Vang Vieng

Today marks my 4th day in Vang Vieng. The big draw here is the beautiful mountain scenery and the river that runs right by the town. Tubing is the big deal here, which costs $4 a person for the rental tube and the tuk-tuk that takes you the 3km to point where most people start their tubing adventure. The river is a great place to view the sharp mountains, they look very different from any mountains I have seen before. The river is lined with bars, some play different music from different eras and most have different types of swings or jump off points or ziplines. It's pretty chill.

They play Friends reruns at a couple of the restaurants here and Simpson's or Family Guy reruns at others. It's kind of funny how often I have heard the Friend's theme song. "I'll be there for you..when the rain starts to fall...." too bad it's going to be stuck in my head forever! We're having a good time here and loving the place we're staying at for $5 a night which is our own bungalow-made out of bamboo, but no, it's not really roughing it, it has it's own bathroom and though we do have to use a mosquito net, I actually haven't even seen that many mosquitos here in Laos, at least not as many as seemed to seek me out in Thailand.

We'll be leaving here for Vientiane in the next day or so and then flying on to Hanoi, Vietnam. We were supposed to bus it to Hanoi, but we've heard that the 24 hour bus ride has been titled by travellers as the "bus ride from hell". Therefore, we're sucking it up and purchasing the more expensive plane ticket.

It's funny how not scary it is here. I never would have even thought to come to Laos and was not even planning on it until the last second, but it is a beautiful, rather untouched country. It's weird to think that some of these places that I am going will probably not be seen by a lot of people that I know. That's why I am taking really good pictures so that you all can see.