Laos, Vientiane to Vang Vieng

We spent a quiet three nights in Vientiane. The city rests on a bend in the Mekong River and it is the capitol of Laos, although with a population of only 200,000 people, the city is small and near silent. There isn’t an abundance of cars/scooters/buses cluttering the roads and no horns constantly beeping. It’s very peaceful to walk the streets, lined with traditional wood houses, French colonial buildings, temples and concrete structures. There isn’t much to do in Vientiane other than relax and enjoy the peace and quiet. We took a bus to a village about 5 hours north, Vang Vieng.

We had read that travelers either love or loathe Vang Vieng and unfortunately we were on the side of the latter. The village is nice and it’s placement along the Nam Song river with small wooden crossing bridges is beautiful, it was the atmosphere which was the problem. The village is overrun by young backpackers who either want to sit in one of the many restaurants blaring “Friends” or “Family Guy” 24/7 or who are there to get drunk daily and tube down the river. Then they proceed to walk around town dressed inappropriately for any city in the world. It just wasn’t for us. We did rent bicycles one day and explored the nearby villages and visited some caves nearby. That was our main highlight in Vang Vieng and we quickly moved on.

We took a long and bumpy bus ride along winding roads 6 hours north to Luang Prabang. The scenery was beautiful but the ride was nauseating. Although we’ve only been here for one night, we absolutely love it. Luang Prabang is a beautiful city set along the Mekong River with tree-lined streets and French colonial architecture with beautiful limestone mountains as the backdrop. It is dotted with Buddhist wats and monks wandering the city, smiling locals and quaint shops. We are staying in the Old Quarter which will be a good base to see the various sites and close to the nightly Hmong market which sells traditional Lao handicrafts, jewelry and traditional medicines. There are an abundance of cafes along the Mekong River, so we’ll more than likely park at one for a while this morning and watch the city float by. Then in the coming days we’ll be taking a 1 or 2 day trek to the villages north of Luang Prabang.

More to come.