Crazy Laotian Roads and Wandering Vang Vieng

To start the day off, Alex, Matt, Frankie, and Lauren joined us in our “VIP minibus” for the journey to Vang Vieng, home of the infamous river tubing. Our VIP minibus was nothing more than a minivan, but it was much better than the buses in Laos! The roads through the mountains in this part of the world are absolutely maddening, with hairpin turns and sheer cliffs disappearing down the far side of the road. Although terrifying at times, we couldn’t have had better travel buddies: we were highly entertained the whole way and the six hour ride didn’t seem nearly that long.

We arrived all in one piece in Vang Vieng and found a place to stay right on the Namsong River. We decided that we all needed to check out the town and figure out our tubing plans for tomorrow, so we started to wander the small town. Definitely not as picturesque a town as Luang Prabang, but the setting is even better: the cliffs are closer and taller and make the perfect backdrop for the sleepy town known to all backpackers as the place to go in Laos.

After walking around for a few hours, we went back to our bungalows to clean up before going out for dinner. I wasn’t feeling well (probably a combination of the minibus and the terrible food we had for lunch), so I stayed in but Justin went out with everyone else. They watched the first World Cup game and had a few beers before calling it an early night to prepare for the tubing adventures of tomorrow!