Vang Vieng
Day 3
We enjoyed the hotel in the morning and got a late checkout and left for Vang Vieng at 1:00 pm by car. Souk, our tour guide from the day before arranged a private car for us. It cost 2 million Kip, so about $90 US. The road was really good and it only took about one and a half hours to get there. The other option was to take a bullet train. But we thought it would be too much of a hassle. I heard that the train stations were like airports and you had to report early for luggage screening etc…
The scenery just kept getting better and better on the car ride and when we got to Vang Vieng we were surrounded by mystical hills shrouded in mist. It had been raining on and off, but we had lucked out on the drive with little to no rain. We checked in and got massages again at the spa at our new hotel, the Riverside Boutique Hotel. It was right by the Mekong River and we had a beautiful view of the river and the surrounding mountains while we enjoyed lunch at the hotel.
It had stopped raining around sunset and we got to enjoy the lovely views all around.
We had dinner at the hotel restaurant . The food was quite good. We had chicken Lap (same as Larb) and steamed fish in banana leaf. They were both delicious! They were part of a 5 course degustation menu. The other item we liked was the purple sticky rice with mango for desert – it was sweet and yummy.
We would be going to sleep a bit earlier because the next day we had a hot air balloon ride. We were scheduled to be picked up at 5:10 am.
Day 4
We got up early at 4:30 am and just a few minutes after 5:00 am we got a message saying our hot air balloon ride was delayed about an hour due to rain and to stay tuned. It rains quite a bit during the rainy season and I was worried that the balloon flight might be cancelled. We eventually got picked up at 6:30 am and took a short 20 minute ride past some rice fields to the Above Laos office and launching area. We were given some coffee and snacks as the balloons were slowly propped up. This was our second time doing a hot air balloon ride and it’s always really cool to see this really flat fabric, take shape and rise into a beautiful ballon. There would be two balloons today.
There were 6 people in our basket making it a nice small group and everyone had nice unobstructed views. We rose to a height of 4,500 feet and were in the air for close to an hour. It was cool to see the other balloon rise and fall – it’s a lovely view seeing other balloons and also makes for nice photos giving a point of reference or focus. But rising through the clouds and having this mystical view, sometimes below, sometimes above and sometimes on the same plane, was truly magical.
The rice paddies looked so cool from above, as did the mountains all around. We got nice aerial views of some villages as well.
Luckily it did not rain during our ride and there was little to know wind. It was nice spotting the other balloon in the distance.
Descending was eventful as the wind had picked upon and we hovered a few feet above some rice paddies as a group of staff were trying to pull us into the field where we started. Eventually they were successful! We calmly climbed out of the basket and headed for breakfast which included celebratory champagne! I highly recommend Above Laos as they were very professional and safe. I have heard other companies out there are a bit more loose and take unnecessary risks, such as going up in foul weather and have heard horror stories of getting stuck in trees or crashing into mountain sides. I can’t imagine what a nightmare that would be!
Once back at the hotel we had a second breakfast and headed out on free Giant mountain bikes that the hotel provided.
Randomly trying to cross the river, we ended up at Jiang Caves, just by pure luck! We locked the bikes together, crossed the river seated on a barge with chairs and walked up the 500 or so steps and then into the mouth of the cave.
It was really quite impressive. The cave was huge with several different compartments and there were plenty of stalagmites and stalactites.
Once back on the bikes Tarli and I found the route we had taken earlier and followed it towards the rice paddies we had seen earlier on the way to Above Laos. As soon as the road started to get steep we turned around – for two reasons – one, while we appreciated the free bikes, they were not in the best condition and changing gears was not easy – and second, it was getting hot! The rain had stopped and the sun was out for a bit. The humidity was full on and my bike jersey was entirely soaked! We made a stop before getting into town at the Kiwi Cafe. I believe we saw the owner who must have been from New Zealand. The beer was cold and the fries were good!
Once back at the hotel, we hit the pool and I had my first western meal in a while – a burger with fries. Tarli had some shrimp tempura. We thoroughly enjoyed the pool and the bar at the Riverside Boutique Hotel. We also got a foot reflexology massage. Massages here were even cheaper, about $20, so we made the most of it.
In the evening we headed to the Academy for dinner and had some Larb again. It’s a nice restaurant that also serves as a training center for those who want to work in the restaurant industry. They had pizzas and other western items on the menu as well. A big tour group came in and we suspect they were with Intrepid The must have been “Larbed” Out as they all ordered pizzas.
We continued on to the Night Market and it started raining! So there were not many stalls out, but I managed to buy a Laos hat and Tarli bought a lovely woven bag.
The next day would be exciting. We would be talking the 10:46 am Bullet Train to Luang Prabang. I bought the ticket months ago on Viator – but it turned out that I didn’t have the tickets right away. I had to communicate with a company on WhatsApp and they sent me screen shots of the tickets which were basically QR codes. I was a little stressed as I did not know that this was all we need. Stay tuned for the next blog post to find out!
Leave a Reply