The Blue Lagoon – Vang Vieng, Laos

Vang Vieng was recommended to me by a friend who used to live in Laos. To be honest, all we had heard about was the crazy tubing / party scene until he started to describe the mountains to me and I was sold! I had been missing the mountains having not seen any for over two months and was totally refreshed by the change of scenery. Also, we found that there were several options in the area besides drinking mushroom shakes & drinking your way down the river and we opted to go kayaking / cave tubing & visit the Blue Lagoon.

We took a tuk-tuk across the river and on one of the bumpiest rides I’ve ever taken over potholes on gravel and dirt roads.

The Blue Lagoon is a swimming hole within the mountains with bright turquoise water. They have a tree (above) that you can jump from two different branches and a rope swing from another branch. Too much fun!

Before we got in the water, we decided to explore the cave temple above the lagoon, which first meant renting these little head lamps to explore the depths of the cave.

The walk up to the cave was very steep and narrow, so you’re essentially at the mercy of the people hiking in front of you to get to the top.

Once you get inside the cave there’s a golden reclining Buddha figure on a platform with an orange canopy over the Buddha. It was really beautiful, it felt really sacred and at the same time seemed so small compared to the massive cave surrounding it.

This cave really is massive – look at how tiny that woman is standing on the formation.

Looking back that the Buddha figure from deeper in the cave.

You can go back really far into the cave, with help from your headlamps, but it’s really creepy back there! Ha!

We made our way back down from the cave, which seemed even steeper going back down. You have this bamboo rod to hold on to as you make your way down.

When we made our way down to the lagoon again, we decided to get into the water with a splash! Instead of wading in, or jumping in from the bridge, we decided to climb up to the top of the upper tree branch.

When I jumped off the edge it seemed like there was a about 1 minute until I hit the water, but it went by in just a second or two. You plunge into the turquoise water and it actually wasn’t too cold, and the rush of jumping was awesome!

Below the big jump there’s a rope swing and we both really wanted to do that before we left and it was also a lot of fun! I loved jumping into the water and exploring this beautiful blue lagoon.

To keep up with my travels in real-time and read more posts and travel articles I find interesting ‘like’ the For the Love of Wanderlust page on Facebook. Simply click HERE.