February 11th:
We woke up early to Dan's awful sounding alarm and packed the last of our bits together before leaving the guesthouse. It was just after dawn as we left and on the streets were plenty of tourists, SLR at hand which made me wonder what could be happening. It was only when we turned the corner that we saw hundreds of young monks, dressed in bright orange robes, walking in an orderly line taking rice and other bits of food from women sitting in the street. Whilst in Thailand we were made aware that some women would wake up extra early at around 4, to cook for the monks as a kind of offering and for good kharma. As we continued to walk up, the que of monks seemed never ending. It was a perfect photo opportunity, and i managed to take some nice photos. I think this happens every morning, as we were constantly woken up by the "dong" noise.

We walked down, not completely sure where it was we had to board the bus, until a man approached us saying "vang vieng?" So we gave him our ticket and boarded the mini bus. We drove for 5 minutes until we stopped again to change onto a bigger bus which reminded me of the type that would be used to transport special needs children to and from school. It was nice and spacious. More tourists got onto the bigger bus with us, mainly french people and a couple from the states. As we started the journey, the views were to die for. Given the big windows on the bus, it offered us a panoramic view of the mountains and hills. My ears kept popping because we climbed so high up in the mountains. You could tell me were high because at the tops of the mountains there were clouds/mist. It really was so beautiful to look at. It made me wonder how small we were in comparison to the vast mountainous greenery that surrounded us and that us, as humans are but a drop in the ocean. I just hope that the beautiful variety of trees scattered on the hills will remain there for as long as they can, without being torn from their roots to cater for wooden furniture shops.

I was able to get some sleep on the journey, we stopped off twice. The first was a quick stop, for a fag and snacks with a marvellous view of the lush green landscape that Laos has to offer. The second stop was for lunch, which only a few people had. Instead of eating, i stood by myself near the road listening to my music taking it all in. After getting back on the bus i must have quickly fallen asleep because the next time i woke up, it was with dan prodding my arm, we were in vang vieng! At least we thought we were, we got out at the same time as the american couple so followed them out and just hoped it was vang vieng we were in. We crossed over the road to get a shake at a cafe then realised that signs surrounding us said "vang vieng" phew!

After polishing off our shakes (which were half the price than in luang prabang) we walked down to try and find a guesthouse. We passed a place that offered a double room from 60,000kip a night which works out as a fiver for the both of us! We walked down a little further to check out another guesthouse by the river. The man at the desk said it was 120,000kip for one night so we declined and walked back to the first guesthouse called "veng vilay backpacker guesthouse". We booked three nights with the boy at the desk which cost us 210,000kip (works out as 70,000 a night including a fan). He handed us the key for our room "D9" which was on the top floor, can't complain really, i could do with the extra exercise as i over did it a bit with food lately.

After climbing three flights of uneven, slightly slanted stairs we made it to our room. When we opened the door we saw someones belongings over the bed, the room was already taken! The boy who handed us the key came up pretty quickly repeating "sorry sorry sorry" or "solli" as he must have realised he'd given us the wrong room. So, we took the room just next to it, room D8. The room was pleasant, with a large double bed, private, clean bathroom and two large windows that open out onto a windowsill big enough to sit on.

When we dumped our backpacks we were peckish so left to find somewhere to have lunch. We spotted a chilled place with a massive menus. As well as tables and chairs, they had other seating which was a slightly raised wooden board covered with cushions which looked super comfy. We decided to go here to eat. I ordered a strawberry shake which was far too sweet as well as a burger (boring i know). The food was decent and it was a nice place to sit, smoke and people watch. Once we settled the bill, we took a walk to find a bookshop where we can exchange. We came across three altogether. The first one was tiny, with only a few dozen books written in english, none of these books took our fancy and seemed like they were books from the 80's that kept getting fobbed off from person to person until they found home in a small shop in Laos. The second book shop wasn't any better, it was full of unsuccessful books by authors i'd never heard of. I had almost lost hope until we found another bookshop; i should add now that when i say "bookshop" it's just any other shop like a confectionary shop or clothes shop with a small section, maybe a square meter big with shelves of dusty, uncared for books. I managed to find a book called "The Civility" which is based in the 1930's, a novel full of martinis and feather bowers. I exchanged my David Nicholls book for this and paid the extra 20,000.

It was quite an overcast day so no chance of getting a tan, lucky enough it wasn't cold! We headed back to the guesthouse to use the wifi, which only works in the lobby and doesn't have a great connection but i was able to message home. After persevering with the slow internet amongst some of the other guests, we went for a wander around. We were expected to be offered marijuana left, right and centre but vang vieng are notorious for cops under cover so i suppose people are less inclined. Walking around, there was a bit of a party atmosphere, vang vieng used to be renowned for its parties and mainly the tubing but since most of the bars have closed, the buzz has worn off a little. We went to one of the many stalls selling roti and sandwiches and both shared a roti with lemon and sugar. The amount of butter and oil she used to cook it in was sure to send us on our way to a heart attack not to mention the extremely generous serving of sugar, nonetheless it was tasty. We then spotted a backpackers bar with more of those comfy cushioned seats so we sat in one of the booths with a Beer Lao which got me pretty tipsy for a small bottle. We then decided to walk back to the guesthouse, on the way we bought a baguette each (or as they say "sand wich")to eat later in the room, i chose tuna and Dan opted for chicken. They cost only 10,000kip each which is cheaper than a pound for a massive baguette filled with salad and a filling of your choice. I didn't need the baguette really as i wasn't too hungry but it's so cheap it would be rude not to plus it's like a prize for climbing the stairs back up to our room. When we got in we had a cheeky smoke of what was left over from pakbeng, ate our baguettes and read our books.