Labor Day Weekend in Vang Vieng
Today we took the 11:00 a.m. train to Vang Vieng, a city an hour north of Vientiane, and did some exploring.
Bullet Train
We left the train station at exactly 11:00 a.m., so the train was definitely not running on Lao time. The bullet train is only two years old, and is operated by the Laos-China Railway Company. The train has many pictures of the Frangipani flower (called “Dok Champa” in Lao) which is the national flower of Laos.
Read more about the Laos-China Railway Line
Traveling around Vang Vieng
We got to our hotel and settled in before going to explore. Vang Vieng is known for its striking limestone mountains, caves, and riverbanks. Vang Vieng is a popular tourist destination for its natural beauty.
Read more about Vang Vieng’s natural beauty
Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)
There are mountains everywhere in Vang Vieng.
We rented a buggy and drove to to the first Blue Lagoon (there are 5 total) to go swimming and cool down. We saw many signs cautioning us to drive slowly since there were cows who wandered across the road. They caused so many traffic jams!
Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)
We passed these cows on the road. In general, cows are not fenced in in Laos, so they’re always wandering around.
The Blue Lagoon
We went to the first Blue Lagoon and had a great time. There were lots of fish in the river that kept nibbling my toes. I really didn’t like that, so I sat on the side of the river and just put my feet in the water.
Courtesy of Guerra, C. (2023)
Calling It a Night
At night, we had dinner at Gary’s Irish Pub, which was super fun. We got soaked on the way there since it rained so much. It is the rainy season indeed! It was nice to sit under the fans at Gary’s and dry off while eating hamburgers. We played an egregious game of pool that took 45 minutes before calling it a night.
Tomorrow we are going hiking, which will be so much fun!