Vang Vieng and Vientiane
Hi,
Well right now we are in Vientiane. We spent last night in Vang Vieng after a 9 hour bus ride from Louang Phrabang.
Vang Vieng was a very interesting town...to say the least. The town itself is not very nice. Too many drugs, a lot of tourists, and the town is clearly designed for it. At lunch time we ate at one of the Video Cafes (most of the restaurants in town are video cafes) and had our food while sitting on a makeshift couch watching The Simpsons. After lunch we walked around to see the sights of town, which are probably the only reason to go there. Vang Vieng is situated on the bank of a river at the foot of some huge limestone karsts. The towers are very craggy and the river is long slow and cool. With the very high heat it is no wonder one of the favorite pastimes of tourists here is to go tubing down the river. Unfortunately we didn't have the time here for this, but I almost wish we did. When dinner time came around we decided to eat at another video cafe. We watched the end of The Longest Yard and then all of Man on Fire (again on couches).
The next morning (this morning) we took the 9 am bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiane. This ride was only about 3 hours long (a relief after so many long trips). We haven't seen too much of the city yet, just one of the wats in the city (actually the number one "thing to see" in Laos) and a Victory Arch modeled after the Arc d' Triumph (built with American airport concrete). From the top of the Arch (seven stories) you can see the entire city. The wat wasn’t amazing, the ones in Louang Phrabang were better we think, but it was historically significant since it’s the oldest wat in Vientiane and the only one to survive the various invasions of Laos. The wat itself is home to over 9,000 Buddha statues (many of them very small).
And oh yeah, that reminds me of a correction. The Buddha caves, they have over 10,000 Buddhas not just 4,000.
Not much for us to do in the city since we aren’t big night club people. We wandered the streets a little bit looking in the DVD/VCD music and movie shops. They carry all the new Hollywood releases, along with a bunch of older movies and last season's American TV shows. The prices usually average around $4 per disk.
Not much else now. I will see if I can upload some pictures here.
-Tim
Well right now we are in Vientiane. We spent last night in Vang Vieng after a 9 hour bus ride from Louang Phrabang.
Vang Vieng was a very interesting town...to say the least. The town itself is not very nice. Too many drugs, a lot of tourists, and the town is clearly designed for it. At lunch time we ate at one of the Video Cafes (most of the restaurants in town are video cafes) and had our food while sitting on a makeshift couch watching The Simpsons. After lunch we walked around to see the sights of town, which are probably the only reason to go there. Vang Vieng is situated on the bank of a river at the foot of some huge limestone karsts. The towers are very craggy and the river is long slow and cool. With the very high heat it is no wonder one of the favorite pastimes of tourists here is to go tubing down the river. Unfortunately we didn't have the time here for this, but I almost wish we did. When dinner time came around we decided to eat at another video cafe. We watched the end of The Longest Yard and then all of Man on Fire (again on couches).
The next morning (this morning) we took the 9 am bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiane. This ride was only about 3 hours long (a relief after so many long trips). We haven't seen too much of the city yet, just one of the wats in the city (actually the number one "thing to see" in Laos) and a Victory Arch modeled after the Arc d' Triumph (built with American airport concrete). From the top of the Arch (seven stories) you can see the entire city. The wat wasn’t amazing, the ones in Louang Phrabang were better we think, but it was historically significant since it’s the oldest wat in Vientiane and the only one to survive the various invasions of Laos. The wat itself is home to over 9,000 Buddha statues (many of them very small).
And oh yeah, that reminds me of a correction. The Buddha caves, they have over 10,000 Buddhas not just 4,000.
Not much for us to do in the city since we aren’t big night club people. We wandered the streets a little bit looking in the DVD/VCD music and movie shops. They carry all the new Hollywood releases, along with a bunch of older movies and last season's American TV shows. The prices usually average around $4 per disk.
Not much else now. I will see if I can upload some pictures here.
-Tim
This entry was posted
on Saturday, March 11, 2006 at 7:35 AM.
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9:50 AMWhat Tim didn't mention was the heat index of 106 degrees and the fact his achilles tendons are very sore --- probably as a result of the steep terrain on their bike trip --- so I can understand his time watching movies and literally cooling his heels --- Dad - H
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