From sleepy Luang Prabang to the new party capital of the world, Vang Vieng

Well weren't we in for a treat :)  After our quiet couple days in Luang Prabang, we've just arrived in Vang Vieng and they couldn't be more different. Let me wrap up our time in LP first....we spent one of the days exploring a nearby waterfall and a bear rescue center (more details on that to follow) and the second full day there renting bikes and exploring the town.  We really enjoyed both of those activities.

Sadly, what I thought was going to be the highlight of LP didn't turn out as planned.  We rose early yesterday morning to observe the almsgiving ceremony that happens daily.  As described in my Lonely Planet book, monks walk up and down the streets, collecting food from the locals....and that is all they are allowed to eat (before noon I believe). This is apparently an age-old ritual and necessary for the life of the monks.  So Katy and I parked ourselves on the street a little before 6am yesterday, in the dark, excited to witness this religious ritual.

Half an hour later, no monks to be found and hundreds of tourists.  Booooo.  We had read that you are not supposed to participate in the ritual unless you are Buddhist, so we obviously were keeping our distance and not purchasing food from the street vendors.  I guess everyone else didn't get the memo. Busloads of non-backpacker tourists who must have been coming from some fancy oasis hotels were getting dropped off and being brought right to the vendors to buy sticky rice so that they could give something to the monks (meanwhile their husbands were in the monk's faces snapping photos).  Katy and I looked around and realized there were almost no locals around.  Ick.  So the monks finally did start their parade down the main drag but Katy and I didn't really want to be part of something that we thought was going to be so sacred but in turn was clearly designed for tourists.  We wandered around to find some breakfast and, in a last attempt to restore some faith in the tradition, ran into a corner of locals who were legitimately offering alms to the monks.  That's what we were looking for :)

Anyhow, after almsgiving and breakfast, we grabbed a minibus to Vang Vieng. It was a dusty, bumpy 6 hours but we made it and found a great hostel to stay in immediately. Grabbed some quick showers and headed out to find the scene. And boy, did we. 

In Luang Prabang, you have to be home by midnight every night.  In Vang Vieng, all I wanted was a beer and instead all I could find was the "happy" menu: mushrooms plain, mushroom shake, opium, brownies....you name it, they have it.  Obviously, Katy and I stuck to our beers and had a blast observing all the people in the middle of some crazy trips trying to act human.   Prior to stumbling across the happy menu, we spent some time in one of the numerous bars that line the main drag here that offer seats on the floor with pillows so you can sprawl out and watch Friends episodes! A little taste of home...... 

We made some new friends (English and Swiss) during our Friends watching (ha) that we are meeting up with shortly to go explore some of the caves and a lagoon around here..... and that's about it! Pictures to come soon :)