We wanted to break up the journey back from Vang Viang and stopping in Vientiene was an easy way to do it. It’s lovely and quiet after Vang Viang. Saw the museum today, full of propaganda about the colonialist French and imperialist Americans.
Luang Prabang was very, very wet because the New Year celebrations just went on and on. We saw the procession of the buddha down to the temple where it’s washed for the year to come and did some shopping (no jewellry box yet, Min).
We got a bus down to Vang Viang. I had a headache almost non-stop for two days, which pretty much sums up Vang Viang – it’s really noisy, and full of TV bars, full English breakfasts and just all the worst parts of backpacker places. We went kayaking for a day, and that was ace fun. We passed the jumping places, and each did a jump. I was sh!t scared but I’m glad I made myself do it. Very tiny rapids, probably just as well because I realised it’s actually twenty years since I went river kayaking.
We’ve booked a trip to go kayaking and cycling from Pakse, with an overnight stay on an island village with no electricity, with a visit to Wat Phou and hopefully it’ll be really fun. We’re getting the overnight bus to Pakse tonight, then going to find a guest house to dump our bags and head out to the Tad Fan waterfall. There’s another waterfall called Tad Lo, and we’ve had too much fun making bad puns with the name.