5th July 2018
We arrived at Vang Vieng quite late that day. Around 11.30am. The sleeping bus we got into drop us in the middle of the Vang Vieng town and the driver also help us to find a tuk-tuk to get to our homestay. See there's no taxi around, that i've seen in Vang Vieng. Usually people get around with tuk-tuk which is much cheaper than taxi i guess. The tuk-tuk driver charge us 50Kip = RM25 to go to our homestay which is not very far actually but considering that it was almost midnight and he was waiting at the bus stop all night long, we kind of just go with it. i just want to check-in in our homestay and clean myself as soon as possible so, i don't really care about budget anymore at that point. (30 hours no shower guys! i can pratically smell my skin rotten! lol)
After checking in into our homestay, we went to get a shower and clean ourselves as soon as possible. I think it was around 2 am that we could finally get into bed. Oh how i miss soft bed!!
6th July 2018
That morning we woke up around 10 am and ready to explore Vang Vieng.
See, our homestay located in the middle of the town which is very easy to get around. This is another tips of finding a good homestay or hotel at Agoda or online. always check the location on the map. I think these days most of the site online provide map so, its easy to find the hotel/homestay's location.
Riverside Garden Bungalow is one of the cheapest and in town homestay that i found on Agoda.
However, the cheap price is the only thing that was good about the homestay i guess. Despite the strategic location, their wifi reception is bad (probably because our room is one of the fartest), the room is not clean well maintained too. When we check into the room, there's a dust here and there and the window is broken too. to make it worst, receptionist or the owner of the homestay is so not friendly. Like almost feel like she's irritated by us everytime we ask something to her like a location and where can we get Tuk-Tuk.Maybe because she can't speak english but we were at The Pilgrim Homestay in Cao Bang before and trust me, they can't speak english too but both of the owner was smiling the whole time and even inform us about where to eat around the homestay with their google translate app! The only thing that was friendly to us was the puppy who never tired of greeting us. awww.
So, as soon as we went out the homestay. There's tuk-tuk waiting for its customer. We found this friendly uncle who offer us 110k kips for a ride to Blue Lagoon and Jang Cave and back to the town again. its not very cheap actually considering that Jang Cave is very near from the town but the Blue Lagoon 1 is far and you still have to pay 10k kips to go through the big bridge. 110K kips = RM 55. But since it was a private Tuk-tuk where the uncle will wait for us and send us back in town so, its acceptable. Thinking that the uncle also need to make money for a living and the uncle was super friendly too so i don't mind paying that much for a friendly uncle! see, business is all about your attitude and the was you treat your customer. kekeke
So, the Jang Cave is a walkable distance from the town actually. Em.. it was a nice cave with a nice view if you go all the way to the end of the cave. hehe
Also, there's a mini Blue Lagoon you pass by before you start the hike to the cave which is very nice and i really want to take a dip inside of it.
We arrived at Vang Vieng quite late that day. Around 11.30am. The sleeping bus we got into drop us in the middle of the Vang Vieng town and the driver also help us to find a tuk-tuk to get to our homestay. See there's no taxi around, that i've seen in Vang Vieng. Usually people get around with tuk-tuk which is much cheaper than taxi i guess. The tuk-tuk driver charge us 50Kip = RM25 to go to our homestay which is not very far actually but considering that it was almost midnight and he was waiting at the bus stop all night long, we kind of just go with it. i just want to check-in in our homestay and clean myself as soon as possible so, i don't really care about budget anymore at that point. (30 hours no shower guys! i can pratically smell my skin rotten! lol)
After checking in into our homestay, we went to get a shower and clean ourselves as soon as possible. I think it was around 2 am that we could finally get into bed. Oh how i miss soft bed!!
6th July 2018
That morning we woke up around 10 am and ready to explore Vang Vieng.
See, our homestay located in the middle of the town which is very easy to get around. This is another tips of finding a good homestay or hotel at Agoda or online. always check the location on the map. I think these days most of the site online provide map so, its easy to find the hotel/homestay's location.
Riverside Garden Bungalow is one of the cheapest and in town homestay that i found on Agoda.
However, the cheap price is the only thing that was good about the homestay i guess. Despite the strategic location, their wifi reception is bad (probably because our room is one of the fartest), the room is not clean well maintained too. When we check into the room, there's a dust here and there and the window is broken too. to make it worst, receptionist or the owner of the homestay is so not friendly. Like almost feel like she's irritated by us everytime we ask something to her like a location and where can we get Tuk-Tuk.Maybe because she can't speak english but we were at The Pilgrim Homestay in Cao Bang before and trust me, they can't speak english too but both of the owner was smiling the whole time and even inform us about where to eat around the homestay with their google translate app! The only thing that was friendly to us was the puppy who never tired of greeting us. awww.
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| i was attracted to the cottage concept they have but it wasn't well maintain so... |
So, as soon as we went out the homestay. There's tuk-tuk waiting for its customer. We found this friendly uncle who offer us 110k kips for a ride to Blue Lagoon and Jang Cave and back to the town again. its not very cheap actually considering that Jang Cave is very near from the town but the Blue Lagoon 1 is far and you still have to pay 10k kips to go through the big bridge. 110K kips = RM 55. But since it was a private Tuk-tuk where the uncle will wait for us and send us back in town so, its acceptable. Thinking that the uncle also need to make money for a living and the uncle was super friendly too so i don't mind paying that much for a friendly uncle! see, business is all about your attitude and the was you treat your customer. kekeke
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| the uncle is very friendly. He even help us to take picture with his Tuk-Tuk. lol |
So, the Jang Cave is a walkable distance from the town actually. Em.. it was a nice cave with a nice view if you go all the way to the end of the cave. hehe
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| taraaa |
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| The mini blue lagoon |
There's a restaurant just infront of the Blue Lagoon where you can eat. we actually had our lunch there before proceeding to the Blue Lagoon.
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| Here comes the Blue Lagoon 1 |
To be honest, i am a bit dissapointed with the Lagoon because it wasn't as blue as i imagine it ( more like green lagoon) and there's too many tourist especially Korean toursit so it gets a bit too crowded at time.
There's a cave near this lagoon too that is worth visiting. Stacy decided not to visit the cave because she's having her menstrual so i decided to go there alone. There's a light for rent before the entrance to the cave so please rent them if you have no phone or any light with you because the cave is no kidding super dark. i didn't bring any light with me so, i could't bring myself to enter the cave alone so, i decided to wait for anyone who want to enter the cave. luckily 3 Laoian kids came after few second waiting and lucikly again, one of the kids speak english! yuhuu!
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| just a selfie with them after before i parted with them. |
We went back to our homestay at 4 pm and then went out to the town again for dinner. The town was nice but you can almost see no local. Most of them are tourist especially Korean. There's a lot of korean restaurant there too. Macam di korea pula.. hurmm..
Its also a little noisy at night in our homestay because its near to town and people are partying all night long. i think the noise only stopped at 1am. Only then i am able to sleep. huhu
7th July 2018
The next morning we go out early for a hike to Pha Ngren Viewpoint. I tried to find the nearest way to the Pha Ngren Viewpoint because the bridge is so far and we still have to pay for 10kip/person to cross the bridge. huhu. Google map lead us to the river and we found a boat that transferred people to the other side. Its a small traditional boat. The boat driver ignore us when we try asking for the price at first but the last uncle who have only 3 passenger signal us to get into his boat. Turn out that it was a free ride because the uncle didn't ask us for a money. So, we kind of a bit blur what happen but non of the local speak english so.. Since we can't really communicate with the local, our best guess is that, the boat is only for local thats why it was free and that also a good answer for the reason why they keep ignoring us in the beginning? right.. okay.. hurmm.
Still, walking to the Pha Ngren starting point is a long way to go but the view is amazing because i love paddy field view so i pretty much enjoy the walk. But we get into the wrong direction (thanks google map!) and we become very tired so we decided to hitchhike any car that passes through us. To cut the story short, we finally arrived at the starting point of the Pha Ngren Viewpoint but we still need to hike for another 30-40 minutes! its a 600 meter hike but it has a very nice view and i don't mind hiking a another hundred meter for this view like seriously.
We even met with the local on the peak and had a chat with them (yes, they speak Englihs!). so from what they've told us, most of the land in Vang Vieng was bought by the Korean Tourist. that's why most ofthe tourist in Vang Vieng is Korean. After the hike, we went back to our homestay and get ready for our 2pm Minivan to Luang Prabang.
So, my next post will be about the Luang Prabang and Laos-Thailand border. stay tuned!
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