Day Time New Year Party, Laos Style

Biking and hiking to the karst mountains

Hiking to a cave in the mountains

Hiking to a cave in the mountaind

Hiking to a cave in the mountains

So it’s been a while since our last post, so I’ll give a little update. We crammed ourselves into a minibus with some other travelers and headed for the Cambodian-Thai border, our destination being Bangkok. It was a long day of shuffling through lines at the border and then waiting for everyone else on our bus… anyway, we reached Bangkok alive and well and in fairly good spirits. We were in Bangkok mainly because from there we could book an overnight bus to Laos, so we were there only about 24 hours. The night bus was not bad, not great. Vientiane, when we arrived was a soul sucking 104 degrees, but luckily I had arranged a hostel about a minute from the bus station with air conditioning. Vientiane was another short stop for us; only one night and then hopped the five hour bus to Vang Vieng, where we planned to spend four nights and also the Lao New Year.

The town of Vang Vieng is quite beautiful, surrounded by giant karst formations that seem to defy gravity. Once the mecca of debauchery, VV has now mellowed out a bit. After having 27 deaths in 2012, the police cracked down on the drug and drinking scene, so now travelers come to hike, bike around, tube the river, and generally be lazy and enjoy life.

We followed suit and biked to some caves, went tubing, and walked around town getting soaked. Lao New Year, or Pimai, is celebrated by throwing water on one another for long life, peace, happiness and such (I’m guessing). The locals also flock to the river where they hang out and even pull tables and chairs into the river to eat and drink and play very, very loud music. What this all turns into, of course, is a town wide water fight; in hundred plus degree weather, the timing really couldn’t be better.