Sleepless in Vang Vieng

It was one of those nights where I just couldn’t sleep. I gave in to the tossing and turning about one and had a Valium that knocked me out for an hour or so.

I got up at five and had another one and went down to the river for a cigarette. I woke at seven thirty. 

The sun is up and I’m just not going to get back to sleep so I get my act together and head up the street for breakfast. I decided to go for a bit of a walk first and find a temple to thank “O beautiful one”.  

I settled on a café that only had a few locals in it and mistook the noise as coming from somewhere else and didn’t realise until I had already ordered it was a “Friends” café. 

Anyway I caught up on some WWF and after breakfast started to investigate a few tour agencies about the local caves. There is a wide range of prices so I check out quite a few.  

Greg from Laung Prabang is coming down tomorrow for a day on his way through to Vientiane and I’m trying to coordinate his ETA because I’d really like to check out the caves and i'll probably leave here with him. 

I am pretty tired so I decide on an early lunch at my “Family Guy” bar then I have an awesome massage and go back to my room to see if I can get some sleep.

Greg emails he will be in late afternoon so I go back down the street and book myself a half day tour of the caves in the morning and he will get in sometime after I am finished. 

Apart from caves this town is most famous for it’s “tubing”. Basically a tuk tuk drops you a few kilometres north on the river and you sit in a tyre tube and float back to town getting hauled into riverside bars to drink along the way. Sensible Simon (the one who fell through a roof and punctured his lung) thinks this would not be a smart thing for him to do and Stupid Simon thinks you can’t visit Vang Vieng and not go tubing, Greg has mentioned it, we will see. 

I brought the camera when i came back down the street because I don’t have any shots for this blog yet. I walk down to the river and it’s too tempting so I go to the same spot I was at yesterday and take a swim, the water is refreshing but warm and I feel a bit more alive then I get a bunch of cool photos for this spot right here. 

I head back towards my Guest House and it’s mid afternoon and I’m still a bit peckish so I find an isolated table over looking the valley and have some spring rolls and a beer to help me sleep. 

I’m excited now that I have something organised for tomorrow and it will be good to see Greg again. It has been nearly a whole week here and the only people I have really spent any time with were the monks. I have said hello to three girls, the first one looked right through me, the second one flat out ignored me and the third one said hello back in a tone that said “stay away from me creep”, I have no Mojo in Vang Vieng.  

It seems everyone comes here in packs or couples, it makes me sick, everywhere I look, lovers hand in hand. I found a nice quiet isolated little part of the river bank yesterday away from everyone and within seconds what do I see on the other side of the river? Lovers strolling hand in hand! It’s despicable, he he. Oh and I forgot to tell you, last night I also saw my first Laos lady boy. 

Anyway I finally make it back to my bed and crash for a couple of hours at last, it feels great. I couldn’t be bothered going down the street tonight so I just go across to the Guest House restaurant and have some dinner there and hopefully, get some sleep. I am being picked up at nine tomorrow morning.