Vang Vieng

Eventually we got to vang vieng, and a bunch of us piled into the 6+person tuktuk to get dropped off. I had booked the night in advance at a guesthouse called nana's, and hendric joined me there. We checked into our 5 person room, each with a single bed (no bunks!) And paid our $3 a night fee. We then decided to head out and explore the city, or at least what's left of it. Vang vieng, to anyone who's been there prior to ~3 months ago, was a party haven, filled with drunk people tubing down the river, pulling themselves into bars for mushie shakes, buckets of alcohol, and stupid fun. Unfortunately, heaps of idiots (usually australians) would kill themselves every year, doing backflips into shallow rocks and whatnot, so a bit ago a ban was placed, and all the bars along the river were shutdown. The quality of vang vieng wasn't known to us because of this, but we reckoned it was still worth checking out.

It was early evening and we wandered around unsuccessfully, looking for crowds of people. Eventually we stopped a canadian couple on the road and they sort of gave us the run down of the town, like where to go, and what could be fun to see. We decided to rent a motorbike. Hendric said he drives one at home, so I felt safe and we got one for 24 hours, for less than $10 all together. The dude wanted a passport as collateral, but I somehow convinced him to accept my 18+ card instead (which is mental, since it's worth nothing, contains basically zero information, and is completely unnecessary for my wellbeing, now that I've left new zealand. The bike was ghetto, and manual (which meant I was not going to try to ride it). Immediately I realised it wasn't going to be the safest of evenings nor choices, but we carried on. I grabbed my gopro and we took the rocky, muddy, dangerous as road to get to blue lagoon, where there were to be epic caves.
Part of the way there we saw a small blue puddle on the side of the road and cheered wildly. BLUE LAGOON! Jokes, obviously, but after having to push the bike through a massive puddle, and nearly die heaps of times, the puddle was thrilling enough.

A wee bit later we saw what we were actually waiting for-- the blue lagoon. It was approaching night time, so going for a swim in our not-swim-attire clothing wasn't much an option, so we continued onto the massive cave. Torches in hand we trekked up a makeshift rock staircase, ascending as vertically as the waterfall before. When we finally reached the top, cave. It was crazy, deep, and apparently went on for ages. We went through the main front bit, not horribly pitch black, but still quite scary and slippery. The rock formations were amazing, and leftover laobeers hilarious. There was a buddha setup inside for prayer. After having a mini gopro confessional period, joking about my inability to function whilst trekking, we followed the last bits of sunlight to the exit, and remounted the bike for our ride home. Similarly scary, much darker, and a failed river crossing ride later, home. Showered changed, and down to meet people for drinks and dinner.

A crew had already formed at the base of our hostel with denise from singapore (who interchangeably went by dennis or singaporn, or simply porn), adriane from arizona, guido and herman from holland, julian from amsterdam, and zoe and joe, the british couple. We opted for street food sandwiches to save the trouble of ordering food, and I got a delicious omelette/cheese/beef burger, which she initially presented to me as ham cheese and chicken. How that mistake happened, I have no idea. We made moves to an irish bar where on behalf of herman's birthday, drinks were being bought and shared like crazy. The british couple and I bought rounds of 3 for 30k vodka redbulls (dangerous), everyone gave in to some tequila shots, and some guy who knew the owner wouldn't stop giving me whisky cokes. It was a messy night that ended up taking us to the moon bar, at the early closing of the irish bar. The moon bar/club is across the air strip where planes used to land, and is the scene for late night activity. All was fun until heading back to find the room locked. Herman and I struggled for ages to get reception to give us the kay (there was only one key for the room that everyone was supposed to share), and eventually got in.

The next morning I was up and moving, walking outside into a wall of rain. Shit. I sat down for some breakfast, chatting to two german girls who had been going for monthas as their pre uni gap year, and contemplated how to manage the undesirably wet day. The lot of us decided to wait for the weather to better before going tubing. At 1, it was all good and we got into ridiculous uniform (yellow tubing singlet and pink tubing shorts) before heading to rent our tubes. We were a group of 7, and tied all the tubes together with shoelaces and backpack strings, forming a massive molecular looking clump before heading in. The water was refreshing, and we all had beers in our backpacks, ready to adventure. The three or so hours we spent tubing were obnoxiously relaxing, aside from the wee trip we decided to take to a little cave. We saw the sign, as well as the only other group of people who seemed to be tubing that day, and pulled over, bringng our massive raft ashore. Twas a short walk first to then pay an entrance fee and get a headlamp. Then it was straight uphill, on shotty wooden 'ladders' and hard to manage rocks, all filled with ants and strange flying massive bugs. Mosquito bites were going around like it was a new fad, and with the majority of us barefoot, no one was happy. Not too far from the top, a few of us said fuck it and went back. We chilled in the river waiting for the rest to come down and assure us that we hadn't missed much. The rest of the float was easy, only twice detatching from rock obstacles, but getting back together easily. Tubes were flipped, and standing people fell, but no injuries by the end.

Post tube we all got sandwiches and then I went back for a now drunk shower and nap. As the day turned to night a few of us went to some restaurant showing soccer for dinner, a disappointment for me as most of the other establishments showed family guy or friends all day lkong. The set ups were like massive couchy benches surrounding wooden tables, where you'd sit shoeless, watching american television. I got an asian noodle soup dish, and finally rehydrated my body with heaps of water.

I took the night lightly, with little desire to keep drinking nor to be hungover on the hell bus ride of the next day, only having a few at the irish bar and then pkaying some beer pong. We met two canadian guys dressed as an octopus and a tiger (don't ask me why) who were in the process of opening a bar in vang vieng, which was fitting with their viva veng vieng tattoos.

The night ended early, and I finally had a good sleep before waking up for breakfast, packing, internet, hanging around, goodbyes, and a bus ride to the 4000 islands.

Other things:

Whitening soap: so, soap sometimes says whitening on it, as if it was supposed to be toothpaste or something, but I asked people what it meant, and apparently asian people find paler whiter skin to be more attractive and ideal, so the soap whitens.... which means there's bleach or something in it? normal.

Right side of the road: in laos they drive on the right side of the road! it's weird to see again. I keep going to the wrong side of the car.

Curfew: A lot of laos has a curfew since the towns started as monk villages, and the aforementioned morning wakeups would require an early bedtime.

Prices don't make sense... Ice cream bar was $0.50 less than my accomodation