Vang Vieng
21 months and 8 days had passed since my last visit to Vang Vieng. That time i got stuck for more than a week. I promised myself and my company not to let that happen again. We got ourselves into the tube the next day. Vang Vieng have always been famous for it's tubing culture, but back in the days it ended up beeing a crazy which in the end got all bars burned down. During my last visit, the tubing had just been reopened, it was very restricted and yet they only had one bar along the river. Since then, it apparently been growing a lot which brought us to today. I was well exited to experience the difference. The first bar was before we even got into the river. It took us a couple of hours and rounds of flipcup and shotgun before we found our way in the tubs to the next bar. Less than a few minutes away. Outside every bar the local boys threw out lines to catch us and drag us in. I can't possibly explain how much fun we had pubcrawling dawn the river, chatting away to other travellers, playing games, dancing and laughing. And trying to play volleyball on a gameplan made of mud which made it highly impossible to stand up without slipping, drenching yourself in mud. Unbeatable. As it's too easy getting stuck at the bars we left the last one way too late to make it all the way back in time. Toghether with about ten others we soon realized that the darkness was falling surrounding our little group in the middle of the river which brought us to the decision of making our way up to the mainland, where we could get a tuktuk back to town. A well made decision. When showered all the mud off us and after a good well needed meal, we headed for the bars to meet up with the river people. Haunting the free drinks at the Irish bar, Sakura and bad monkey we found ourselves at 'viva', the only club open after midnight. And which did not exist the last time I was here. That time the only acceptable nightly route would be 'LaLa land' to 'the moon'. A lot seemed to have changed since.
After a long, intense day and well needed sleep in the next morning we was about to check out the blue lagoon. As a tuktuk had the same pricing as hiring two motorbikes for the day we decided to go with the last alternative. This ended up being a bad decision. American Devon from yesterday's tubing adventure ended up joining us. Thank got for that. The roads was extremely bad, even if not compared to our el nido mission. But this time we reached a spot where the roads where filled with water and a tiny bridge had been built on the right hand side to prevent motorbikes from drowning. This tiny wooden bridge can't have been more than two foot wide. I was beyond scared, as I know my balance is not trustworthy. Devon drove over smoothly with Alice on his back as if he's been doing nothing else his whole life. Louise jumped off my back and watched me driving right into the ditch on our right hand side. Being to worried of driving into the water which would have caused major consequences, I kept to much to the right and drove way too slowly too kep my balance. Luckily it got stuck in the bushes with only a few scratches, which they did not noticed as we turned it back later that day. I struggled to get it out as a lovely local guy came to my rescue. I drove the last bit with a heartbeat higher than the eiffeltower but to my relief I could finally feel my wheels reaching the safely ground on the other side. Louise came running after and we continued. It has to be said that Devon drove both of our vehicles over this part during our way back later that day.
The blue lagun was as magical as i remembered it and we went straight into the cold, but crystal clear, blue water. We jumped from the tree, or at least I did! which after my 15 meter session in Borocay felt like something a three year old could do and did not really live up to my satisfaction. It's still fun! We headed back and spend the evening watching friends.
The tubing got us hooked and after I good nights rest we were ready for a second round. Always when you've had an amazing experience and trying to find the exact same again, you might find yourselves in disappointment. Even if the first time most likely will be new and exiting in a different way than the second time will, I have a hard time believe that tubing can live to disappoint. Saying that we had an amazing second experience too!
Luang Prabang
I remember the road between Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang being unacceptably bad with ridiculously fast turnes and bumpy roads up and down the montains. I remember being well happy not having to deal with it on a hangover last time I travelled it. And still that ended up being the way we dealed with it this time. Thinking back at last time thought, 21 months ago, I also remember being a bit sick which obviously made the situation and my recognation worse. After all, it was actually not that bad. I also remembered that the main reason that I had the best time in Luang Prababang during my last stay there was mainly because of the hostel I was staying at, and the people who was staying there with me. As we got into the city that evening I did not hesitate taking us back to 'chilli Lao'. Of course, I did not expect the same people being there waiting for me yto come back even if that would've been fantastic. It might also have of the fact that I was already in such great company we didn't feel the need to socialize in the same way as I did back in the days.
After a 12 hour sleep that night we got up to go to the most magnificent waterfall. There're nothing and no waterfalls we've seen during our travels in comparison to this one. 7 levels of amazingly turquois water surrounded by the gorgeous jungle. The scenery is indescribable! I was amazed. Even if I've been here before. The bottom levels feels like a couple of lagoons and we got more and more amazed as we got higher and closer to the point where the water falls out of the 20 meter high cliff.
That night we went to the bar Utopia, hidden in a valley crossing between houses. As they closed by midnight we met a group of Brittish, Canadians who we joined to the bowlingalley. The only place where you can get a drink after 12pm. Louise and I played in pairs. We lost. Alice on the other hand did surprisingly well and scored strike after strike which put her second in lead after one of the unbeatable Canadians.
We took another massive sleepin before heading to the pool, for a relaxing day. We met the Brittish guys again and a couple of Irish guys at the pool bar. Unfortunately, the sun decided to hide away the only day I planned to work on my tan. That said, we ended up hanging out in the water and at the bar instead of in the sunchairs. Before going home we ended our pool session with a bit of water fighting, when you're on eachothers shoulders. We decided to meet up again at Utopia that night and after we've had dinner, and a stroll around the marked we headed there. I got into a intresting conversation with one of them, as he works as a professional pianist back home. Talking about piano playing made me miss it quite a lot. We got company by British Charley and an Australian guy who we ended up joining when the Irish guys headed for the bowlingalley. We didn't feel heading there again as we got an early bus in the morning. Charley stayed at the same hostel as us so we brought our friends back there, bought some beers and chatted away.
Vang Vieng
Hanoi? Chang Mai? South Laos? No destination really suited all of us as Louise had to be in Hanoi within a few days and Alice and I had a flight from Bangkok. We simply made it easy for us and went back to Vang Vieng. In the end, we all loved it there and it seemed like a good place to spend our last couple of days together before separation.
We hit the tube again the next day and got fairly surprised when the first bar was closed. How could it be? As we got into the water we realized that there was another bar instead. As we got there we got described to us that they're doing different routes each other day. So if you want or experience all the bars you'll have to go twice in a row or leave two days in between. At the second bar they had a horizontal boxing pole over a hold of muddy water. I couldn't help myself from getting up there. The hardest part was to get into the middle from the end. A challenged another girl and she got the first shot. In the end we kind of draged eachother down and everyone was unsure who actually won. Looking back at Alice's phone I'm pretty sure I'm in the water like half a second before she was.
Our mission for the day was to make it all the way back in time. At least all the way back, or in time. The current was on our side but made us loose Louise as she was getting up on the mainland with this bunch of people we just met on the river. Alice and I who was in front quickly decided to continue to the end, which was not far. We made it to the end, not in time. We were probably about half an hour late. Louise missed it by about 5 minutes. We met her back in our room where we had showers before heading out for dinner and drinks. One free drink at the Irish bar brought us to Sekura where we ran into Charlie who just made his way from Luang Prabang. Together with a Dutchman and a Brit we got to 'fat monkey' where we spent hours with shotgun and beer pong.
We woke up with the worst hangover, having no major plans for the day. Our last day. Alice was feeling a bit sick (not from the alcohol) and we decided to take if easy, recovering with episodes of Friends. As it was our last night we went back out on our regular nightly route that brought us to Viva at midnight.
We hung out with 3 Swedish guys (2brothers and a friend), who was in our room in Luang Prabang, on our bus to Vang Vieng and now stay'd in the same guesthouse. We also met Charlie at fat monkey who joined us for the rest of the night. Alice still didn't feel too good and headed home early.
Goodbye
Our time together had come to an end. Louise was catching a nightbus to Hanoi as Alice and I was on the nightbus to Bangkok. We asked to be on the same bus to Vientiane as we had to change bus there anyway. We spend the whole way talking about our trip, discussing our favourite parts, best nights, how we feel about travelling together, travelling at all and whatnot. I can honestly say that I could never wish for better company than this two. No matter what situation we'd be in, they'd always find a reason to laugh. Of all the people I've met travelling I have not met a single pair who, after living so close together still get along as well as I found Alice and Louise. And It was with tears in our eyes we hugged eachother goodbye at Vientiane busstation, wishing her all the best in Vietnamn. All by herself!
The nightbus to Thailand was one of the most impressive ones I have ever seen. Specially due to the fact that we still are in Asia. We got well excited seeing the tv-screen stuck to every single chair, that also got a footrest and that you could fell down into a lying chair. Are excitement died out as we realized all the movies was in Thai, and ended up whatching one on my iPad instead.
The bus promised to take us to Khaosan road, but as everywhere in Asia you can never trust these agency's. So from the north bus station we simply catched a cab, that we shared with a Canadian girl at 5am. Alice and I checked into a guesthouse where I stayed my last time at Khaosan, and went back to sleep for a few hours. After spending the whole day shopping at the massive shopping center MBK, we headed for a night on Khao San Road. We met up with Jamie for a little while, the amarican guy we met in Borocay and got his ear punched in el nido. He headed to Vietnam the next day, and Alice and i met up with Courtney for dinner (another Borocayfriend). As Alice had to leave for the airport at 3.30 am she headed home for a couple of hours sleep while Courtney and I stayed out and about. I got back in time to say goodbye to my dear sister and get her safely into a cab to the airport. Our 6 week long reunion had come to an end and it was time to dace the real working life again. For her in Sweden and for me in Australia. I was sad leaving her, but also so grateful for this time we've had together. We've done everything perfectly and I couldn't ask for anything better than for us to meet up like this.
