Indochina Day 9, Driving to Van Vieng

Sunday June 5^th

I woke up really early this morning, 5:00am, so I decided to go for a walk to see a couple of things that were suggested that I had not yet had time for. I walked back to the night market area and the main street to witness the giving of alms to the monks. Apparently monks are not allowed to cook for themselves and are supported by the community. The religion here is totally engrained in their whole culture and lifestyle. The local people prepare food, mostly rice, and line the road waiting for the monks. They sell some of it to tourists too, so they can participate as well. The monks come along with a little basket and visit each person, receive food and give blessings. I watched as about forty monks in orange robes came in single file from both directions.

After that I decided to climb the stairs up a rock precipice that has a small temple on top and a great view of the city and surrounding area. There were about 300 steps, and even though it was only 6:30 I was quite sweaty by the time I got to the top. I stayed up there for about an hour, watching the sun rise, admiring the view and photographing a number of large moths I found up there. There was a young local woman up there and she watched me as I took the pictures. She was interested in the photos. Then she gathered a couple that were in hard places to photograph and put them on the bench for me. Unfortunately, she didn't speak English so all I could do was thank her.

After walking back down I took a route through a local market where people were buying and selling fruit, vegetables, prepared food, raw chicken and beef, live fish and other food stuffs. The 'shops' were just mats set on the side of the road. Interesting to watch.

Back to the hotel by 8:00 to shower, pack and eat, before boarding the minivan for the seven hour drive to Van Vieng. This was a spectacular road! It was up and over mountains and around others and then through valleys. The vegetation is very lush. There was mist and clouds along the mountains that made it even more beautiful. The road had hundreds of twists and turns and I wished I were riding either my bike or bicycle. There aren't too many people living up there, but occasionally we'd drive through a small village along the road. We stopped for lunch at a little restaurant with a spectacular view of the valley and the mountains. I had a great dish of green chicken curry. After lunch we continued and the road was mostly downhill and back to the valley floor. It rained for a bit along the route.

We arrived in Van Vieng about 4pm. We checked into our nice guesthouse and then met up again for an orientation walk. This is a very popular town with backpackers and other tourists. It is situated right on the river with dramatic limestone hills on the opposite shore. There are adventure type tours here, such as caving, rock climbing, white water rafting and tubing. The tubing is a three hour float down a section of the river. Apparently, there are bars lining the river and some zip lining across the river from bar to bar. The bars offer free shots to encourage people to come in. As a result of all this drinking and risky activities, there have been eight deaths of drunk tourists this year! The fall off zip lines landing on rocks or drown in the river. We walked around town checking out the activities and deciding what to do. I think I will rent a bicycle and ride around the hills and to get to 'Blue Lagoon', which is supposed to be about two hours away and a great swimming spot.

Then we all went to a local Irish pub for a pre-dinner drink and a game of pool. After that we went to a restaurant that Richard recommended. The food was good and we had a good time. Then back to the hotel for typing and reading. The wi-fi here is really slow, so I can't blog at the moment.