Charlotte's Web: Chaos in Laos

Before you start worrying, there was no "chaos" in Laos, I just thought it was a catchy title so sorry if anyone got nervous for a second. Anyways, I have safely returned from a long weekend trip to Vang Vieng, Laos. Friday evening eight American girls and myself took a 8 o'clock bus to Udon Thani, a small city near the border of Laos where we arrived around 7:30am Saturday morning and paid for our Laos visas. We then took a tuk tuk (see picture below) to the border and from the border took a bus to our final destination of Vang Vieng. We arrived there around dinnertime Saturday and checked into our hostel, Pan's Place, before heading out to grab some dinner.

Sunday morning we had a delicious breakfast at the hostel before heading out for a day of activities. We had booked a full day of outings with a tour company for only $13 each the night before. We got picked up around 9am and were driven outside of the small city about a half an hour before reaching a small cave on land that we explored before heading to a long cave in the water where we sat in tubes and pulled ourselves through the cave by a rope. It was pretty dark in the cave but the headlamps we were given allowed us to see the beautiful insides of the cave. Our Lao guide was whistling and singing in some parts of the cave, and the acoustics of the cave sounded beautiful as we floated along.

After we exited the cave we had a delicious barbecue lunch of shish kabobs and baguettes. Baguettes are pretty popular in Laos, I probably had one served with each meal. Vang Vieng is very touristy so the restaurants definitely cater to a foreign audience. After lunch we took a short walk to the Nam Song River where we kayaked 10k in sit-on-top kayaks. These aren't my favorite type of kayaks, but it was nice to float down the river and splash each other. Along the river we passed kids with masks on that we fishing using homemade spears.

Later that night after a long day in the sun we enjoyed a big dinner at a restaurant in the city. There are around ten restaurants that play the TV show Friends continuously on big screens. We ended up staying there for a few hours enjoying a familiar TV show and eating a lot of cheap and tasty food.

Monday morning we woke early and rode out to the Blue Lagoon, a popular swimming spot that has gorgeous aqua waters filled with tiny fish and great rope swings and trees to jump out of. There was also a humongous cave called the Tham Phu Kham Cave which the pictures don't give any justice for the size of the inside of the cave. We spent most of the day swimming and enjoying the area before heading back into town. We left Tuesday morning and spent a full 22 hours traveling back to Chiang Mai. Although there was a lot of travel time involved, it was definitely worth it for a great weekend in a beautiful spot with lots of activities to do.