Day 25: Pha Ngeun peak, Vang Vieng

4am: Cockadoodledoo...

I think the roosters need some sort of education of when is actually considered an acceptable time to declare morning. On my watch, it’s not 4am. Once one starts, they all start and it goes on for hours. Constant echoes of tone deaf roosters bouncing of the mountains. 

8am: The actual morning

Breakfast consisted of banana pancakes smothered in Nutella. Am I still dreaming?! 

9:30am: Back on 2 wheels

But today with a motor. Our first destination of the day was Pha Ngeun and it only took us about 30mins to climb the mountain but oh boy it was hard work! Super steep — it was a mixture of rock climbing / sections of soil paths / balancing on tree roots… but hurrah we did it! The views were excellent and it certainly was some good exercise. 

We’d met a French couple on our way down who’d asked us if we’ve visited any of the three Blue Lagoon’s in the area. We hadn’t, however they were on our list for today... but after a good chinwag hearing their experiences (not actually blue and rammed with tourists!) we decided to give them a miss and explore the countryside on our own. Perfect.

Vang Vieng certainly isn’t renowned for it’s culinary offerings unlike Luang Prabang where we ate like kings! That said, our Mexican last night was yum and this eve we indulged in delicious pizza on the recommendation from our friends. It’s good to have a break from Asian food every now and again anyway ;)

Gav's day 25 takeaway

• Animals out here just get on with their own thing, it's kinda nice. If the goats want to play in the road, they do. If the dogs want to run through the restaurant, they do. And if the cows want to have an evening BBQ, they do. They literally were, I kid you not.