The road to Vang Vieng was windier than I've ever experienced. We drove up through the mountainside
and after every turn was another sharp turn. The drivers speed didn't help with lots of near head on collisions with the obsession to overtake everything. Bumpy, windy and horn going off made the journey hard to relax but the views were spectacular! Beautiful mountain tops all different shapes and sizes, villages of bamboo huts and other villages with recently built concrete homes, children (dirty or naked) playing, adults working.

We got a tuk tuk from the bus station to the centre for 10,000 kip each and found a guesthouse to stay at, Shout Jai, where we settled in with a mocha frappe. We ran into Luke & Josh who were sitting outside their guesthouse and went for dinner. All the restaurant bars had platform seating with table and cushions on the floor, facing plasma screens showing Friends, Family Guy or South Park. The menus were the same pretty much everywhere serving a mix of western and Asian food. The food or service wasn't great but the copious amounts of Friends made up for it and made a perfect hangover spot. Baguettes and pancakes were sold in every restaurant and along the streets from vendors, they were good but after 6 days i had enough of baguettes. The vendors would be there till late at night for a drunken munch after kick out. There were lots of bars along the two roads most of them playing beer pong run by douchebag predators, who dressed in low cut baggy vests, stupid jewellery or "traveller bands", with know it all attitude and regretfully they were mostly English. The better bars were Gary's Irish Pub where you could play pool or darts and between 6-10pm got 3 cocktails for 2, (I got The Rising Sun tiger whiskey, orange and grenadine). LaLa Land was another cool Bar with beer pong at the front and a bonfire in the back. Most of the bars closed at 11:30-12am then you could move to The Moon Bar which opened until 2am. It was a dark dirty smelly bar playing lots of dance music, people could smoke inside so we came out stinking of sweat, smoke and booze.

Most of the restaurants had a "happy menu" serving weed, mushrooms and opium in different forms, joints, pizzas, shakes, bags etc Sold but still illegal so police can still arrest you if a place is raided!

There was lots to do in Vang Vieng Neil, Luke, Josh and I had a brilliant day tubing with a great group of Swedes, Isabel & Rebecka (sisters), Emma, Wille, Isaac, Björn and Jacob. Jacob and Björn loved to sing so entertained us with there vocals for some of the journey, singing some classic Queen and Billy Joel. We made a massive effort to stay together linking legs and arms in tubes, holding onto rocks so people could catch up, gripping onto one another while going down rapids. Luke was a fish in water and made an excellent rudder directing us along the river. We floated along with all our pre-bought, pre-mixed alcohol (vodka and 7up sipping it through a straw). We stopped off at one of the last remaining bars for toilet and beerlao. You could see all the remains of all the old bars, slides and rope swings, some directly over jagged rocks, the danger obvious. The river was much easier to tube down than Pai and was a lot more fun and relaxing and it was good to make a group of friends. Id love to of experienced the original tubing in its heyday but we had a brilliant time either way, so much fun!

We went by tuk tuk along very dusty roads and past lots of cows to the blue lagoon and cave. It was a slight anti-climax as it had been bigged up so much but was still a lovely afternoon. It was a lot smaller than I expected but the water was a gorgeous blue, there was a rope swing and tree that people jumped off. The cave was huge with a huge cube shape rock that looked like the transformer all spark.

There are a lot of places to trek around Vang Vieng, we spent an afternoon trekking to a waterfall and back. There were hot air balloon rides, which I would have loved to of done but was $80 and couldn't afford it! Rebecka went and said it was amazing and one of the best things she has done. We spent an afternoon by the swimming pool of a hotel (20,000kip entry), a great way to spend our last day.

I have enjoyed Vang Vieng and because the town is based around backpackers, it's not massively cheap or cultural but it is beautiful. The scenery is incredible and the activities are fun and we met some great people. Looking forward to moving on and eating some better food!