Hi, everyone! I have spent the last five nights in Vang Vieng, northern Laos. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the vibe of the place – and especially the gorgeous karst-mountain views. I think it was a really solid decision to stay here during my birthday.

A few housekeeping things:

1) If you’re interested in my art, have a look at my merchandise on RedBubble!
2) If wanting to read my first novel, Eclipse Me, you can find the link here.

Pakse to Vang Vieng

After typing up my latest blog post, I departed Pakse around 8pm in anticipation of a long, LONG bus ride to Vang Vieng. Probably the longest bus ride I’ve taken since being in Southeast Asia, to be honest.

Unfortunately, earlier that day, I started to feel a cold coming on. Scratchy throat, some congestion, even an achey/fatigued body. Truly awful. Between blogging, I tried to get some rest in before the long bus ride. My “sleeper bus” experiences so far have largely been in Vietnam and so I didn’t have much to compare it to. Well, those busses were true luxury compared to the sleeper from Pakse to Vang Vieng. I actually had to share the bed with a stranger for the first 8 hours of the trip. All I wanted to do was stretch out my achey body and try to comfortably sleep. That was not the case. I was awake for the first few hours, in a sick daze. But then, eventually, I was able to fall asleep. The kind of in/out sleep that is common on planes/busses/trains.

After many hours, I had a short connection in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. The night before, it sounded like I might have to stay there for two or more hours waiting for the minivan, but because of a delay during our trip (they were changing the tire for like an hour around 1am), I hardly had to wait at all.

The minivan was painless enough and the scenery was quite beautiful.

Around 11am, I arrived at my accommodation. I’d had some back and forth with the owners on the Agoda app a few days prior. I’d booked a room but then messaged them, asking if they could ensure I was in a room with a view as I was spending my time in Vang Vieng to celebrate my birthday. I’d read some reviews that “rooms with a view” were a little complicated to secure. I heard back from the owners and they’d said the bungalows only had a garden view, not of the karst mountains.

I realized the same owner actually had two properties and this is where people get confused. So I booked a room with a balcony, which showed a picture of the view. Perfect. Well, when I arrived, the receptionist tried to put me in a bungalow. I was going to go with it, but then I thought, no, I really want that balcony and view for my birthday. That’s the whole reason I tried to book that accommodation. After some slight back and forth, he ended up calling his manager who then put me up in the room with a balcony. THANK YOU, GOD! While the view is slightly obstructed by the bungalows down below, it has still been lovely to just sit on the balcony and admire the mountains in the distance. I am currently here, typing up this blog post while looking out at it.

Next up: a fucking nap. I so desperately needed one. I collapsed onto the bed and slept until 3pm. It was needed.

I didn’t plan to do anything that evening but in the end, I decided to walk down the road and get to a sunset viewpoint. I found a “free” viewpoint that had a boardwalk and some small huts. Water buffalo were grazing in the fields. To my left, there was a field where people were taking off on “paramotor” rides, which is basically paragliding but with a motor on the back of it. It was a chill experience and a cool intro to Vang Vieng. I got very excited when I saw the hot air balloons taking off for sunset – a precursor to my birthday event.

After sunset, I grabbed dinner and retired for the night. I was looking forward to catching up on sleep after a hellish night. I ended up having an extremely chill day. Feeling much better (no longer actively sick), I just hung out in bed most of the day. In the evening, I went for the best massage I’ve had since being in Southeast Asia. The techniques he’d used were unlike anything I’d experienced before. At one point, I was on my stomach, he had his feet pressing against my backside, and he was stretching my arms backwards. He also was able to crack my body in the most amazing ways haha. I was beyond pleased – such an amazing massage!

Otherwise, I spent that second day doing some planning/research/admin stuff for the next couple months.

Jang & Water Caves

My 34th birthday and I had an exciting day ahead of me. To begin, I walked 20min to the entrance of Jang Cave. If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that I like to pretend I’m not that impressed by caves, but when I actually go to them, I’m like, “wow, this is so cool!” Jang Cave was not even a fraction as cool as some of the caves I’d visited in Vietnam, but it was still worth a visit. The entrance fee was only USD$0.92 and also gave access to a lagoon where people were swimming and rope swinging.

The cave took maybe 45min to explore. It was lovely!

I descended the many stairs and then realized there was a “water cave” to explore, too. I changed into my bathing suit and made my way into it. There are a series of ropes helping to pull you along while swimming through the water cave. When I started, I was the only person in the cave. I didn’t know how deep it was. For some reason, I found it difficult to swim in there – even though the cave opened up to a large area after the opening, I felt I was a little short of breath and also had a sort of claustrophobic feeling. The water was extremely clear. Below me, I could see the cavern system went pretty deep below me. The experience was definitely a little freaky. I swam to the end, which luckily only took maybe 5 or 10 min, then hurried to get back to the entrance. NOT my cup of tea, y’all. (It was also lit up by lights, so I wasn’t swimming through darkness.)

I dried off on a bench, watching others playing in the water and jumping from wooden platforms. I considered joining them, but instead just had a cigarette and watched. It was noon at this point, so I wanted to grab food and relax before my hot air balloon flight.

On the walk home, I saw some cows crossing the street. Cute!

Hot Air Balloon Ride

Around 4.15, I was picked up and transported to the launching point for the hot air balloons. It was cool to see all the other balloons getting filled up with hot air.

My group watched as the balloon before us took off. And before long, we were hopping into ours. It took a team of locals to keep the balloon from flying away while we all jumped in. And then, suddenly, we were lifting into the air.

Higher and higher we went and I started shaking. We… are… getting very high up. And we are in essentially a wicker basket.

At our max height, I thought the guide told us we were at 900 meters or 2,700 feet. (In hindsight, I just did a 650 meter hike and that balloon ride must have been WAY higher than 900 meters.) That is certain death if that thing were to drop. Luckily nothing of the sort happened. Thank God – and I definitely was praying for our safety.

But the views. The views were just so incredible. The town below us, the snaking river running through it. The softer mountains to the east and the sharp, karst mountains to the west.

The guide did a 360 turn for us, so we could all take a video of the rotating scenery. It was breathtaking and unreal. Like viewing from a plane, except… well, we were in a basket, floating through the sky.

The sun was setting and it made for a beautiful sight. What an incredible experience.

The ride was maybe half an hour at most. As we got closer to our descent point, we seemed to be just clearing the tops of the buildings in town. Down below, people waved and took video of us. One particularly spunky Laotian kid was shouting at us and giving me the finger, which had me cracking up. He even took off his shoe and threw it in our direction – TWICE! Little shithead.

Finally, we landed, and I was thankful to have made it down safely. We were carted back into town and dropped off. What a crazy experience!

Major thank you to my parents, who sent along birthday money to pay for my hot air balloon ride. Such a special gift and an experience I’ll remember for the rest of my life! Love you both so much!

Later in the evening, I returned for another massage which was just as wonderful, if not more so!

Nam Xay & Blue Lagoon

The next morning, I rented a scooter and drove to Nam Xay to hike up to a viewpoint. I love riding scooters – it’s such a fun way to explore the area. I maneuvered my way around potholes and gravel roads, passing water buffalo and rice fields. After half an hour, I arrived at the starting point of the Nam Xay hike.

The hike itself took only 30min, but it was steep and uphill the whole way. It was basically a rock-climbing situation. There were ropes and bamboo poles pretty much the whole way to assist people during the climb. At the top, there were a lot of people. Somehow, locals had stationed two motorbikes on the top of the mountain and it’s a really popular photography attraction. I didn’t feel like queueing for it, so I just sat in the shade and admired the view instead. And what a great view it was!

After some time at the top, I returned down and had papaya salad for lunch.

I wasn’t sure what my next plan was. Would I check out a waterfall? One of the “blue lagoons”? I decided to just ride the scooter for a while and eventually found I was arriving at Blue Lagoon #3.

For another small entrance fee, I was able to either spend time in the water or go climb up to another viewpoint. There was also a cave. I hiked to the viewpoint – the trek up was slightly slippery and much more janky than Nam Xay. The viewpoint was almost like a sheltered cave looking out to the mountains and fields across the distance. (Also, on the way to the viewpoint there were some water buffalo cooling off in the river. TOO CUTE!)

I enjoyed the view but there were a few other guys in the area, smoking a joint and talking loudly about their drunken travel experiences. It was not as tranquil as I’d hoped, so I climbed back down after 10min or so.

I was going to check out another cave in the area but after realizing it was another incline, I decided to pass. Instead, I watched people playing in the water. Again, I considered joining but then I realized I didn’t really want to. I didn’t have a towel with me and air-drying is annoying to me lol. Plus, I decided that once I’m in Thailand, I’ll be spending tons of time in the water: snorkeling, diving, etc. Can’t wait!

I rode around on the scooter for a while longer, admiring the mountains of Laos.

Remember when I was getting sick of beauty in Vietnam? Now I can appreciate it again haha.

Before dark, I walked around town, looking up at the hot air balloons taking flight. I snapped a few photos at a nearby temple and was tickled at balloons making their way into the shot. What a cool town! And much to do: hot air balloons, paramotor rides, “tubing” in the lagoons, exploring caves, riding dune buggies, scooters, etc. I think in some ways, Vang Vieng is probably better suited for people traveling with other friends – for me, maybe I’d be more inclined to do ALL THE THINGS if I was with someone else, but I’m happy to have done what I did!

Pha Ngern Silver Cliff

I wasn’t sure if I would do anything my last day in town. In the early afternoon, I typed up most of this blog post. In the end, I decided to do one final adventure in Vang Vieng and I’m glad I did.

In the late afternoon, I rented a bicycle and drove it to the trailhead of Pha Ngern – a viewpoint ideal for sunsets. Like Nam Xay, the hike was a steep incline the entire duration. Actually, I found it technically less challenging than Nam Xay although the path was slightly narrower.

I made it to the top well before sunset. A group of young 20-somethings were all up there already. They were doing a tour around Laos and Thailand. I wondered what something like that would cost. I ended up chatting with some of the group for a little bit – talking about their itinerary, about my gap year, etc.

I enjoyed watching the sun slowly set, with the mountains as a backdrop and hot air balloons off in the distance. Paramotors cruised by, sometimes quite close to the viewpoint I was on top of.

After a certain point, everybody else left and it was just me. As I looked behind me, I noticed a dog had somehow hiked to the top of the mountain. What the hell?! I think he was the dog of the one and only shop vendor who was at the summit (selling water and snacks). He was packing his things up as I began my descent. He and the dog followed shortly behind me on the way back down. (And I also saw a cool caterpillar.)

Watching the sunset was the perfect way to wrap up my time in Vang Vieng.

Miscellaneous

When in Pakse, I was chatting with the hostel employee and when I told him I was going to Vang Vieng, he told me, “oh, you can find weed there!” I thought it was funny because, oh, sure, it’s going to be easier to find weed than it is to find vapes, huh? ANNOYING. WHY IS VAPING ILLEGAL IN SO MUCH OF SOUTHEAST ASIA?

Another thing to mention about Vang Vieng… I had read online that about a year ago, there was a slew of tourists dying from methanol poisoning while drinking at the bars. That is fucking insane. Good thing I’m sober!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home! To be honest, I forgot about it until my parents told me. Because I have a foreign SIM card, it doesn’t tell me US holidays haha. It’s easy to forget.

Reflections

While in Vang Vieng, I had kept my itinerary open and decided if I liked, I could extend another two nights in town. In the end, I feel the pacing has been good for me. I’ve seen and done some cool things. At the same time, it has been a slightly chiller week – which I’ve appreciated. Laos, for me, has been a slower pace in general. I’ve heard that it’s definitely the place for it, and from the moment I arrived in Don Det, I felt that slowness shroud me like a blanket.

As of tomorrow, I have another 5 nights or so in Luang Prabang, Laos. A few more if I like. Then I will take an overnight slow boat to get me to Thailand – the final country I’ll be visiting in Asia. CRAZY!

Until next time, sending you all my love. x