How to get to Laos? Shall we take a thirty-hour bus journey? Or an hour flight? Bus? Or flight? Bus or flight? Nia and I toyed with the idea of this for a good hour, looking at our funds of what we had spent and what we had left. Weighing up having to do another long journey, with another crossing. It was fifty-fifty at this point; to get into Cambodia – horrendous, to get into Vietnam – easy, we couldn’t predict what would happen. We had heard along the way, again from other travellers that this was a particularly bad crossing, again. We had heard this about all our crossings so far and were still on the fence. I guess it just depends on the day you have – it could either be a breeze or a nightmare. We had had enough of the wet weather so we decided, let’s just get out of Vietnam as quickly as possible. The flights weren’t very expensive, we both had enough in our budgets, and we had been savvy so far. But from Laos into Thailand and down to Bangkok we knew this had to be a bus journey. It’s all about where you put your money, do what works for you.
We arrived into Vientiane, the capital of Laos, in the late afternoon, very quickly and comfortably. We checked into the Vientiane Backpackers hostel. Nice and simple. It was a bed for two nights while we had some beers and waited for part of ‘the group’ to get there. While we had had the extra night in Hanoi they got a bus all the way from Ha Long bay to Vientiane – they did not enjoy it. So we were happy we took the flight in the end, but tried not to show it too much.
We only had three stops in total while in Laos, Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang. So next stop after the Capitol was Vang Vieng. This was where the fun really began in this country, it was time to tube.
Now for those who haven’t heard of this before, Laos is the country of the famous river tubing, death tubing some people call it. Drinking and sitting in a rubber donut down the river of Laos while you bar crawl from the different sides of the river. Beer pong, shots, downing of drinks, before continuing to climb into a rubber ring in moving water before repeating the same process again. This whole cycle goes around four or fives times, each in different riverside backpacker bars. Would this be legal in the UK? Absolutely no chance. Is it legal in Laos? Not sure about legal, but they make money from it, so why the hell not. They aren’t responsible for us and how much we drink. We are fully grown adults now, with adult morals and adult self-control… LOL.
It’s actually a cracking day and everyone has a laugh, they started off with about twenty different bars alongside the river way back when they first started the experience. Every bar wanted a piece of the action and dollar that came with it, but twenty bars guys. If you had twenty pints you would be on the floor.. or floating in the river. Which is why they had to stop the amount of bars the backpackers went to. So at the moment you can book the tubing the same day as other people but you get split into different groups going to different bars, it still keeps the group size of about thirty people, but the amount of bars you visit to no more than five. They had got it just right, maybe it could have been one bar less for some people. After the day was finished, if you hadn’t thrown up what was already in your stomach to make room for more alcohol – it was time to stumble to bed. But if you were a lucky winner who was able to continue it was time to head back to whoever’s hostel was open the latest for beers and let the night continue on. We stayed at the Real Backpackers Hostel so of course by name it was a choice which was always open.
If you didn’t have a sore head the following day or felt sick, you were on something. Clearly. Maybe not actually, but you get my point. No one was in a good state.. even those who went to bed. It is a lot of drinking, so much fun, but a lot of drinking. If you have done it before you will be reading this and nodding knowing exactly what I mean. If you haven’t had the privilege of tubing yet, you need to add it to your list when you are next passing through Laos – don’t let the hangover put you off.
Nia and I were at that stage we could probably just about stomach something, and would definitely be best to, before we started feeling even more ill, but what to eat? Fried rice? Noodles? Curry? Chicken, cashews, and rice? No, no, no more Asian food. This would be the perfect time to be back in Flipside hostel in Hanoi for one of their famous burgers. Alas, we are not in Hanoi. We started wondering and come across a street vendor, there was a queue of about three people waiting at this stand for them. There was another vendor serving the same thing across the street, and again a queue. What are they queuing for? It looks like a sandwich. Is it a sandwich? Ladies and gentlemen, what Nia and I had just discovered this day was the Banh Mi Sandwich.
Now if you know, you know. I would also like to note that, yes, we were aware we were a little bit late to these sorts of things. Apparently this is a famous sandwich in Vietnam; according to ‘the group’ we were with, who had seemed to have had about six on their travels so far, while we weren’t even looking. They did say they were better in Laos though, but still not happy I didn’t know about them sooner.
They were EXACTLY what we needed. It’s just warm, crusty on the outside, soft on the inside bread, a bit like a French baton; but better. They then pack it with filling! When I say pack, I mean pack. I don’t mean any of this, you get a baguette in the UK and you can’t even see your bacon in your BLT cause it’s so small sort of thing. They pack it, as everyone should, they have basically set my sandwich standards to a whole new level. You can choose from any meat, even if you wanted more than one type, cheeses, salad items and the best thing was the avocado. They just smother that s*** on, you probably get a whole avocado in one Banh Mi. It’s so good I can’t even explain; I don’t know if the taste was highlighted by our cracking hangover. We didn’t even care, we had another one afterwards anyway.
We had four nights in total in Vang Vieng and still managed to take full advantage of the amazing scenery around us.
LEAH HANCOX 