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| laos |
| vang vieng |
| Seven hours through the mountains, south of Luang Prabang, lies the town of Vang Vieng, population 25,000. Lonely Planet calls it a "backpacker haven," I felt it was more like a "backpacker hell" and one day stuck here would have been more than enough for me. There are huge limestone cliffs that tower out of the fields surrounding the city and contain several large limestone caves. The Nam Song River cuts through town and is crossed by two tolled bamboo bridges. |
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| Vang Vieng street. |
| Limestone cliffs. |
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| Bamboo toll bridge. |
| The Nam Song River. |
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| The cliff-face containing Tham Sang (Elephant Cave). |
| Local transportation as common as the tuktuk in Thailand, called a pirogue, and is basically just a tractor engine with a horse cart. It can cross shallow rivers and streams in the dry season. |
| Tham Hoi Buddha. |
| Tham Sang Buddha. |
| I hired a little Laotian man for $1 per cave and he took me kilometres through three different caves. This was photographed about 4 km into Tham Hoi. He was wearing flip flops and our only light source was a tiny helmet lamp and one battery. We hadto climb through tiny fissures in the rock and over and through many different cave formations. |
| Tham Loub and the lagoon. This was entered through the water and continued for half a kilometre. I floated in on an innertube and followed the rope to the back. |
| I rented a bike and cycled 14 km each way to the caves, through tiny villages where it seemed like everyone and their dog (and goat and chicken and water buffalo and pig, etc.) came out to see the falang riding by. |
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| Some restaurants even offer joints to falang for free, hoping that the inevitable "munchies" will entice them to buy a lot of food. |
| Vang Vieng is overflowing with marijuana and as you can see by the menu above, it's available as a "special" added ingredient in many restaurants. Yes, "Happy and funny for you." |
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| The same restaurant with a classic spelling mistake. "Anyone for breastfast?" |
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| Doin' it Korean style in Laos. "Mister Phone Tour and Restaurant" and "Lucky Restaurant." |
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