I'll be there for youuuuuuu

After eating a baguette with nutella and banana (our favorite breakfast in Luang Prabang) we headed towards the bus station to get our VIP bus to Vang Vieng. This "VIP" thing is very common here as in Thailand: horrible and overcrowded buses decorated with impossible colors and with a huge VIP sign in the front. More or less the same old and crappy vehicles as the local buses, only more expensive and packed with tourists.

Our wonderful VIP bus wouldn't be an exception. After a few minutes on the road a high pitched sound brought on us the scary idea of a flat tire. The driver went to check, and without giving us any information decided to keep driving, although we went from the usual 40 km/h (roads are terrible in Laos) to about 15 km/h. Some passengers started to shout and request explanations, or at least to be able to check by themselves. Report? The tires were ok, but the suspension was broken. Were we really going to drive the 180xxx km left at 15km/h?

After a few more kilometers the driver stopped at a service station along the way. It actually looked just like someone's house, but at least he knew how to fix our bus. We waited outside with the other passengers  making conversation and avoiding the sun. It took about one hour to resume our journey. Less than twenty km in two hours...at this pace it will be a veeeeery long ride.

Pimping my ride?

One of the main roads of Laos: winding and barely paved

Fortunately the rest of the trip went rather smoothly and we really enjoyed the spectacular views and the curious scenes of rural life taking place around us. The bus made a lunch break at 4:30pm (the lunch was included in the ticket price) but the buffet didn't look exactly inviting. So glad to have bought a lot of snacks for the trip.

At 6.30pm we eventually arrived at our destination, a couple of hours later than what we expected and already well after dark. I decided that we could walk from the bus station instead of taking a taxi, just following our map and instinct. After almost a kilometer along a dark road, the gps-backed google map revealed that we had been walking in the wrong direction and were now almost 4km away from the town's center...quite a walk at night with our backpack on. Fortunately K was able to stop a truck and convince them to give us a to the center.

It was hard to get here but worth it

Vang Vieng is rather famous for being a touristy place oriented mostly to younger party-goers. Every restaurant here has a tv constantly (I mean day and night) showing episodes of famous American tv shows like "Friends", "South park" and "Family guy" with each place specialized in a specific show. All menus offer hamburgers, banana pancakes, spaghetti and all types of western food. You can play pool, get drunk and listen to famous pop-rock songs at many bars, and then go 'tubing' the next day to relax. It's some kind of college student heaven, it's totally made up and not authentic at all... and yet I liked it.

Feels like home

The surrounding area is nice and can be explored by bike or on foot (as we did), with plenty of caves and a tranquil river where you can lazily float on with just a rubber tire, the so called 'tubing', or burn some calories renting a kayak. We got a nice little bungalow with a hammock, where we could relax and escape the heat after a good hike. 

The third one from the left is ours

That was our lunch!

We had hamburger for dinner, after too many days of fried rice, while enjoying a couple of old Friend's episodes. We even spent a nice evening with the Swiss couple we had met a few times before and an American couple that they had met the previous days. It was nice to catch up with the Swiss guys and get to know new friends. A fun night.

Meet our company

After a quiet and lazy day, I started to understand why so many people end up here, in this surrogate of an American college party. It's great to get to know new places, different cultures and exotic food, but after a while one starts missing home and the comfort of the things he's familiar with. This is what Vang Vieng has to offer. The same old things you do at home, in the middle of a South East Asia travel. Although I'd still like to know who started all this, especially the non-stop Friends episodes on TV.

One day of this life was enough for us, and the following morning we hopped into a mini van headed towards Vientiane, the capital of Laos.