What is Vang Vieng?

 12-1

Vang Vieng is a beautiful province in Laos. The city of that province is located in a valley with a beautiful stream flowing through it. There are mountains all around. Not all of the most beautiful caves, landscapes, and waterways in Laos are in Vang Vieng. But there are many interesting places such as viewpoints, waterfalls, landscapes, caves, and blue water ponds in one location around Vang Vieng. Besides, Vang Vieng is not that far from the capital of Laos, Vientiane, and the main tourist city, Luang Prabang. It is only 160 kilometers from Vientiane. It takes about an hour by train. Tourists who come to see the beauty and relax also come to Vang Vieng in significant numbers. If we look at the Ella View Point from the Sri Lankan perspective, there are two to three hundred beautiful view points in Laos. There are seven or eight in Van Vieng itself. Some of them are really beautiful view points with 360-degree views.

Getting off Van Vieng
We got off the train. When we got out, taxi guys from all over the world came to give us offers. In between, there were some nice little buses. We had about a 5-kilometer journey. The Sisawan Guest House, which we booked through Booking, is located in the center of Van Vieng. They asked for one and a half hundred thousand kip for the bus. About two thousand in Sri Lankan money. We were the only ones on the bus. When we looked later, there were taxis cheaper than E. Then we decided to take the bus. Anyway, those bus services have fixed prices. One advantage of choosing the bus instead of the taxis outside is that they are building the road in Van Vien. The dust is heavy.

When we went to the hotel, the receptionist said that we couldn't check in right away because the others who were waiting there hadn't checked out yet. So we ate at the shop in front. After drinking, we walked around a bit and left our bags at the hotel reception. A colleague of ours, who wanted to do a gimmick with Google Translator, went to speak to the receptionist in Lao. Unfortunately, she doesn't speak Lao. She is a Vietnamese girl.

In tourist hotspots like this, there are many advantages to booking a place as close to the center as possible. When you go out at night, there are clubs, massage parlors, and other immoral things nearby. When we went out during the day, there were water activities, bike rides, balloon rides, bike rentals, etc. We could easily touch anything at any time. So we bought masks from the shop in front of the accommodation. While buying masks, we saw that there were electric scooters for rent near the market. Lao kip 150,000 per day. We didn't even need gasoline. We bought two. We took them to the hotel, dropped our bags in the room, checked in, and started riding our bikes.

First, we went to see a balloon ride. It was a place nearby, as shown on the map. There were balloons and small aircraft that could fly. I don't know the name of it. We went at noon. It was closed at that time. There were only a few other people who had come to see the place like us.

Then I followed the map to see a rock cave. Google Maps doesn't work well in Laos. It's hard to imagine that a map wouldn't work well in a very popular place with thousands of tourists. Along the way, we crossed a wooden bridge. After crossing it, we had to come back to the river and cross another suspension bridge. Then we came back to the same place we started from. So, we decided to leave the butterfly hut and go see another viewpoint.