Motorbikes, planes and horses

After a flight to Luang Prabang and a night there, we travelled by bus, on the worst road I have ever been on, to Vang Vieng.

We are now in Laos for nine days, hitting two of the most popular tourist spots. Compared to Vietnam, it’s incredibly quiet here with very few tourists. It is technically low season (although it was in Vietnam also, but that was still busy).

It’s also not as developed, meaning the journey between cities was pretty horrible. There was no road surface for most of it, and when there is, it’s full of potholes.

However, we made it to Vang Vieng, where the city itself isn’t massively entertaining, but the surrounding countryside is. For our first day, we first headed up to the Nam Xay viewpoint. The path up here was very treacherous, clearly not made for when it rains. It was also very humid, so I was sweating buckets as I made the short but steep climb to the top.

There’s an extra incentive for climbing to the viewpoints in the area. Each one has some sort of monument on the top, this one having two motorbikes that you could sit on. Of course, Dylan had a go.

After cooling down and retracing our steps, we headed to the Pha Honekham viewpoint. This climb wasn’t as muddy as the previous one, so it was a lot easier. This viewpoint was in fact two viewpoints, one with a horse on top and the other with a plane.

After heading down and feeling completely dehydrated, we headed back to freshen up and chill for the rest of the afternoon. That evening, I found a lovely Irish bar with home comfort foods. The Laos cuisine isn’t the best, so I enjoyed a very tasty cottage pie.

The next day was an early start as we went paramotoring (well Dylan didn’t as he wasn’t allowed). This involved sitting in a chair with a motor on the back and flying with a parachute. Incredible fun!

That afternoon, we got back on a scooter and navigated the tricky roads to two blue lagoons. There’s various lagoons in the area where you can just go and hang out. One of them also had a cave attached to it.

After a bit of a drive around, we headed to the Tham Chang cave.

Another evening was spent in the Irish bar, this time I had a delicious burger.

The next day we headed to another viewpoint, Silver Cliff. Again, this one had a motorbike on top.

The heavens opened shortly after we descended this viewpoint, so we decided to head back and call it a day. Another meal in the Irish bar, a ROAST DINNER. It was very exciting and delicious. 

Tomorrow, we head back to Luang Prabang to properly explore.