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Writer's pictureManon

Ain’t no mountain high enough

Vang Vieng is famous for its striking karst landscape, as we’ve seen on our trip down the Nam Song river yesterday - and today our goal is to get a bit closer to the impressive rock outcrops. The adjoining villages west of the town boast several viewpoints accessed by scaling some of the formations, and following a recommendation from the ever-helpful David, we’re aiming for the Nam Xay one, about 8km from our accommodations.


As we well know by now this is entirely too far to walk in the Laotian heat, so we head out into town to find some mountain bikes for rent - we’ve heard that only 1/7th of Laotian roads are surfaced, and we’d rather be prepared! After checking two different shops, both out of stock, we strike gold on the third one with two western-sized bikes with wide tyres which look perfect. The shop manager even provides us with locks and helmets! Safely kitted out, we set out through town and towards the main bridge which will get us to the other side of the Nam Song. This is a precarious-looking wood and bamboo affair, reinforced with two metal strips ideal for riding on. We’re hesitant, but the crossing does look robust enough to take our weight, evidenced by several motorcycles (decidedly ubiquitous everywhere we’ve gone so far) going through as we dither, so we get back on our saddles and through to the west bank - luckily cars aren’t allowed on! After a first stretch of rough gravel (mercifully short) we get on to the tarmacked main road and start pedalling towards our destination. We can already see the dramatic outcrops we’re aiming for, past a foreground of small farmsteads and rice paddies, but the distance really stretches out in the leaden early-afternoon sun and I need a few breaks to cover it. Helpfully, some are provided ready-made by herds of cattle we need to carefully navigate around.



Our first stop (trying to wait out the heat before the hike) is at the famed Blue Lagoon - a naturally azure rock pool close to the viewpoint which has been turned into a waterpark following its discovery by tourists. It’s absolutely crowded as we walk in, carefully skirting around a little strip of tourist shops which also, inexplicably, all sport panfuls of finger-sized wriggling white grubs for sale - eeeew. We’re debating whether to go for a dip but it’s so busy, with people dive-bombing from the top of the trees, that we decide against it despite the crystal clear waters. The whole place is a lovely sight though, with shaded pools fringed by a sharp lattice of rocks, and transparent waters hosting pretty silver shoals of fish, and we take a little break as we admire the surroundings. As with many things on our trip, it’s definitely not up to western safety standards however and we spot an unfortunate tourist with a deep, ugly-looking cut on her leg, presumably from a scrape with the rocky shore.


Fury Road vibes on the way to the viewpoint - speeding buggies and bikes helped set the scene

Once we’ve cooled down, we move on - to get to the viewpoint we will need to scale one of the karst outcrops and it’s apparently a hard, steep climb which is better done (both ways) well before sunset. Back out of the water park, it’s not long before we turn our bikes onto a wide packed earth road. We’re at the height of the dry season, and the clouds of red dust billowing up behind the motorcycles and buggies overtaking us are a very picturesque contrast to the surrounding forested hills - it truly feels like we’re at the edge of civilisation. A short ride later, we’ve reached the trailhead for the viewpoint, which boasts a small parking with a tree just slim enough to anchor our bikes to it.


We start the climb at the same time as a truck-full of young monks, but they soon leave us panting in their wake, their bright red and orange robes disappearing in the trees. Luckily the outcrop we’re scaling is covered in dense tropical forest, and we’re shielded from the worst of the heat, but the steepness of the track more than makes up for that in difficulty. It’s decently well maintained, with a few concrete steps here and there, and bamboo handrails most of the way, which we end up using to pull ourselves up since we’re going up a 1:3 gradient! The track is only a few hundred meters long but it does take us at least 30min and many short rests to get all the way to the top - but once there, what a view! We’re right on top of the rock formation and there’s an uninterrupted 360 degrees panorama over the spectacular landscape surrounding us. Out of the absolutely flat plain, covered in dry paddies, blades of jagged rock rise vertically hundreds of meters up, with trees still managing to cling to many of the cliff faces. Directly west, another single outcrop provides a dramatic neighbour for the red dust road which snakes around it. Towards the south, tamer hills tumble in the distance, fading into a green-blue misty haze, a couple of red hot-air ballons contrasting against them.


Incredible views from the top of the mountain - spot the hot-air balloons on the top right

This is clearly a popular spot but there’s space for everyone on a series of precarious wooden platforms and shelters perched at the very top of the mountain - we prefer to stand on the rocks though as we’re both not comfortable with heights. We do spend a while there just soaking in the incredible view before heading down in advance of sunset in a bid to avoid the crowds. No such luck as we encounter a bunch of group tours heading up, making the narrow, slippery climb down that much harder as people jostle through hoping to outrun the light… We make it safely down however, despite shaky legs by the time we reach the parking lot, and head back to town before dark. Unfortunately we’re facing away from a beautiful sunset behind the hills, but there’s a few spots to stop and admire it before we get to the bridge, dusk well under way, and hand back our bikes just before our time limit of 7pm.


The landscape just takes your breath away - in any light and from any height!

Properly tired out we stagger to the Bamboo Bistro for a repeat visit - that mango coconut daiquiri alone is worth returning for. On our way back, we chance upon one of our friends from Pai, Tania - she’s also tired (and chilly) after an afternoon of tubing so we won’t be going for a drink tonight but we still have a nice catch-up on our itineraries over the last couple of weeks before heading back to our respective hotels for a much-needed early night.

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