6 June 2015, Saturday – Pan’s Place
Everyone we met in Kounsavarn Guesthouse (Luang Prabang), told us to stay there. Liss and I called to make a booking cause they didn’t offer dorms online. The receptionist accepted my phone booking but told me they don’t normally take reservations over the phone.
Paid 30,000kip/night for a 3-mattress ‘dorm room’. Liss and I were in the same room and we met our new dormmate – Ke$ha* who was into her 18th day of staying there.
She brought us out to get food and took us to a street of restaurants with a beautiful of the mountains and the setting sun. She took a nap cause she had a ‘shroomover’ and I started asking Liss weird questions my friends used to ask me.
I tried the Lao-style sticky rice and I was pleasantly surprised! The sticky rice was like a soup sticky rice and the whole dish was warm. It felt really homely and nice. I actually prefer Laos’ sticky rice to Thailand’s!
Went back to the hostel and sat at the common area and chatted with people. We were pretty drained out and didn’t wna head out to drink or party; wanted to save energy for next day’s tubing!
7 June 2015, Sunday – Tubing down Nam Song River!
Tubing deserves a post of its own. Read about my adventures here.
8 June 2015, Monday – The Secret Lagoon
So we were told by a British girl to tell the receptionist something like “Rosie sent us here. Where’s the secret lagoon?”
The intructions were: (~20mins walk)
- From Pan’s place, turn left and walk straight down
- Turn right at the 4th street
- Keep going straight into the path that leads to the forestry
- You’ll see a ‘toll gate’ where you need to pay 2,000kip entrance fee
- Turn right onto the orange bridge and cross it
- Turn left and walk past all the food stalls and you’re at the “secret lagoon”!
Something like that. Turns out it wasn’t really a secret. It was more of a spot for locals to go to as compared to the touristy Blue Lagoon in Vang Vieng. I didn’t go to the Blue Lagoon cause I didn’t wna spend more money. One lagoon was enough to see.
Went with Liss, Carol (American), and Linda (German).
It’s a pretty neat spot! There’s a cave with water flowing through it and ropes dangling down from a distance for people to jump in. I didn’t jump in cause it was too high and pretty narrow. I was afraid I would scrape myself against the sides of the cave.
Hung around for a couple of hours before we headed back to shower and have dinner. It was 4+pm when we left, way past my lunch time!
Met Ke$ha back at the guesthouse. She was going to take a walk around town cause it was kind of her last day in Vang Vieng and I guess she wanted to say her goodbyes. Since we were all going the same way, she decided to come with.
Lost her halfway cause she disappeared into a bar to say hi to her friends.
Four of us ate at a restaurant which overlooked the mountains and sunset. Brought Carol and Linda there to share the sights.
One thing Liss and I have observed during our time in Vang Vieng is that food takes exceptionally long to be cooked and served. We’ve ever waited at least 30 minutes for our dish to come. It’s become a joke, that we always have to wait an hour before we eat.
Not that I’m complaining but it’s just shocking at how… people take things easy in Vang Vieng.
Greedy me wanted to have Laos’ mango sticky rice for a last time and I ordered it! It was too much rice but SO GOOD.
Back to the hostel and chilled cause the rest wanted to go paaaartaye~! They were waiting for 8pm to get free drinks (whiskey shots).
Finally saw Ke$ha back at the hostel and she brought someone with her… She took the keys and I told her we could hang out in the front. Give her some privacy y’know. That was about 7+pm.
9pm: We still couldn’t go back to our room so Liss and I headed to Sakura Bar to find the girls. Mr Japan Man from tubing was there! He stuck around with our group; he’s a blast! Love it when he dances and we all follow.
Decided to take a walk and we went to Kangaroo Bar where they had a wii dance-off there. Brought Mr Japan Man with us! He’s so adorable. Danced danced danced, played a round of pool with Liss, and the teachers came!
12.30am: The bar closed and everyone moved out; most people went to Viva (a club) to resume the party. We went in for ‘one song’ and left after about 15 – 20 minutes. It was getting late. I haven’t been out so late for party reasons in a really long time.
SO. Just as we were walking back to the hostel, it started drizzling. Soon, it became an extremely heavy downpour with lighting. Ran for our lives back to the hostel against the wind. It was quite a distance!
Made it back, drenched and cold. Turns out our key wasn’t at the front desk which meant Ke$ha was in the room.
Lo and behold, her partner was in there and she opened the room butt-naked.
That night, my life was complete.
- Drinking
- Dancing
- Running in the pouring rain
- Seeing a naked girl
- Being in a room where people just had sex
- Things smelling heavily of weed
- Witnessing a handjob
No words. I have no words. I barely had a good night’s sleep.
9 June 2015, Tuesday – Onward to Vientiane
It was time to leave the crazy party town. Liss was going to Pakse but she had a transfer at Vientiane, which meant we both were taking the same bus to Vientiane!
The ‘VIP’ bus left around 1.45pm and we reached about 5.00pm, with a lunch stop around 3.30pm.
I booked the transport at the hostel for 50,000kip which was reasonable. It seemed that the prices around town was more or less the same.
—
That sums up my time in Vang Vieng. I had no expectations when I left; no idea what I was getting into but I had one heck of an experience. The drinking, tubing, partying, meeting great new friends, travelling with people. Everything all out of my comfort zone but I was comfortable.
I’ll definitely go back to Vang Vieng with my friends. So many places I wna re-visit!
I had a good eight days travelling with Liss; something I didn’t expect myself to be doing. I’m grateful to have had company throughout more than half my stay in Laos.
‘Till then!
Bed for One 
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