Vang Vieng
So pick up this morning is at 9.30am and sure enough there they were dead on time but in an open side open back truck which was full! There was another guy getting on at my guesthouse and the driver with all the charm in the world, like none (!), pointed for me to balance on the back of the truck hanging onto two backpacs and a bottle of water while the other guy deposited his bag where my feet were going to go and sat in the front cab! It was ok though just as long as this wasn’t the bus we were on for the next 4 hours, then things could have got a little uncomfortable! Sure enough like I guessed we were only going 10 mins down the road to pick up the normal bus, one with sides and a back and everything!
The journey to Vang Vieng was fine really and took as estimated 3 and a half hours, before we were then dropped off at the nicer end of town at a nice little hotel that was way out of anyones price range. Instead 20+ backpackers grabbed their backpacks from an unsmiling driver and headed away from the bus, all of us following the one in front and none of us knowing where we were going! It was mid-day and hot, I had a couple of places in mind but after trying to find them for about 15 minutes I gave up and went to a place recommended by the Lonely Planet. Obviously I’ll never learn on that front, that just by being in the LP they’ve already spoilt them. I like the LP it serves a need and without it I don’t know where I’d be sometimes I just wish their accommodation advice was a bit better placed and more up to date! This place was not good but after wandering around for a while I just wanted to stop. So I took a room costing just £4.60 with ensuite (I guess for that price what do I expect right?!) but I kinda wish I hadn’t as there was obviously an ants nest in my bathroom and these cleaver little ants were taking all manner of things back for dinner, it was like Friday night take-out except it was a Monday and I wasn’t eating! First they had a massive great blue coloured flying thing while I was trying to have a shower and then when I came back from a wander around town I caught them trying to smuggle a very massive, very blue and very dead spider under my door! Thing is when I came back gain a few hours later they were trying to do it again, I think this spider will keep them going for days so they’re keen to get him home.
I don’t mind really just as long as they don’t decide to take up residence in my backpack on in my brain! ;-)
During my wander around town both initially and then later in the evening it became very clear that this really wasn’t the place for me! It was like Faliraki all those years ago except I’m now considerably older, considerable wiser (perhaps) and I’m not being paid to enjoy it!
In every bar there’s a loop of ‘Friends’ of ‘Family Man’ or something similar on TV and people are sitting there as though they were in a cinema, not talking to each other and not taking their eyes off the screens! Then there are other people who are staggering the streets near on paraletic, half naked, with peoples phone numbers painted all over their bodies ............................OMG when did I get so old!!!
To be fair I think I had a preconceived idea about this place before I arrived. No-one seemed to be rating it very much, all anyone would say was that it was a party town and that the only thing people came here for was the tubing..........and seeing as I don’t like water I’m not sure why I came except it’s all in life experiences!! Onwards and upwards right?!
A part of me wanted to give this town a fair go and stay another night but the more I read the LP over a beer the more I could see there were far nicer places to visit and on my time scale I need to be picky so on the way back from dinner I popped into a tour agent and booked on the first bus out in the morning......next stop Luang Prabang.
Vang Vieng
No comments:
Post a Comment