anthroblogia

That pretty much sums up Vang Vieng for me so far - chill...

It's a small town along the Nam Song river, and a central stop-off point for travelers in Laos. People come here for the landscape, the river activities (notably 'tubing'), caving, rock climbing and partying. I missed out on the partying last night as I was relaxing and fell asleep early (getting old I guess...).
In Laos people get up early, and by 6am everyone's up and about. I finally managed to get up early enough to see the sunrise but unfortunately the photos didn't turn out well - but here is one I took of the place I'm staying at, my chalet is the one to the right


Nice eh? It's a place called 'The Other Side' - you get to it across a bouncy footbridge over the river. At first I was pleased to get the place right in front, but last night realised that it also meant getting all the noise from people in the restaurant area. etc. Lesson learnt...

Here's Vang Vieng in the morning, with some kids on the left preparing to cycle to school.


On the second day of walking I saw lots of kids going to school - the older ones on bikes, and the smaller ones crammed into a songtheaw.