Driving to Vang Viang
In driving to Vang Viang, you’ll travel north via Highway 13 out of Vientiane through beautiful countryside that bumps, winds about and climbs as often as it falls.
Along the way, you’ll pull to the road side for letting on coming trucks pass and in other spots, stop to let the cows, goats and buffalo cross over for greener pastures. There’s no freeways here and the highway is actually a very rural country road that just happens to have a painted lane divider.
This trip north on Laos’s Highway 13 will more fully open your eyes to reality. The reality of seeing the 76% of Laotian have nots living in crumbling shacks. These folks live on less than $ 710 US a year and are a far cry from those taking advantage of their cheap labor.
Despite this disparity, when pulling through towns that are only hillsides with a few trees and wooden houses built upon shaky concrete stilts you’ll see children running happily and parents smiling or sleeping away the mid-day heat.
Once to Vang Viang, enjoy a day of sports and nature exploration. Afterwards though, move on to see more of the real rural Laos and spend your money where it’ll do real good. The NGOs and banana pancake followers have got Vang Viang covered.
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