Travel day from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng.
Early start as we wanted to check out the imperial Palace museum before pickup. Unfortunately, no photography allowed and conservative clothing required, meaning Mish was able to buy a ticket, but had to sit outside as he was wearing shorts and indecently they were above his knees!
Girls went to look through the palace, which was interesting with opulence delux, gold gilding on almost every surface and the main ceremonial room had the equivalent of Roman mosaics, but all in reflective mirror like pieces! It was a little OTT, but depicted elephants, horses, battles and elaborate tropical scenes.
Then is was hotel pickup and on to the train station. That was an experience too… more like an airport! We had security, where they confiscated an aerosol deodorant spray, but had no issues with the knife and Vietnamese cooking implements in our luggage!
We had a slight disagreement with a local over our allocated seating and the train journey was mostly in tunnels so not a lot to see. Only 180km, took 45 min by train, but normally takes around 5/6 hours by car! This is due to the state of the roads and that it’s a very mountainous journey with many hairpin bends.
Arrived at the Bearlin Bungalows, had some lunch and then relaxed and had a swim. School completed inside with the A/C on max, and around 5:30pm it was cooler and we took a stroll into town, about 2.5km away.
To get to town we had to cross 2 rusted rickety wooden suspension bridges… they were a little scary! Definitely not up to building code in the UK, and a complete health and safety hazard!
We decided to go to a restaurant that had Western food and local foodstuffs, and the took a tuk tuk home. A night time swim before bed.
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