Vang Vien - home away from home

We're three days into our stay in Vang Vien and I think we'll stay for another week. We are flying from Vientiane to Hanoi (Vietnam) on May 27 and we've got the time to spend chilling out in this little haven. To some, Vang Vien is boring and not very attractive. Other people come for a day and stay a month. We're in that category. Vang Vien is just like a country town but is buzzing with backpackers. Not in a bad touristy way - but in a casual, colourful, youthful way. The roads are dirt, every shopfront is a cafe or bar, and if the pace were any more relaxed time would be going backwards. The cafes and bars are mainly a room of coffee tables and cushions where everyone sits about, chatting, watching movies, eating and drinking. There's always a new wave of backpackers coming through to get to know or challenge in the nightly pool competition. And the river the town straddles provides fun day trips. We fell in love with this place as soon as we arrived. And it's only costing us $3 a night for a double room!

First arriving in Vang Vien all suited up

Not an unusual sight for the main street

Just behind the main street lies the river

Kids here don't need technology for entertainment!

Yesterday we went tube riding. Seemed the whole town was doing it and now we can see why. A group of six of us hired big tractor innertubes and got dropped at the tubing start point about 8km out of town. You get left to slowly make your way down the river on the four hour journey back to town. In most spots the tubes cruise slowly but every now and then a rapid keeps things interesting. Louise (an English girl we met) and I were fortunate enough to have about five Laos children join us on our tubes for the first hour of the journey. We were not sure what was going on, they just jumped on our tubes and never got off! We were in hysterical laughter as these children persisted to paddle for us, guide us through rapids and so on. We couldn't understand a word they were saying but for some reason they selected us. We saw at least another 60 people on tubes that day and none had been joined by children!

Our river companions

"Life's tough!"

All along the river are makeshift bars - like bamboo platforms with people selling beer and food. At the third bar along we found about 20 other tubers who we hung out with for about an hour before continuing our journey. At the bars there are swing ropes and flying foxes into the river. The scenery along the journey is amazing as the river is backed by limestone cliffs. Such a great day. I think we'll make the tube journey again in a couple of days.
Other than that we've just been relaxing in Vang Vien and will continue to do so for a while. We've heard Vietnam can be quite hectic, so we're enjoying having lazy days before our trip picks up pace again. We met a couple the other night - the girl was from Adelaide and her boyfriend was Hungarian. He was so excited to meet Bol because he hadn't had anyone to speak Hungarian to for a couple of months. Listening to them talk all night gave me an idea of what it will be like in Budapest. I better start practising my Hungarian!!