Vang Vieng & Vientiane

So at the end of the last post, we had arrived in Vang Vieng. I wanted to visit this area because of the karst (limestone) landscapes and “blue lagoons”. This was the Nam Song river and hills just behind our resort -

There are three main lagoons that tourists go to, unimaginatively named Lagoon 1, Lagoon 2 and Lagoon 3. We were as underwhelmed by their appearance as by their names.

Lagoon 1 was definitely more for locals…

… and they even had some kind of music/dance performance going on…

… while people were jumping off platforms (video alert — as usual, open this post in a browser by clicking the link at the end, to see the video) -

This was the main swimming area (swim with the fishes!)…

… so we headed back to our car and driver and moved on to Lagoon 2 -

This looked more our speed, but still smaller than I expected. The other end of the lagoon didn’t look as friendly -

So we went on to check out Lagoon 3. On the way, they were harvesting rice…

… and we saw some great landscapes -

I’m sorry about the overly bright colors of the videos, but my phone is suddenly doing this to me. Anyway, the next video is from Lagoon 3, where we spent some time watching the young people enjoy themselves -

We liked this lagoon the best because it was the least developed and seemed more geared to just swimming and having fun.

I also really liked the setting. Pictures can’t really do it justice given the scale of the hills right next to the lagoon -

The next morning, our transport to the capital city of Vientiane was nicely a 90 minute bus ride on a new, smooth highway.

We walked around a little on our first afternoon there, and I caught some buildings in the fleeting golden hour -

I was taken with the ornate and colorful statues and buildings -

That night we admired the view from the rooftop bar, of the Mekong River and Thailand on the other side -

The next morning, we wandered into a temple complex and found some very interesting things. They are in the process of putting up a large building…

… and the concrete or stucco “applique” was fascinating -

We couldn’t go in the main temple because they were cleaning -

I kept finding myself taking pictures of temples, because the multi-tiered roofs were so unique -

We visited the complex of the Golden Stupa (Pha That Luang)…

… which is the most important religious site in all of Laos, and is a national symbol.

As we were exploring the complex, a large head caught my eye -

I thought this reclining Buddha was the very picture of serenity -

Some other interesting finds — dragon scales can be sparkly…

… seven-headed-nagas can be flared out like a cobra hood when protecting the Buddha…

… and the Lao people seem to prefer ornamentation and bright colors, with the more the better -

you may want to enlarge this to catch all the many details

Okay, enough with the temples. We’ll move on to the south end of Laos in the next post. May you have a peaceful rest of your day.

Nong Khiaw, Laos

When I was researching places to visit in Laos, Nong Khiaw kept popping up for its natural beauty. It still has the backpacker feel of a rural village, but with tourist infrastructure starting to come in.

Steve helped me by modifying the following Wiki map to show our destinations while in Laos. Luang Prabang (where we started) is highlighted in green; the red dot is Nong Khiaw, and the purple dot is Vang Vieng, our next destination -

The journey to N-K was quite arduous. I had read that the roads were bad, so we hired a private van, rather than being crowded in a public van or bus. The following video shows the state of the roads and the type of drivers and vehicles we encountered -

As I’ve said before, please open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the bottom of the page, so that you can easily view the video.

The distance between Luang Prabang and Nong Khaiw was 56 miles (141 km) and it took 5 hours! It was bone-crunching. But once we were surrounded with the mountainous beauty, we decided it was worth it.

This was the view from our room’s back porch -

We only had a day and a half to explore, so on our arrival afternoon, we took a short hike - about 1/2 mile (up 500 ft), in 80+ degree temps with 80+% humidity. The next picture was taken on the bridge over the Nam Ou river, and you can see the viewpoint we reached on the hill above the houses -

This was the trail…

… and this was the view -

A view up the river…

… and the town just after sunset -

I wanted to get an early start the next morning to try to see the sea-of-clouds effect I had seen online, but for several reasons, we didn’t start the “big” hike (2.75 mi total, with ~1,500 ft elevation gain) until 0830. This hike was a bit more arduous (there were even ropes provided at times)…

… and we were soon soaked with sweat. We did get to see some clouds…

… as well as a camping platform (bottom left corner in the next picture) -

I had initially planned for us to make a trek up a nearby mountain and camp up top, to be able to see sunset and then sunrise over the sea-of-clouds, but prudence won out as I realized this aging back wouldn’t take kindly to camping under the stars on a wooden platform. :)

You can probably see that we were quite a bit higher on this climb than the previous one -

I think you’ll like the views on the next video -

I like to get a pic of a country’s flag when we visit -

So we knew that we’d have the same jarring trip back away from Nong Khaiw, but luckily it wasn’t in the Laotian version of a tuk-tuk -

We did have to pause for some water buffalo along the way -

After the repeat 5 hr drive back to Luang Prabang, we then got a high-speed train to Vang Vieng…

… with some nice views along the way -

Some rice fields had already been harvested, while others were green and lush -

We were so relieved to reach our resort, at the end of this very long day -

Laos

We spent one night in Bangkok, after flying literally halfway ‘round the world, before catching a plane to get to Luang Prabang. That short (1 hr) flight into Laos turned out to be more interesting than we envisioned. We were driven on a bus for 5-10 minutes to get to the plane that was parked out on the edge of the airport’s property. After everyone boarded and was settled, the pilot announced that we had to get off the plane and return to the airport, because there was a mechanical issue, and they needed to get another plane! We did ultimately arrive safely in Luang Prabang, albeit 3 hours later than expected.

The countryside is hilly and green, and cities and towns are clustered around rivers.

For dinner our first night, we joined both locals and tourists at the Night Market…

… trying hand pulled noodles…

… with 2 different preparations of beef -

The next day we checked out Kuang Si waterfalls…

… and I decided to get a picture with Steve thrown in for scale, because this main fall was pretty impressive -

The water gets its beautiful hue from suspended limestone particles, as well as white calcium deposits on the floor of the pools -

I just loved the travertine terraces in the jungle setting -

We had gone here early in the morning to try and beat the crowds, and were fairly successful. Our driver was quite surprised when we returned to the car after just 1 hour, because most people spend the whole day exploring, swimming and having a picnic. All I wanted were some pretty pictures. :) So we had him drop us off at Wat Xiengthong (built in 1560) -

The term “wat” means a Buddhist temple or monastery, but is actually a compound containing the temple (in the above picture), stupas (shrines) and living quarters for the monks. We were there just before noon and that sun was SO hot! I kept seeking shade, and found some gorgeous murals…

… including this Tree of Life -

We paused at the nearby Mekong River…

… before going on to the Royal Palace Museum. This is the Royal Temple on the grounds…

… but we could only take photos of the outside.

I didn’t mind, since the seven-headed nagas were quite photogenic -

These are the serpents that line temple stairways, and we saw them all over town. We didn’t end up visiting any other temples, because we ran short on time, and it was just so darn hot. Luang Prabang has 33 temples in the city proper, and over 100 when you include the surrounding villages.

if you enlarge the image, you can see the golden Buddha tucked up on the left hillside

The first rice paddies we had seen were on Bali, and they had just been planted. It was neat to see these lush fields ready for harvest -

In the next post, I’ll share the story of visiting Nong Khiaw, including pictures of course!

on the road again…