Finding accommodation is never a real problem. The moment you arrive 20 different TukTuk driver are waiting for you and try to drag you to the guest house they get commission from. To advertise they show you nice fotos of the rooms with a very low price. The moment you show up there, they show you first the room for the price they told you.... usually a really crappy one and if you try to leave disgustedly, they will show you another much nice but bit more expensive room. Then the bargaining starts.... At first they will tell you“cannot“, after that you need to leave to check other guest houses, if they for any reason decided that the „can“, they will stop you and offer a better price. More bargaining then usually does not succeed. So either take it of leave it.
Not so this time, Too many people tried to get a room, so no opportunity for bargaining. The room was clean and the bathroom was creepy but we anyway took it as it was just for two nights.
We decided to stay only 2 nights in Luang Prabang as we wanted to meet Manuel (Fabians brother) in Vang Vieng for his birthday on the 9th. Luang Prabang is a nice quite small charming city with nice bars, cafes and restaurant. You can still see sometimes an architecual influence from the French (Laos was formaly occupied by the French).
On the 8th we decided to'visit the waterfalls. Actually I didn t expect it to be something special but... what else to to. According to our guest house a motorbike is 20!!!! USD per day (in Thailand a motorbike is 5 USD), a tuktuk is around 25 USD per day BUT he offers a minivan to the waterfalls for 6 USD per person. Hmmm the minivan seemed to be a better option but we wanted to check first ourselves. After a bit of bargaining we found a tuktuk driver who would be willing to take us for 5 USD per person. It seemed to be a win-win situation; good price for him and for us!!!! Therefore after our breakfast – kao soy soup, we left for the waterfalls.
Originally I had suggested to go by bike but as the waterfalls are a ride of 35 km, Fabi was not enthusiastic about it.... and he was actually right not to be :-)
When we arrived at the waterfalls we first went to visit a bear-rescue center...
After hanging out the whole day at the waterfalls we returned to Luang Prabang... one more good night beer and then off to bed (bars close anyway at 11:30) as we needed to leave early for Vang Vieng tomorrow. The bus was supposed to pick us up at 8.30, but as this is Laos, things are much more chilled than for example in Thailand... not to talk about Austria. Eventually the TukTuk which brought us to the real bus, showed up at 9.20. Between Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng there is a mountain range, so we spent 7 hours doing one curve after the other. I felt slightly sick but nothing more... but a local girl who was sitting in the front with her baby on the lap had to puke every half an hour. After she finished she just threw her puke-bag out of the window and that for 5 hours. I felt terribly sorry for the guy sitting next to her :-). Manuel had already arrived in Vang Vieng and organized a room for us three. That was so far the cheapest room we ever had so far... 1,6 euro per person per night!!! The cheapest but not the nicest but neither the creepiest room we ever had.
That night we went to have barbecue and a couple of drinks... until 12 o clock, when bars close :-) but of course we had to stay until 12 because by then Manuel's birthday would officially start.
The main attraction in Vang Vieng is „Tubing“. You hire a tube and a tuktuk will take you up the river and you use the tube to float down the river from bar to bar. Actually the tube is not necessary at all because the bars are 20 meteres from each other. So we stopped at the first bar to hang out in the sun, have a drink and mingle with the other „tubers“. These bars also offer crazy swings and slides which Fabi of course had dto use. As there is currently during the dry season not too much water in the river, it is slightly dangerous if you dive into the water at a low water area. If you check youtube for „Tubing accidents“ you really start to think about it once more... whether to swing... or maybe just enjoy the sun :-)
Tubing is certainly fun but I couldn t do it longer than a day. Some Europeans started working there in the animationteam but it seems that they have completely lost the excitment and all they really want is to sleep for at least 24 h.
Tomorrow we will leave to Vientiane but just for a stop over as we want to go to Tah Kaek for a motorbike tour, the so called „loop“.
Kisses from Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng
Astrid & Fabi
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