Ban Xanghai and Vang Vieng

Woke up fairly early today; another 8am start, this time was for an ‘ethnic village tour’. We took a bus to an ethnic village called Ban Xanghai (Whisky Village) arriving at a local guy’s house/distillery and learnt about how he makes ‘happy water’ or, as I considered it, a rather awful tasting rice whisky. The man explains the process to us all with translation from Neng, and some of us even get a go at grinding the rice that he distills into whisky. We also took part in having quite a few shots of various strength whiskies all of which tasted worse than the last. At the end Neng set up a ring toss game: the three winners getting a small bottle for whisky as a prize. We then get the opportunity to look at all the various animals that have been preserved in bottles of whisky: making scorpion, snake or some other animal whisky.

I have to admit the combination of heat and early morning shots hits me quite hard. So when we have made our way to Manivanh, a riverside restaurant on the edge of the Mekong, I end up ordering myself an extra plate of buffalo meat and chips on top of the provided lunch. It is a good choice as it sobers me up a bit for the next part of our journey which is a boat across the Mekong to the Pak Ou Caves – two caves, one lower and one upper cave in which there are hundreds of miniature Buddha sculptures. I have to admit that with all the travelling around Asia I have been doing, the reverence of these places is starting to wear thin, but it is nice to be in the cool shade and so many Buddhas together do demand a certain level of awe and respect. Once we have crossed back over the river and are back on dry land Neng has a surprise, we are going to his family home. The bus pulls into a local residence and we meet Neng’s parents and find out a bit more about his family, which is nice. We then spend our time making drinks with the alcohol, mixtures and ice they have kindly put out for us. Some of us end up playing keepy-uppy with a football they have. Soon we are over heating and using the ice not in our drinks but just rubbing it over our heads and bodies to try and cool down. In fact the heat and day’s drinking gets to me so much I end up skipping dinner and going straight to bed as soon as we are back.

The next day is a travel day. I wake up and get ready for our six hour drive on the way to Vang Vieng. I do my best to sleep during the journey and I have got pretty good at sleeping on pretty much all forms of transport by this point, even if I do say so myself. However this journey was different; the roads were so unbelievably bumpy that not even I could sleep for most of the journey. Eventually we get to the Blue Lagoon 2. This is our lunch stop but it is also the home of a lagoon which had a diving board. But as always for me food comes first, Louis and the boys go get food, I order a lot, I know surprising, a chicken burger, chicken wings and fired potato that comes spiralled on a stick with mayo and paprika sprinkled on it – lovely, but very awkward to eat! Once full we join the rest of the group who are doing a mixture of sunbathing, swimming and diving off a board that was, by my estimation roughly 10 meters above water level. Lars is doing some impressive dives as does Alex. I personally choose to go for the cannon ball, matching my very mature mentality as I am sure everyone will agree. I have to say though that I am most impressed with Charlotte and Elain as, although their jumps are fairly basic, the fact that they jumped at all is pretty amazing considering we all spent about 15 minutes watching them stand atop the board shaking in fear – so good on ya girls, you did it! Once we reach Vang Vieng we check in, freshen up and are then out for dinner. We go to a rather nice Irish pub who’s owner is actually Irish and eat, drink and generally be merry. Afterwards it turns into a fairly disjointed night with various bar hopping happening, one of which is a club giving out free alcohol all night as it is the owner’s birthday. As I am sure one can imagine, a club full of tourists that are getting free alcohol was rather messy, so I don’t last too long in there and go across the street with a few others to a bit more of a chilled vibe. I am a bit cheeky and ask Kamilla, who stayed at the free alcohol bar, to sneak me over a beer or two which she very very kindly does! The night ends at the infamous Jaidee Bar. Although a rather fun place it is a bit of a shambles and the ‘urinal’ is just having a piss into the woods on a wooden plank that sticks out of the side of the place. The night ends with Kamilla and I helping one of our fellow travellers back to the hostel and then having a chilled wander and sharing a drink and life stories before finally heading off to sleep.

View over the Mekong river to the Pak Ou Caves

Grinding the rice

Potent whisky

A whisky with both a bite and a sting in its tail!

Blue Lagoon 2

Pak Ou Caves

The next day we had a free morning, thank god! So I had a lovely long lie in before waking up and going with Jon to a nice cafe with a beautiful view for a tea and coffee and a little bit of peace and quiet. With that very intensive morning I then came back and had a nap before the afternoon’s activity: tubing. We were to float down river in inflatable rings, stopping multiple times at bars that pull you in by yeeting full bottles at you that are attached to ropes. I made the mistake of wanting to avoid being bloated so started drinking soju instead of beer; in other words I got drunk fast, but it was great fun. Our group mixed with a few others who were also tubing to have a great time at the bars as well as while we floated on down river. For the final part of the journey Alex, Neng and I get separated from the group and have a lovely chat about life, love and ladies. Neng even spills about the fact that some of the hostels in town have escort services available! At the final bar we discover that poor Lydia dropped her phone in the river and that is how we ended up so far ahead of everyone as they had stopped to try and find it. She really has been unlucky having lost her bag at the airport, bought a new one and filled it with clothes before her bag was returned, so having double luggage and just generally being rather clumsy and getting herself into all sorts of situations. The last bar doesn’t last too long but Alex and I, as well as a few others in the group, are in no mood for bed so we head on back out with some of our new friends from the different groups that were tubing and end the night again in the Jaidee Bar, drinking and dancing the night away. Unsurprisingly, the evening gets a bit blurry but, hey, its our last night in Laos: go big or go home as they say!

Overlooking the Mekong

I might've had a couple!

Cannon balling the Blue Lagoon
(click on the top right hand icon)