Marble Mountains, Hoi An, Vietnam
The seventh circle of Vang Vieng
10 Jan 2011 3 Comments
We departed from Williams house to start part 2 of our Asian adventure. The bus from Vientiane to Vang Vieng was only 5 hours so our shortest trip yet. We turned up at our guesthouse that we booked for £2.50 a night, and we got exactly what we paid for. It was a mess and on the ground floor where we couldn’t close the windows so we quickly left and found ourselves somewhere much nicer for only a pound more a night! The main attraction at Vang Vieng is “tubing” – getting in the inner tube of a tractor tyre and floating down the river. You can stop off on the way drinking at bars and swinging off ropes and zip lines. A health and safety nightmare. A woman died last month by missing the water and landing on the rocks.
The clientele were, luckily, our favourite type of tourists. Men who wear nothing but a t-shirt on their head and boxer shorts and calls anything that moves c***ts. Women who think they’re pretty enough to wear micro bikinis and walk in the middle of the road ignoring the traffic. These people don’t read up on where they are, ignoring any cultural rules and forgetting they are guests in a communist country. They stagger about with plastic buckets of cocktails and litter whatever they don’t need on them. The premise of getting pissed with your mates isn’t what bothers me. That’s fine. Its the ultimate lack of respect they have for their Laos hosts. The cheap guesthouse didn’t help either when in their guidebook their openly stated that taking opium or sleeping with prostitutes in the room is fine. This is viscous circle which will only get worse.
The mountain scenery was beautiful.
Anyway, we took a 7 hour bus further up north to Luang Prabang. All the people on the mini bus were griping about the same thing, although they were all in their fifties. I think that just means we’re… wise?
Luang Prabang looks just like Hoi An in Vietnam. Very picturesque and quaint.
Sorry, y’all for the lack of posts. We spent a lot of time at Wills so routine went out the window. Now that we are on the move again, its much easier to let you back into our lives.
Photos probably to follow.