Tubing in the Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng has beautiful scenery but is very touristy. The mountains are awe inspiring with limestone cliffs the likes of which we have seen through out south Asia but still incredible. The touristiness comes from the many guesthouses, restaurants and shops. Almost all the restaurants had big LCD TV's playing either Friends or Family Guy. We were hard pressed to find a restaurant where we could enjoy the scenery in relative peace and quiet. All the shops were selling “Tubing in the Vang Vieng” or Beer Laos tank tops along with water proof money cases. Obviously the town is thriving on tourists but there isn't much Laos character to the town. We still really enjoyed our time here though.

Dec 4 – Biking around Vang Vieng

We had a leisurely start to the day today which included some breakfast just down the street from our hotel. The power was out at our hotel and the restaurant but fortunately with open air places there is plenty of natural light. We rented some bicycles and toured around across the river. The pathway took us to a cave and mountain that we could climb. And so we went up, carefully. It wasn't really a proper pathway and had some ladder bridges to take us over some of the more rugged terrain. It was quite the interesting climb but had a lovely view of Vang Vieng and the mountains around. It was an awkward, careful climb down from the top. From here were continued on to another cave but they were charging admission as well and we weren't quite willing to pay it so we headed back to town. It was well after lunch time at this point and we were famished. Once back in town we got some lunch at a restaurant with a lovely view over looking the mountains and the little hill we climbed earlier. We just relaxed here for awhile enjoying the beautiful view. We biked around town afterwards and I was able to buy an inexpensive charm for my charm bracelet, its a little happy Buddha. We went back to our hotel for a shower and then headed out again to find somewhere with wifi and dinner. It is a little bit difficult to find somewhere to eat that isn't playing Friends and Family Guy. It's kind of ridiculous how much these two shows are played at all the restaurants here. We found one that had a back area where we didn't have to listen to the TV. We had dinner and did some research on what to do in New Zealand.

The view from town, we climbed the little one on the right.

In the cave

 

Dec 5 – Tubing on the Nam Song

Today we are doing the infamous “tubing” of the Nam Song. We rented an inner tube from the tube place which also makes you put down a deposit to make sure you bring it back. And hopped a tuk tuk which took us about 3km upriver to the launch point. In theory it should take 3hrs to float down the river, that doesn't include stopping at bars. When we arrived we were blown away, every 100m there was a bar on either side of the river. At each bar there were guys throwing you ropes to pull you ashore so you could buy a beer or a bucket from them. It was crazy! Many places also had rope swings, slides and dive platforms. At one bar we went down a slide but unfortunately I forgot to take off my sunglasses so now I need new ones. We had started our tubing adventure around noon and you have to have the tubes back by 6pm. We were at our last bar and it was getting close to the time so we hurried down to our tubes and forgot our flipflops.... another purchase we need to make now. It was getting quite cool out too. The sun had gone behind the mountain and the water was chilly. We were hailed by a tuk tuk driver from the shore so we pulled over and took a tuk tuk back to town. Just in time too. We walked back to our hotel, barefoot, and I had a nice hot shower. We had some dinner, I had a delicious chicken burger. We then went to another restaurant with internet and Beau proceeded to have second dinner. We drank lots of water to try and recover from our afternoon.

On the Nam Song River

One of the many bars

Beau on the slide I lost my sunglasses to

Just a floating along

Mountain Climbing and Back to the Beach

We are back at the beach in a town called Mui Ne.  It's a windsurfers/kiteboarders haven! Dad would love it :) Before leaving Da Lat we tackled Lang Bian Mountain, which was an all day hike for us.  The drive between Da Lat and Mui Ne was terrifying and bumpy but we arrived.  I'm looking forward to some beach time if the wind ever dies down.

Nov 1 – Lang Bian Mountain

With the research we had done on Lang Bian Mountain we thought it would take us 3-4 hrs to hike round trip. We set off for the mountain after having “egg bread” for breakfast. We didn't end up picking up more food as since we thought it wouldn't be that long of hike. We arrived at the bottom of the mountain around 11am. You can pay 40,000 dong per person for a jeep to take you up to the radio tower and back down. The guy at the admission counter said it was 6km and 3hrs round trip. We decided to walk. We started walking up the road but figured there had to be a path to walk up so we started walking through the trees. The forest here is similar to home with lots of pine trees. After about 1.5hrs of bushwhacking and “trail” following we came to a labelled fork in the road. The sign pointed to the left saying radio tower 2km and the right saying peak (2190m) 3km. We knew we wanted to get to the peak so we went right. This part of the hike started off nice and flat, a relief after the uphill we had just climbed. It did not stay flat though. We started going up again and the vegetation changed to be more jungley. The up became vertical and we had to climb over roots and fallen trees. Finally we made it to the top. It took about an hour from the fork, I'm pretty sure we hiked more than 3km! The view from the top was awesome. We were in much need of a break and sat down for some snacks. Another couple had braved the hike up but other than that we were the only people on the peak. They had taken the walking path up, we would have if we could have found it. It isn't well signed at the bottom. We took some pictures and after catching our breath we headed back down. Down was just as hard as up because we had to try not to slide all the way to the bottom, it went much quicker though. Once we reached the fork Beau wanted to go over to the radio tower. It was only another 2km. The radio tower is where all the jeeps take people. It was an easy walk over to there and surprisingly the area was almost deserted. There were no tourists at that time. We contemplated eating up there but decided after another rest to head back down. It was around 4pm by this time, we figured we should try to get back before dark. We asked the staff about another walking path down and actually found it. It was just a break in some shrubs. Along the path the way up was marked with spray painted arrows. The way down was pretty steep. By this time my legs were quite sore and tired. We made it back to the bike in about an hour and headed back into town while the sun was going down. We had some dinner back in town, returned the bike and headed back to the hotel. We were both pretty tired. The hike was worth it for the view from the top but they could do with better sign postage for the walking path. I guess they just want everyone to take the jeep up.

The mountain as seen from the fork

Going up up up

The view of Da Lat from the top

At the top

Nov 2 – Mui Ne

We caught a bus to Mui Ne this morning. We were sad to see Da Lat go but we have to keep going since our visas expire on the 10^th! Our bus was actually a minibus with 16 seats and 2 people on stools. We also didn't have A/C this time. I think the roads were the worst we have been on so far. Huge, deep post holes everywhere, parts of the road gave out some time ago and the weeds have grown in, the brush along the side of the road was badly encroaching. We almost hit a motorcycle that was in our lane coming around a corner. That put our hearts in our throats, even the locals seemed disconcerted. We fortunately made it to Mui Ne in one piece. The area we are in is called Mui Ne Beach and is essentially one road that runs along the beach with hotels and restaurants on either side, Mui Ne Village is further along. The bus dropped us off around 11am and it was hot. We checked out a few hotels and found one for cheap. It's not on the beach but we only are spending $9. We put on our beach clothes and set off for some lunch and beach. We ate at a little seafood restaurant on the beach and then walked along it. It's very windy here but it's becoming one of the hottest places in Asia for windsurfing and kiteboarding. We walked towards the kitesurfers and watched them for awhile. We asked at one place how much lessons were but it's way out of our price range. There weren't many places to sit on the beach because of the wind and the highish tide. We decided to see if we could find a cheap place on the beach. We looked at a whole bunch but none seemed to have a nice beach front with reasonable priced. Pfft like we were going to pay $30-50 a night for a beach front resort. We had dinner at a restaurant on the beach, sand included. Pretty sure my feet were eaten by sand flies. After dinner we went to a bar down the street that had live music. The guy was really good, just him and his guitar. We had a very enjoyable night listening to music while drinking beer!

Mui Ne Beach

Kitesurfers Galore