Grad Trip Day 16 - Vang Vieng

The morning was spent talking with students from the National University of Laos. They were generous with their sharing and said that it was the first time they got to talk to youths from other countries in the university! (Photos with the official photographer)

At 1400hrs, we took a van up to Vang Vieng, which is a 4 hours drive away from Vientiane. It costs 70000 kip per pax (1USD is to 8000kip). The ten of us took up the bulk of the 12-seater van. A local and an American lady filled up the other 2 seats. We made conversations with the American lady. Her name is Ann Marie, and she is a producing director who works closely with international organisations such as Greenpeace, Not For Sale etc. We told her about our team (we met at the 5th UNESCO Asian Youth Forum/ after the forum we wanted to do something meaningful together/ decided to work with organisations in Thailand and Laos/ going up to Vang Vieng to collaborate with a youth centre as our final event). She dispensed a lot of advice, shared with us what these larger organisations did, encouraged us to pursue what's meaningful. It felt really surreal, that we were 'destined' to be on the same van and to be talking about hope, motivation and good works. =)

The ride there was bumpy. A few of us got car sick but none of us vomitted. So beware if you are taking a van up from Vientiane to Vang Vieng. This stretch of road is exceptionally bad (even Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang isn't that bad, the locals say).

This is our accommodation in Vang Vieng - Yonggu's farm.

Yonggu is a South Korean who decided to settle down in Vang Vieng. Somehow he managed to have a plot of land, most of which he used to plant rice and other crops. The rest of the land, he built some houses, including this mudhouse. This mudhouse is our dormitory for the 3 nights there. Yonggu is an active volunteer with Phoudindaeng Youth Centre, the youth organisation which we will be collaborating with for the next few days.