So faithful readers will recall that due to one very nasty jellyfish (or family of jellyfish perhaps), I didn’t love our time in the Halong Bay. Fortunately, the same limestone cliffs found in the Halong Bay surround beautiful Vang Vieng, Laos. Same limestone, different outcome: we loved Vang Vieng.
Day 83: Travel to Vang Vieng, Laos
We thought we were taking a bus from Vientiane to Vang Vieng, but our bus ended up being a pretty regular-sized van. Most notably from the trip, everyone’s luggage was tied down on top of the van with a tarp on top of it, and the terrain was rugged. I’m not sure a bus could have passed over the washed out roads we took.
When we arrived in Vang Vieng, our cell phones couldn’t pick up any internet or regular service which made finding our AirBNB in a town we had never visited before a bit challenging. We decided to walk in the direction that everyone else from our van walked and hauled our belongings, which survived five hours of jostling on the roof of the van, about 10 minutes until we found an Amazon Cafe with free WiFi and could pull up a map.
Originally, we planned to stay in an AirBNB in Vang Vieng, but Rich found an amazing resort at a pretty reasonable price ($76/night) that he kept showing me over and over again (“Look at those views! The mountains! That swimming pool!”) so we changed our plans to stay there instead.
Staying at the Riverside Boutique Hotel was a great decision. All of the things that Rich saw in the pictures were better in real life. We walked into our room, and a scented candle was burning. We had arrived.
Day 84: Visiting a Limestone Cave and One of Many Blue Lagoons
When we started researching things to do in Vang Vieng, we realized quite a few of the things were pretty far outside of Vang Vieng. Rich suggested using the free hotel bicycles to bike to some far away trails and waterfalls, but all I could think of was the terrible dirt roads we had driven in on. Off-road biking didn’t appeal to me at all.
We decided instead to relax at the pool in the morning and then head to the closest “attraction,” a limestone cave and a blue lagoon in the afternoon.
Visiting the Tham Phu KHam Cave
The Tham Phu Kham cave was an easy 25 minute walk from our hotel. We paid a nominal toll to cross a big orange pedestrian bridge over the river, and then bought a ticket to the cave once across. We climbed a steep staircase to enter the cave, and then once we entered, we were the only ones inside. I had never had a cave to myself before!
The cave was really cool temperature-wise, which was a big relief from the Southeast Asian heat, and beautiful too. It was also a bit creepy, so I’ll go ahead and admit that we didn’t explore it too thoroughly for fear that we would forget our path out! I love my husband, but I can imagine other people who might handle being lost in a cave with more composure than he would.
The Blue Lagoon
By the entrance to the cave, there is a decent sized natural swimming lagoon. During dry season, the water is very blue. We were there during rainy season so it was a little murky.
There were several other tourists there when we got there, and Rich was all about jumping in. Knowing that we had an actual pool back at a resort (and remembering my jellyfish fiasco), I was good to sit this one out and hold our stuff.
As we were walking over the bridge towards where you climbed in, about twelve boys between the ages of nine and thirteen came running towards the water. School had obviously just let out as they were discarding pieces of their school uniforms as they ran.
The first young man climbed up a tree and then out on to a branch over the water, and then he just let himself drop into the lagoon below. The next young man climbed up on top of the bridge and dove in. Each boy performed a feat crazier than the last to enter the water until they were all in the lagoon.
These kids were having the time of their lives.
Rich, meanwhile, slowly eased his way in to the icy waters, while children splashed and jumped around him. It was amazing.
Dinner at the Happy Mango Thai Restaurant
Vang Vieng has a reputation as a fairly wild backpacker town– apparently for years, backpackers would float down the Nam Sung river until they came upon a riverside bar where they would consume a beer or two, then float down the river until they encountered another bar, wash, rinse, repeat.
After a number of backpackers died (eeek!), town officials took some measures to cut down on some of the tomfoolery that resulted from all of this drinking and floating. However, several years later, Vang Vieng still has many more bars than restaurants.
When we saw fabulous Tripadvisor reviews for a place called The Happy Mango Thai Restaurant, we were all in. We went the first night we arrived, then back the second, and then spoiler alert: we also went the third. The prices were incredible; dinner each night averaged $10 total which included two entrees, two beers, and the BEST mango sticky rice for dessert.
Is it wrong to say that I ate my favorite Thai food in Southeast Asia in Laos? If Happy Mango is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
Day 85: Umm, We Went to the Pool
We considered more hiking, visiting waterfalls, etc., but instead, it was raining so we decided to:
- Sleep in.
- Eat a glorious resort breakfast.
- Read at the pool (once I picked up Crazy Rich Asians I couldn’t put it down– “frothy” was the exact right description on the back cover) when it wasn’t raining.
- Work a little whenever the rain drove us inside.
- Shower.
- Go eat dinner at Happy Mango Thai Restaurant
Productive, huh? It doesn’t make much of a blog post, but it was a great day.
Vang Vieng, Laos: Were We Laid Back or What?
If you can’t tell from how relaxed we look in all of our pictures, Vang Vieng was a breeze. We had delicious hotel breakfast each morning, grabbed mango shakes and egg bahn mi once or twice for lunch, and ate Happy Mango Thai for dinner. We wore work out clothes or swimsuits every day, and I’m not sure I wore make up or used a blow dryer once.
The people in Vang Vieng were super friendly, and the rain gave us a bit of cover not to tackle all of the sightseeing we might otherwise feel like we should attempt. We were as relaxed in Vang Vieng as anywhere else we have been on the trip.
If you visit southeast Asia, have the stomach for a bumpy van ride, and are looking for somewhere where you can just be, add Vang Vieng to your list. We would go back in a heartbeat.
