Agony in the Land of Ecstasy....

  Vang Vieng, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Saturday, October 18, 2008

...well most other drugs anyway!

002 Mike at the River

Vang Vieng is a hedonist's idea of heaven! It basically comprises 1 main street with a few tributaries, tons of restaurants showing various series re-runs (though mainly Friends- thought watching E4 was bad enough!) to any number of patrons with 'happy' meals (Not the McDonalds kind). These were shakes, pizzas, burgers, coofee, anything really with Marijuana, Opium or Mushrooms! Though drug use is reported to be a capital offence in Laos, it was hard to believe in this "sleepy hollow". There are of course, enough guesthouses in which the goofed and drunk falang (Lao for foreigner) could sleep off their drug of choice.

The main daytime activity, if you have enough energy or willpower to move from the TV is obviously tubing! Well it is sold as that, but once you get to the river it is not long before you realise that you are on one of the best pub crawls/swims ever! Before you reach the water there is a bar, with some good intentions selling mulberry alcohol in any guise alongside the usual drinks (proceeds are to benefit the local schools). You then get into a fully inflated tractor tyre and drift 50m before being pulled ashore and into the next bar. The first km of about 5 (I'm told) is lined with pubs all offering various swings, slides, zip lines or various ball sports with obligatory drinks - some with known contents (beer) and some not - think fishbowl in a bucket. If you can make it past the last bar by 5pm, you can actually have a pleasant tube down to town where you need to return the tube by 6pm. In most cases this means a mad paddle from the last swing to get there. Talking to other travellers, not many end up leaving Vang Vieng on schedule - if at all!

For those not solely wanting to lose years of their lives, the other draw card of the area is the spectacular karsts scenery and the various action sports which can be done in it. This includes caving, climbing, walking and mountain biking.

We continued to travel with Adam and Ian (from the Gibbon Experience) and went tubing. At the first bar, they had a great swing, where the "locals" (falang who have been there more than a couple of times) sat with score cards marking various performances off the swing! On Mikes one and only attempt there he tried for distance and didn't quite see his score, as his landing took him into the rocks at the bottom where he bruised both heels, along with a great blood blister on the left one!!! At a later bar he injured his right rib/stomach muscle as he almost belly flopped into the water. After that the bravado disappeared and he made rather easier landings! Shortly after 16:00 and about the 10th bar we were bar free and could float the rest of the course back, enjoying the aforementioned dramatic karsts scenery in the encroaching sunset.

Around town, the only cafe with Wi-Fi kept us very entertained - and not watching any reruns of Friends! The advertising clearly stated "No Friends" as a major draw card. In its place were English classics - The Office - or various other adult cartoon shows - Family Guy. However for us it was the obnoxious English landlord, as he continued on his sarcastic path obliterating schnoep patrons along the way!

005 Guest House Rules

We both were glad we broke up the journey to Vientiane but had definitely outgrown that drinking / drug scene!! We made the trip to Vientiane in relative comfort; only to be very disappointed when we got there. It, evidently, has grown at an alarming rate in the past 8 years and had lost all its charm. The hotels were over charging, the food though reputed to be amazing was relatively expensive (for backpackers), the Mekong rather industrialised and the people losing all their Loatian 'laid-backedness'. Walking around later we discovered that the bus we wanted to take left at 5, 6 or 7 am! As we didn't think we wanted to spend a whole day there we decided to leave the next morning. Though reputed to have a lively night-life, the only sign we could see of this were working girls and lady boys strutting their stuff at 10:00pm on a Saturday!

006 Vientiane Supper

We were both glad to get out of there as soon as humanly possible!