To say that China is making its influence known around the world is an understatement. It is made abundantly clear in Laos. They have built a high-speed train from China to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. We opted for the train vs. the bus, 50 minutes vs. 6 hours. Over the course of the the route, the train passes through 76 tunnels, though most are not between Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. This 1st class ticket was $27.
Vang Vieng
Vang Vieng is considered the adventure capital of Laos. 10 years ago it was the party capital, where backpackers would rent inner tubes to go down the river, stopping at bars along the way. The town has since slowed this down, although there are hints of it in the town’s DNA.
Now there is a lot of hot air ballooning and ultra-lite rides. We chose not to spend there, as it would be abour $250 for each of us to do both. Instead, we spent our hard-earned money on massages and meals.
Each night of our stay we were “treated” to music until late into the night. The first night it sounded like karaoke was competing with a DJ at a bar. Lovely.
The second night at about 9:00, music started blasting. Not minor blasting, real-life blasting. We thought it was a neighboring room, then the restaurant behind the hotel. We found out the next morning that a tour of Chinese tourists had arrived and routinely plays loud music and parties until late at night.
We feel like we’d have done Vang Vieng more justice had we rented bikes and gone out into the beautiful countryside, but we were still recovering a bit, and the massages made up for it.
Train to Vientiane
Hailed a cab and headed to the train station after a coffee and croissant. This route went through much countryside, and I was pleased to see a “green” rice paddy. They normally have three crops of rice each year, but we seem to be hitting it just after the harvest, or in some cases when they are burning the fields to prepare for planting.
