Vang Vieng Sunset
Today was the first of the long bus rides, this one 6 hours. Fortunately there was some great scenery to distract us and some frequent stops in villages along the way. One of the villages seemed quite odd, with people in tattered clothes making roof thatching for their house, overshadowed by a huge and very modern looking TV satellite dish.
Stopped for lunch in a very pretty wooden hut by the roadside complete with fish pond and mill.
The long journey was quickly forgotten when we arrived at the Elephant Crossing hotel in Vang Vieng we had a great hotel room with balcony and a sundeck overlooking the river where plenty of sundowners were consumed whilst planning the next day.
The town center was a mess, with just endless restaurants playing DVDs of Friends, Internet cafes and ki bars. In keeping with the location we had dinner in a cross legged restaurant watching a DVD of Friends, dropped a couple off in the internet cafe then on to a tiki bar where the drinks were served in sandcastle buckets, possibly to share between three but we had one each followed by a couple of Flat Liners, a nasty triple vodka and a Black Russian for the road. By the end of the night we all had souvenirs, including buckets, masks, flags and a tuk tuk handle.
We then sat on the balcony comparing items over a snifter of vodka whilst listening to the gentle night sounds. These mostly consisted of a couple two floors up shouting at each other about a lost camera while other hotel guests told them to shut up, and in one inspired case to “stop f***ing swearing”.
