So we are down to the last few hours in Laos; we have a night bus leaving for Thailand in 6 hours. The last few weeks have moved quite quickly, so we’re not sure if we’re ready to leave Laos.
After cycling to Vientiane we spent a few nights relaxing before bussing to the backpacker town of Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is packed with backpackers who tube down the river, drink, and chill out in bars playing Family Guy and Friends 24/7. We scored a sweet riverside bungalow complete with a cow field and ponies (and a wicked mountain/sunset view), and after a day of relaxing we did a day of guided climbing at one of the local crags. Definitely worth it, definitely planning on returning to Vang Vieng for more climbing some day.
After Vang Vieng we took a ~10 hour minibus ride to Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We intended to relax a bit, but a bike ride to a waterfall turned into an 80km cycle to the waterfall and the distant “northern bus terminal”.
So now we have a ~15 hour bus ride to the Thai border to look forward to, and another ~4 hours after that and we’ll arrive in Chiang Mai, our Thai destination for the next week or two.
Hopefully we’ll have wifi in the guesthouse in Chiang Mai, and we’ll be able to upload some more pictures of our cycle touring.
Until then =]
