Travel Troopers Trip to Laos 2024

Without any activities planned for the day we were able to explore the town of Vang Vieng at our leisure. And at a pace that suited the heat and humidity! That translated as spend the day lounging around the pool or having massages for some, or exploring the temples for others. Or in my case all of the above, and going to the Bank and locating some cans of tonic water for our G&Ts. A range of priorities you'd have to say! Jan and I headed off for massages but we were rather surprised to see that the massage beds could be seen by anyone journeying down the river! However we were provided with loose cotton pyjamas so that our bodies weren't seen but the masseurs could still massage us. I had asked for a Lao herb massage without having any idea what it was. I had envisioned being plastered with green herbs but instead was pressed with a pad of muslin wrapped around green herbs and warmed so it felt wonderful. The iced coffees took a while to drink! Our one group outing for the...

As we arrived in Vang Vieng it's hard to ignore the number of backpacker hotels and the number of shops promoting a range of adventure activities. Vang Vieng is renowned for being cheap and being a place for risk-taking! In 2011 there were 27 deaths by drowning or diving into rocks in a 1km stretch of the Nam Song river. The combination of rice whisky, crazy activities and youth contributed I'm sure. One of the activities is called Tipsy Tubing which says it all really! Going into caves floating on enormous tractor tubes whilst tipsy doesn't seem like a great idea. Well you might ask: "What the hell are you doing here?!" Even hot air ballooning was not greeeted with cries of enthusiasm! Vang Vieng does have other attractions fortunately.  Early in the morning I went for a walk to check out the scenery and the first step was to cross a plank bridge  across the river next to the hotel. To be honest, I think that equated with a risky adventure activity for me as the ...