Vang Vienne

When we came here the first time, it was known as the party capital of Laos. Young western tourists would float down the river in inner tubes, stopping periodically to ingest drugs and booze. Then a few tourists overdosed and drowned, bad for business. The nice thing about a communist dictatorship is that you don't have to have an endless consultation period. 
Overnight no more drugs and booze on the river. Our second trip here was during this period. It was very peaceful .



Then the Chinese built the bullet train
Then the government gave up on covid restrictions. Now the Chinese tourist hordes are swarming over the landscape.
Anyways we were only here for a couple of days.











To back up a little. That bullet train was amazing. It seemed like about three quarters of the trip from Luang Prabang was through tunnels. We averaged about 160 kph. In other areas on the trip from the Chinese border it does 200 kph.











































































































































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