The North and New Years

You know those things we love to see happen to someone but hate it when it happens to you... That is just how I felt on our bus trip to Muang Ngoi Keaw. About 20 of us on the back of an 8 seater truck like tuk tuk driving at 80 km an hour, when I see this black back fly of our roof and smashing along the road behind us when I suddenly notice how familiar it looks. We only managed to get the asshole driver to stop like 100 meters further and I got out and ran to my bag due to the cars behind stopping and showing some keen interest to this gift lying in the middle of the road. Other then getting highly upset with the driver and slightly irritable with Pieper who was trying to get an action shot with his camera of me checking what had been broken in my backpack , all was ok. Sorry Signe when I asked to borrow it I didn't think I would be testing it like this and yes dad I now know why you tell me to always check myself that everything is tied securely to the car and I will be doing that for the rest of the trip.

After a six hour trip on the truck we eventually got to Nong Khiaw and we then caught a boat for an hour and a half to Muang Ngoi Keaw. Small, peaceful fishing village that no roads lead to, so was great to get away from the constant scooter abuse. We had a quite time there with a bit of swimming in the river with Water buffalo, trecking through the jungle and rice fields and exploring caves, all without the help of a guide. The food was pretty good for a small fishing village but the fruit shakes, were quite a shock and no one ordered another after we realised a banana fruit shake was a banana and water...

After that we headed back to Luang prabang and then off to Vang Vieng for a bit of a New Years party. Vang Vieng was once upon a time a peaceful village along the banks of a river. It is now a tourist haven with backpacker on every corner and restaurants playing non-stop reruns of friends.It took us a good few hours to get there and we were going to have a relaxing evening to prepare for our new years party the next day, but things don't always work out as planned. So even though we were all a bit tired we were up and about at 11 and ready to go for our tubing experience. For those of you who don't know Vang Veng is famous for its tube cruise. Which basically means they give you a tractor tube and drive you five kilometers upstream and you then float down stream and stop at bars along the river bank, you can either have a beer there or take it with and carry on floating downstream. One of the best Nerw years ever which kicked of with a Mohitto in a plastic packet, not very practicle but really good. The tubing I thought was going to be relaxing day in the sun but we did spend a decent amount of time fighting off asshole barmen who kept hooking your tube with long bamboo poles and pulling you into there bars to sell you drinks. Some of the bars were pretty plain while other had sound systems of note, volleyball courts, tabletennis and awesome swings that throw you into the river. After a good few hours of volley ball we decided to start heading down stream, by the time we made it back to the start it was six oclock and freezing so we had a bit of a cleanup and we went off to that dodgy bar to have a whisky bucket and celebrate a memorable New Years.

Iaki Vang Vieng

Tubes - Vang Vieng

Iaki and Eva - Vang Vieng

Tubing - Vang Vieng

One of my best ones to date...

written by

ourindochina on January 1, 2008 from Nong Khai, Thailand

from the travel blog: The Indo China Adventure (incl Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia)

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