[editor's note: this is out of sequence because my previous message was lost
in a power outage after i spent about half an hour on it; i will write it
again some day]
The bus ride from Louang Prabang to Vang Vieng is sickening. Why? Because it
goes over the top of the mountains, for about 170 km or 5 hours. Very
beautiful mountains, but none the less it's reccomended that you take motion
sickness pills before hand. At least it's a real bus, and even a half decent
one if you're lucky. After the mountains it's another easy 40 km from Kasi
to Vang Vieng itself, the standard stop off between the two cities. It's
become a tourist town, but it's still a good place to stop.
It's famous for a few things. One is the, uh, special shakes and pizza which
I didn't try. Another is tubing down the Nam Song river, just relaxing.
Another is the many caves nearby. So that's what I did for two days--tubing
down the river (with two different gruops of people) stopping at different
caves along they way. The first cave you encounter is not far after the
standard starting point. You hike up the mountain about a quarter mile, then
go through the caves for about 2.5 km. Apparently it even goes through the
other side of the mountain, 3km later. Some of the caves are famous for
spectacular rock formations, but this one was, well, a cave. The fact that
most people had only candles makes it quite itneresting however.
The next day we stopped at the next cave. This one you swim into, or bring
your innertube. Then go through the mud for a bit, and squeeze through an
opening back out into the daylight, not all that far from where you started.
The trick of course is that you brougt your inner tube part way through the
cave and now need to swim back to grab it.
Then it's back to the river to float very slowly back to town.
Two nights ago they celebrated national day in vang vieng. Never mind that
the 2nd is national day, this is on Lao time. Or maybe travelling festival
time--there was a decent sized orchestra, dancers, singers, and, on another
stage just around the corner, a lao rock band. The dancing was often similar
to the dance shows you see in thailand, but no real effort appeared to be
made to make it look authentic. (Never mind that in thailand it's not usuall
authentic at all). In fact, they dance in ballet shoes, and a ballet number
was one of the most popular. I'm not sure where that came from--maybe the
French a long time ago, or maybe the Russians more recently. Whatever, they
troup was good. Only foreigners usually applaud, the locals are silent,
except for the few who bring up leis to place on the signers. Finally, this
was the festival I was waiting to see on the day itself.
A day or so later I headed down to Vientienne. A little closer, but
basically flat roads. Because the area is flat, it's much more populated
than the north. (In fact, there are lots of people going in and out of vang
vieng, using the normal tuk tuks on the left bank, but weird asian tractors
on the left bank--they can drive right across the river to get there, but
have a top sped of about 5-10 km/h.) Anyway, this was a brand new bus,
possibly given by the Japanese. Of course it was full when we left, and as
we made it down the road we picked up more people. By an hour into the trip,
the aisles were basically full. By two hours, the aisles were packed to the
point that we wouldn't pick up people with luggage. But just people, there's
always room for more.
So here I am in the capital. It's a real city, small one, but it has lots of
city things--decent internet connections, lots of people, higher prices,
etc. I'll probably stay here one more day then head south, away from the
crowds again.