#15 Vang Vieng (Laos / Laosz)

English version:

My journey continued and I took a 5 hours mini van ride southbound from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. The journey was incredible. The road went between pretty big jungle covered limestone mountains. I sat next to a Spanish dude, Paco who also lives in Reading with his girlfriend and we became big friends. Will see you in Reading, man!

I stayed in the Rock Backpackers in Vang Vieng which was a crazy party hostel with loads of teenagers who had only one goal: get shit-faced every day. It was funny to see these guys. They were up until 3 am and woke up with a grumpy face around 10 🙂

Vang Vieng is a charming little town by the Nam Sok river. The view at the river is absolutely incredible and the weather was very hot which I love. I met a new temporary travel buddy, who came with the same mini van and happened to stay in the the same hostel: Ana Karen from Mexico City. We joined forces and rented a scooter together to check out a non-operational waterfall (dry season 😦 ) and the awesome Tham Nam water cave.

The water cave was so cool, short but great experience. You jump on car tubes and pull yourself on ropes into the cave with a head torch. We had fun 🙂

Thanks Ana for being the navigator and the camerawoman that day and have a safe trip back home!

On my second day I mainly relaxed and went to see the sunset from the balcony of a riverside restaurant. Here I met Chriss, the guy from Berlin who sat at a table next to mine and there was a huge spider above his table. I showed him and he suddenly joined my table and we got a few Beerlaos together until we called it a day, and went to our caves to sleep.

“SO FAR” FACTS – ENGLISH VERSION:

# of travel buddies: 9
# of travel buddies murdered: 0
best meal: Thai cashew chicken curry
best dessert: coconut rice
worst meal: some brown soup with cooked pork, blaaaaaa
# of flights: 1
# of trains: 5
# of taxies: 10
# of buses: 7
# of shared taxies: 3
# of motor-taxies: 2
# boats: 1
# of waterfalls: 6
# of snakes: 0
# of big spiders: 7
# polar bears: 0
# yetis: 0
# of dives: 0
# of sharks: 0
# of manta rays: 0
# of whale sharks: 0
# of dolphins: 0

Magyar verzio:

Utazasom egy 5 oras mikrobusz uttal folytatodott Luang Prabangbol del fele, Vang Viengbe. Az ut gyonyoru volt, ahogy dzsungel boritotta magas hegyek kozott tekergozott. Egy spanyol arc – Paco – mellett ultem, aki szinten Readingben el baratnojevel. Nagy haverok lettunk, szoval Readingben tutira osszefutunk majd.

A Rock Backpackers nevu hosztelban szalltam meg, ami egy orult party hosztel volt rengeteg folyamatosan pialni akaro teenagerrel. Vicces volt latni, ahogy hajnali 3kor meg fent voltak, aztan 10kor oriasi durcaval a szemuket takargatva keltek fel 🙂

Vang Vieng maga egy kellemes atmoszferaju kisvaros a Nam Sok folyo partjan. A panorama csodalatos es az ido nagyon meleg volt, amit imadtam. Megismertem egy uj atmeneti utitarsat, aki ugyanazzal a busszal utazott es veletlen epp ugyanabban a hosztelben szallt meg: Ana Karen Mexico Citybol. Egyesitettuk eroinket es robogot bereltunk, majd ellatogattunk egy kiszaradt vizeseshez (szaraz evszak 😦 ) es a nagykiraly Tham Nam vizibarlanghoz.

A vizibarlang nagyon zsir volt, rovid de nagyszeru elmeny. Felulsz egy felfujt autogumi belsore es elkezded egy kotelen behuzni magad a sotet barlangba egy fejlampaval felszerelkezve. Tuti volt 🙂

Koszi Ananak, a navigacioert es a kepekert es jo utat neki hazafele.

A masodik napomat semmittevessel toltottem majd elmentem megnezni a naplementet egy folyoparti etterem teraszarol. Itt ismertem meg Chriss-t a berlini arcot, aki a mellettem levo asztalnal ult. Egeszen addig, amig fel nem hivtam a figyelmet az asztala felett poffeszkedo rekord meretu pokra. Rogton atult hozzam es elkezdtunk sorozni. Jo par Beerlao lecsuszott, amig visszahuzodtunk barlangjainkba.