Mayan Prophecy Countdown

Not much happened today, I was late getting up after last nights effort and anyway it was pissing down!! I went up the road to the Ban Sabai Riverside Bar and Restaurant [N18.92341 E102.44592 ] for some breakfast. They do a great brekky here as I found out, but I have no photos, not of the food anyway. The rain was annoying but when it cleared the views were great 🙂

This town of Vang Vieng is renown for the tube riding and bars. I also hear it is another mega playground for Aussies, with the main enjoyment, being taken up river quite a way and then floating down the river on kayaks or tubes, and then stopping at all the bars dotted along the banks before arriving back here. But there have been so many drownings over the years, with no care whatsoever by the Laos government that it was not until just recently, after much pressure by the Aussie government, that the river side bars have been closed. They have also made major changes to the streets of the town and they have come down hard on a ruling saying that your business must not be closer than 1.2m from the edge of the road and then proceeded to make sure anything encroaching on this space, like awnings, walls, roofs, were removed, AT ONCE!!! This has caused a bit of mess in the town, but apparently they will be using the space recovered for garden strips to make it look like Luang Prabang. This is supposed to make the town more worth visiting as they are now trying to get rid of the backpackers who are not really a big money spender, but just cause more problems. Don’t forget, Laos is a communist country, they can do what they like, when they like, it is not like our western democracy where permission from the people is required!!

Anyway, I chilled out for the day and did a blog, plus found out that the rain will be like this every day, even in the dry season!! So, it will rain overnight but generally clear up around lunchtime. I had thought about going on a rafting tube adventure but I chickened out, being cold and wet is not my favourite condition, so to pay money to be that way, nah!! I would have liked to have drifted down the river in the sun with great views, but in the rain, it would just be a bore!

I headed back up to the Aussie Bar [ N18.92529 E102.44793 ] for some tucker a bit later on and I was in luck 🙂 I grabbed the last beef pie with chips and beer, followed by some nice Bundy and coke, quite a cheap evening, watching rugby union on the big screen, although he does show whatever is on Setana Sport, which is league in season, or soccer or even aerial pingpong 🙂 Steve is a great chap, very ocker, walks around with a beer in hand, no shirt on, making sure everyone is happy, a good host and although there is music there, it is at a level where you can hear yourself think, and hold a normal conversation, unlike some other places here 🙂 The area I was in was just off the main drag, up there they have many many bars to attract the backpackers, and for some reason, they all have TV’s going with episodes of Friends on up quite loud too???

I decided I would pack up and head south tomorrow, when the rain had stopped, and go to the country capital, Vientiane.

Cheers from Vang Vieng
TravellingStrom