from both Myanmar and Cambodia. I think we put it into first. Our introduction to Laos was Vientiane, the capitol city of Laos. It sits on the Mekong River, which I swear gets around like no other river on the planet. It seems to pop up everywhere! We really liked Vientiane, mainly because of the easy layout and the fact that it is so CALM. A lot of the time one could literally walk down the middle of the street in the main tourist section and not to have to be concerned about being hit by a car. No high rises, an easy street layout, some good but very informal restaurants, all made for an easy time there. One downside, it was HOT. As hot as I have experienced in a long time. We would go back to the room in the afternoon and spend a couple of hours in the air con room. Without that it just would have been too exhausting.
There wasn't a lot to do in Vientiane. There are Wats, but Cynthia and I have seen the mother of all pagodas on this trip and we are a bit "Wated Out". So we rented a motor bike and hit the road to see the outlying sights. We went to Buddha Park which is actually cooler than it sounds. Oh yes, on the way out of town we went by the American Embassy. Fucking HUGE. What is that about (I hate to guess!)? Xieng Khuan, or Buddha Park, is this sculpture park envisioned and created by one man. Yes there are images of Buddha, but definitely not like we had seen before. Cynthia and I immediately thought of outsider art. It was built in 1958 and all the sculptures are of concrete. Some are huge, some grotesque, some just simply bizarre. When Cynthia is able to post some pictures on this blog be sure and check the ones out from the park.
We passed three easy days in the city, cruising the streets, hitting the night market, riding the bike, and shopping. At least looking, as the serious consumer days seem to have passed us both by. Sunday morning we got on a bus for the trip to Vang Vieng. We started slow, I kept waiting for the Guatemalan Chicken Bus attitude. NO ONE PASSES ME. I PASS EVERYONE. I swear the entire ride we never made it over 40 MPH. Easy does it. Oh lets stop here for a while to get some snacks. Cracked me up! I'm sure they have a lot fewer road deaths here than most other countries. Of course it also has to do with the reality of the condition of the roads. ROUGH!
Vang Vieng, which sits on the Nam Song River, used to be party central. As in raves and drugs. All kinds. It used to be a lot of other things as well. On the outskirts of the small town is this long area of crumbling pavement. LONG. Immediately you wonder what the hell is this? Well it was an air strip built by the CIA during, or even before, the Vietnam War. It was used by Air America (google it) to do all kinds of shit. As a matter of fact I have a good high school friend who was a pilot in the Air Force during the Vietnam war. I knew he had operated out of Laos (again, it was a secret part of the war). So I wrote him and asked if he had ever flown out of Lima Site 27, the code name for this airport. He wrote back and said he was based at another Lima site but he had flown in and out of here several times. Yikes. Kind of brings it all home!!
We have rented motor bikes two of the days here. First day we took this spine jarring ride through the back country. Loved it but the road was a bitch. We passed through several Hmong villages (very poor), saw some beautiful scenery, and went caving. Once, though there are a ton of caves here. We saw the largest spider I have ever seen, and we have some big ones in Guatemala. Also a big ass snake, and some beautiful scenery. This morning we went kayaking. It was the 1/2 day version. Well we left the town at 9 and were back by 10:30. Cyn and I were saying WTF? Does the all day version give one 2 hours on the river? Still enjoyed it but we had most of the day left. So I rented a bike again and went off solo. Had a great day. No traffic, seriously back roads, small villages, and a pathetic waterfall (it's the dry season). So glad to be back in touch with two wheels.
Tomorrow Cyn and I leave for Luang Prabang, the culmination of our trip. It gets great reviews. We'll find out in the next blog. Know that Cynthia and I are happy, healthy, still learning, and very laid back. As always, thanks so much for reading the blog!!! P.S. We just had a great dinner. Family place. Kids and cats running all over. $12 for the two of us including two large Lao Beers. We have spent more than this but it says what is possible.
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