Laos - Vang Vieng

  Vang Vieng, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Thursday, November 8, 2007

We travelled on the VIP bus to Vang Vieng. Sounds impressive but it means that there is a toilet on board (if you can manage to get there and stay on the seat as the bus swerves around the mountain curves). The other feature is the DVD movies on offer. We thought that this might while away the time on the journey. However, despite the passengers all being Western, we were entertained to Lao Karaoke with Lao subtitles - Volumes 1 through to 6. Arriving at the bus station we were greeted by the enthusiastic tuk-tuk drivers who wanted to take us to a particular hotel. We had already chosen one however, and were offered a lift there. As it turned out, the hotel was within easy walking distance but we were taken there on a circuitous route to make it worth the $1 we paid! Reaching the hotel we had a look at the room and decided against the concrete bed and no airconditioning despite the very cheap $6 a night. The town is very picturesque and quite small so it was easy to find another hotel. We paid the pincely sum of $8 a night for a huge bed, air conditioning, fan, TV and ensuite.
The town of Vang Vieng is mostly famous for its river system where you can kayak and tube down the river. There are also some caves and waterfalls to view. The visitors to the town seemed to be mostly backpackers from every corner of the globe.
Quite obviously in this town imitation is the sincerest from of flattery! Just about every bar and cafe was the same. Most blasted out episodes of "Friends" from early morning to late at night (well, late for us as we rarely seemed to stay awake beyond about 10pm!!).

Friends cafe

Someone must have started the trend - possibly a foriegner - and the subsequent success of the concept means that every bar in town shows "Friends" to be viewed from bamboo platforms adorned with cushions. Many of the menus in town are simply photocopied with a different front cover. Despite these curiosities, Vang Vieng is a great place to visit. Everything is cheap and pretty good. The town itself consists of a few streets nestled between mountains. - taking photographs in a 360 degree turn shows a number of different but attractive vistas.

Vang Vieng street view

After spending the first day wandering about and discovering most of the town in a couple of hours, we set about finding a tour to go on. We narrowed our selection down to those that didn't mention "trek" or "kayaking" and decided on a caving and tubing tour. We opted to pay a little extra so that we didn't have to share a tuk tuk with 6 kayaks, 14 people, 8 tubes and sundry paddles etc. We watched in amusement and admiration as a small vehicle with canopied tray attached managed to fit more on it than a semitrailer!!

The next day our tour began with a trip to the Elephant Cave so named because of the naturally formed elephant sculpture on its walls.Our next cave was a lot smaller and darker and required the use of a headlamp with battery to see anything and a tube and guide ropes to navigate through.

Deb braves the water cave

Most of the cave was too small to stand up in but the view was interesting along the way.

After this came the trip upriver so that we could tube back to Vang Vieng. The ride was even more relaxing than expected as our guide was also looking after a kayaker. This meant that we were both tied to the kayak and pulled along with no effort on our part.

Deb tubes down the River Song

The poor guide was accompanied by a very ineffective novice Taiwanese kayaker and ended up doing the work of 4 people in order to navigate the river.Along the way were plenty of riverbank bars reputedly offering all sorts of drugs - both legal and illegal. We declined to stop until our exhausted guide insisted!!
The rest of our stay was quite uneventful but very relaxing. We managed to find our way over to the island by way of a bamboo bridge.

Bamboo bridge view

Here, for the cost of a drink, we could while away the time relaxing in a hammock, paddling and reading.

Deb relaxes by the river