November 24 to 28, 2019
160km from Vientiane (3h45 by minivan)
We arrived in Vangvieng after a tortuous and bumpy road (roads are not maintained and pot holes are similar to Montreal after winter but in much larger number). Unfortunately, Lana got sick towards the end but recovered super quickly. On the way up, we met Zahra who lives in Seoul, South Korea and that we got to see again further down the road.
We had booked 5 nights in Vangvieng but wanted to hasten our arrival in Luang Prabang that all travelers encountered were describing as mesmerizing. So we stayed for 3 nights, which was enough to live up the moment and take advantage of the area and its nature.
The first morning, we met our neighbor, Lucile, a young French girl. We chatted and she was going for a hike that sounded very promising. We had no plans that day so we decided to do the hike. Getting to the bottom of the trail took us 1 hour and was uninteresting (except for crossing a narrow bridge shared by vehicles, motorcycles, and pedestrians).
But as soon as we started hiking, the girls did great even rock-climbing on the last part of this 2 hour climb. People we crossed along the way were quite surprised to see the girls making it actually...
At the top, Lucile was there! The view was breathtaking on the valley and surrounding karsts. What a rewarding landscape after such a demanding effort.
After a well-deserved break, the way down was trickier than the climb up especially the rock-climbing part that took us twice as much time. But we managed and went back down. We found a Tuk Tuk that dropped us off downtown because we were very hungry, by then it was 2pm.
In the Tuk Tuk back in town
Our favorite spot in Vangvieng was the Smile Beach Bar, accessed over a small wooden footbridge spanning over a poultry farm with geese and chickens (so close to the hotel that the roosters were waking us up in the morning). Continuing on a sandy road, we reached the place and discovered the river bank where we spent the 3 afternoons we were there. We enjoyed lying in hammocks under the shade, swimming in the Nam Song river and letting ourselves flow with the current and come back, the girls playing on the tube. All this while enjoying fresh fruit juice (coconut, mango, pineapple) and looking at hot balloons flying over every day before sunset. The weather was perfect and we genuinely enjoyed the time there.
We befriended with Lucile who was visiting Vietnam and Laos for a few weeks before heading to Chiang Mai where she was going on a mission of volunteering for 2 months in an elephant sanctuary.
We visited the night market together and tried the coconut pancakes (yummy). We also had to try a middle-Eastern restaurant with homemade delightful pita bread and falafel. Salah asked the Laotian owner how she learned the recipe, and she held it from a former Israeli restaurant owner in Vangvieng that she had worked for. We liked it so much that we went back the next day.
On our last day, we said goodbye to Lucile who was going to Luang Prabang and we went for a 4-hour kayak session. The river was appeased except for a few rapids, and the landscapes were gorgeous. We were surrounded with karsts standing out on a perfect blue sky. And we were with 4 French Canadians from the Montreal south shore. Felt like home :)
After kayaking, we had a baguette sandwich for lunch (in Laos too baguette bread is popular, to our delight), we went back to our “spot” on the river and soak in our last sunset there.
The next day, the mini-van for Luang Prabang came to pick us up but with the 2 girls proned to motion sickness, we were counting on good seating spots. But we were the last ones to be picked up so we could not sit where we needed. Plus the driver wanted to have the 4 of us sit on 3 seats when we actually had paid for 4 seats... Salah snapped! Everything ended up working out though. Salah and Naema sat at the front, Lana and I on the first row after swapping seats with another passenger. Nobody got sick although the road was cratered and sometimes just a dirt road. When reaching a pass, we even had to stop for 10 minutes to let a big trailer maneuver in a bend. I can’t imagine what it turns into in the wet season...
Then, we were off to the most expected Luang Prabang...
Coralie
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