Leaving Nong Khai I hitched a ride to the border with a group of Australians I'd met at Mut Mee Guesthouse who were also heading to Vientiene. Thanks to their their kindness my border crossing was painless. It was interesting coming into the town - I don't often revisit places so the thrill of recognition was new. Vientiene hasn't changed too much though there is now a 7 story Chinese hotel on the riverfront, the Fox and Hounds English pub is now a tapas place and the riverfront itself is a paved walkway and road - not the sandpit it was last time. But Vientiene still feels a bit seedy, I think it being Thai visa run town contributes to this as well as the (admittedly low key) girlie bars. That said I still love Patuxai, the vertical runway.
I really didn't want to spend 3 days there, especially paying $30 a night for a hotel room, but I was doing my usual boots and braces approach to travel and applied for a longer Thai tourist visa as you only get 15 days when using a land border crossing. Two half days at the Thai embassy waiting for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn and what's the bet I don't end up using it? So, happy to be leaving I got the 9am mini bus out of town and on to Vang Vieng.
Re-reading my entry from 2010 my reaction was one of dislike and dissappointment. Crazy party town, hangover, couldn't see the landscape through the smoke haze etc. What a difference a few years makes! For those of you who don't know, from the late 90's Vang Vieng was famous for the ease with which backpackers could get themselves drunk, drugged, laid and spend their days floating down a river in an old innertube. But then lots of people started dying. So late last year the government put its foot down and stopped the tubing, pulling down all the bars (21 of them), slides and ziplines that covered the banks of the river. Tourism dropped by 50%. And today the town is a shadow of its former self. The party island is overgrown with weeds, the Aussie Bar and Kangaroo Sunset are no longer where they were and have amagalmated into one bar a few doors down from the Irish pub. Even the Organic Farm Cafe that I stayed above last time is empty and up for rent.
There are still 3 Nazims (most Indian restaurants in Laos are called Nazims) and its still 4000 kip to cross the bridge to the other side of the river. Which is where I stayed, this time in a little place called Maylyn run by Joe, a lovely Irish curmudgeon with a dry sense of humour (I think you can be a curmudgeon and lovely at the same time!). It was practically empty the day I arrived so I had the pick of the place which is bungalow 15, one of the older bungalows and very minimalist but with a breathtaking view.
I say breathtaking but really there aren't enough superlatives to describe it. Nor will photos do it justice. This is the real reason to come to Vang Vieng - the incredible karst mountains, the emerald green rice fields and the caves and swimming holes that dot the landscape. I just couldn't leave that view so I stayed 4 nights in the end. I also extended as a couple of days in I was sitting at breakfast and heard my name called - it was an ex MV colleague who now lives part time in Thailand! So we spent a couple of days hanging out and chatting which was lovely. And as though it knew I was leaving Vang Vieng had one more surprise for me on the morning of my departure - a low flying hot air balloon drifting past my bungalow! So now converted to the charms of Vang Vieng (though the town centre is still not pretty) it was time to move on to my favourite place in South East Asia - Luang Prabang.
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