Day 127 - Off to Vang Vieng

My street in Vientiane

Day 127 - 28th October

So I set out early morning after coffee and fried eggs to find batteries for my Barclays card reader. Without this I can't access my bank account to get my money. Not to panic though, something will come up good to help me, right?

So I jumped on the bus and seated myself next to a woman. The bus was crowded as they often are but we bumped along the road, stopping once as per usual for food and toilet breaks, before reaching Vang Vieng at 2pm.

We were all bundled out at the Riverside Hotel. It was a flashy looking place at the south of the town. A short mini bus ride took us to another hostel and from there I walked ten minutes to my hostel, Easy Go Backpackers. On the way, I picked up my coach seat buddy who was a Belgian.

Once we'd checked in, they put us in the same dorm and I had a feeling she felt I was orchestrating this (I genuinely wasn't).

Absolutely devine

Just keeps getting better!

Then I started exploring, walking around the town, taking in the beautiful mountainous views and trying not to get sunburned. My search of eight places to find 1.4V batteries (four of the buggies) for my card reader but no one here has ever seen them, let alone stocked them.

I checked out the tubing scene. It looks pretty similar to the tubing I did in America so I'm undecided whether to do this for 100,000 kip. I have a few days to decide so I'll think about it. I'm more interested in trekking or kayaking through cave here. Again, cost permitting due to having no access to money, I'll make my decision in the next few days.

I went back to take a shower before having dinner at the Green Restaurant in town. I noticed that Friends is on loop here in bars so that could be a possibility for dinner tomorrow. I've had Friends withdrawals whilst travelling!

I sat for a while on the decking overlooking the mountains from my hostel and just watched the stars. It's so peaceful and quiet outside the partying perimeter that you can only hear the wildlife noises. I even swear to seeing shooting stars.

A great first day in Vang Vieng but I need to move about a bit tomorrow to find something to do! Apart from boozing, tubing and caving, this place isn't as busy as I thought it'd be (that's low season for you!)