Well, I have a lot to catch up on, so I might try and make these quicker… unless I get distracted.
We woke up, eventually got piled into a tuk-tuk which took us to a bus station… there we were crammed into the remaining seats of a really not great mini-bus. I got the center seat next to the driver, stick shift and center console are not great additions to my knees. Luckily some one in the back got car sick on the amazingly winding roads, so I was able to switch seats with them and get a cramped seat in the back, but at least no center console or gearshift to contend with.
The trip took about 6 hours, not all horrible in itself, but the constant sway from left to right, with no straight aways (no joke) was a lot to deal with even if you were one of the few not getting sick. It was like an ab workout the whole way. When we eventually got in to Vang Vieng, Amy was still pretty Gravol’d up and we ended up in the second guest house we found just to get in somewhere. Amy napped while Jen and I checked out the area. It was essentially a big dirt pile with a mess of guest houses and restaurants with seating set up so that you can watch friends on their TVs from everywhere really comfortably (lounge seats only.)
We were quite unimpressed with our guest house so Jen and I scoped out like everywhere else to find a new place for the next night. After seeing some neat bungalows we eventually settled on a guest house on the river which was apparently brand new, and looked it. It was by far one of the nicest guest houses we had stayed in and it fit the price point we wanted to.
After reserving the place we went to look to see what there was to do. The big thing in Vang Vieng is tubing, where you drift down the river and drink buckets of booze from the river side bars where there are zip-lines, trapeze things, and massive slides to send you flying back into the river. Definitely not something that would ever fly back in Canada. We found a tour that would take us to some caves, and then kayaking (what looked like the same river and area as the tubing) and it looked pretty good so it was off to wake up Amy.
After getting her, she was convinced and so we signed up. We showed Amy the new place and then we went back to sleep.
I forgot to mention, the whole way, seemingly hanging off the side of the mountain were these little villages.. amazing how some people live.