Becca and Sophia decided to stay as well and we later found out that Chris and Miriam also stayed because Miriam is not feeling well.
First we decided to rest for a little since we had a long night and a very early start visiting the temple.
At 10 am we got ready to go out!
We stepped out of the hotel only to notice that our neighbors wee already outside dancing and singing to their karaoke machine!!! At 10am!!!!! This town is super funny and a little crazy!
We headed over to the place where the group hired the kayak to get a motor boat to take us around the river. The guy who had said that the motor boat was 80,000 kip was now saying that we needed two boats for three people and that would cost us 160,000 kip and of course we tried to negotiate to get the three of us on a boat but the price was 150,000 kip which was still very expensive so we decided not to do any business with him.
We kept walking around town and it seemed like nobody else was offering any motor boat tours and while walking back to the hotel we saw the tiniest sign that said "boat tour" and an arrow pointing down! We followed the signs and we arrived at the river where all the guys with motor boats were. At first they said that they couldn't fit three people on a boat and that we needed to rent two, after a long conversation going back and forth about the price they finally agrees on putting three chairs on the boat instead of two! Yeay
The view from the river was pretty spectacular! We had mountains on one side and on the other we were able to see villagers washing their clothes or kids playing by the water!
The river was shallow and very rocky, several times we hit big rocks and were a little scared of our safety! The good thing is that the water didn't seem to be deeper than 4 feet most of the time!
After our boat tour we decided to go back to the hotel and rest for a little. It was 11:30pm or so in El Salvador so it was the perfect time to FaceTime my mom and wish her a happy new year.
At about 12 we decided to go rent some bikes and ride around town, visit a cave and grab a bite to eat. Since Miriam and Chris stayed in we decided to invite them to come over but Miriam was still feeling very sick and only Chris decided to join us.
Chris had looked up on trip advisor restaurant recommendations and we decided to go to the number one spot listed for Vang Vieng. We rode our bikes in search for the restaurant but the directions and comments from people on trip advisor were very misleading! We decided to just ride the bike and keep an eye out of the restaurant! We ended up going through one of the many bridges in Vang Vieng and decided to visit the caves... Nothing spectacular but at least we did something!
On our way we saw this lady selling something that looked like little cakes, we decided to get them even though we had no idea what they were! It turned out to be little sticky rice cakes... They were alright!
After the caves we kept looking for this very mysterious restaurant that nobody seemed to know of! We went into dirt roads and pretty much looked everywhere! When we decided to bike back to the hotel Chris noticed that the restaurant was on the Main Street, and not on a dirt road very hidden and hard to find!
By now it was already 2pm and we were starving! We ordered our food and didn't realize that there was a group of probably 8 people who had just placed their order before us. Long story short it took almost two hours to get our food!!!!!
A guy who was sitting close to us stopped by our table and said to us "is a long wait but the food is delicious", kissed his fingers and did the typical Italian "delicious" move!
The kitchen of the restaurant (AMD) is tiny and only one person in it! So all dishes were made to order and one by one! When our food came it was truly delicious!
I ordered a spicy papaya salad and to be honest is the best papaya salad I have ever had!!! It was mouth watering but maybe only a tiny bit too spicy! My curry was delicious and everybody really enjoyed the meal.
We loved it so much that we asked the guy if he could sit 12 people for dinner, he said yes so we sent Sophia (since she was done with her meal) to check with OLeang if it was ok to go there as a group for dinner!! Yumm
Once we were done with our very late lunch is was already time for sunset! We stopped at the hotel to check on Miriam and by then the group was back from kayaking and we invited them to come for a sunset drink!
In the morning I overheard a tour guide talking to his group about having drinks at a bar while looking at the sunset so we went to look for such bar with an amazing sunset view!
We rode our bikes to the main bar area overlooking the river and mountain and we did find the "it" spot for sunset! For tables they had raised platforms with cushions where we could relax and enjoy the view. A very famous thing to do in vang Vieng is to go on a hot air balloon ride and we got to see them very close to the restaurant while watching the sunset!
While sitting at the restaurant Chris got a text from Miriam to come back to the hotel since she was feeling worst. The whole time we didn't know what she had, she had been complaining of cramps and feeling stomach sick. By 6:30 pm that we got back to the hotel Chris and Miriam had already left the hotel and were on their way back to Vientiane in an ambulance because Miriam had appendicitis and had to get it operated! So sad!!! We all felt sad that they had to leave! Now we are only 9 left!
As a group of 9 we went back to AMD for dinner! This time service was super quick since we were the big party and a lot of people ordered the same thing!
We had warned the group that it would take a long time so we even started to play a game of Mafia (a super fun game where the mafia is trying to kill the villagers and villagers are trying to find out who the mafia is) but only after one round the food started coming!
We couldn't leave vang Vieng without having another pancake so after dinner we all decided to go get our last pancake (I have learned to ask with "little oil and little butter). After our pancake Sophia and I decided to go check out some bars and have a little walk.
We passed in front of Gary's Irish pub and we decided to use the bathroom. We noticed that pretty much everybody who was there last night was still there! Haha we didn't grab a drink or anything and we were leaving when we bumped into the three Finish guys we met last night. Somehow they convinced us to have a drink and a round of pool!
Sofia and the guys the night before:
I am probably THE worst pool player and was a little embarrassed about my lack of skills but the guys said not to worry because they weren't all that good either! We created two group;one was two if the guys and Sophia and I got the other guy in our team.
We didn't know that it was going to be one of the funniest games of pool in our lives! Two of the guys were actually good at playing pool but one of them was the worst! Maybe even worst than me! He missed the ball so many times that he had all of us cracking up and almost peeing our pants! The funniest part is that he had so much confidence on his game that every time he missed was even funnier! Anyway, it was a pretty good ending to our visit in Vang Vieng!
On our way back to the hotel (around 11pm) we noticed that everybody was once again outside on the sidewalk singing in their karaoke, drinking and have the best of time!!! Even our neighbor was still going since 10am (they did have a break from 4 to 6pm!)
I really truly love how much fun Laotian people are, they are full of energy and happiness! And they are very welcoming! I stopped at a couple of places to take pictures and they wanted us to sing and join them!!! Loved it!
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