Tubing, Hammocks and the Blue Lagoon
Trip Start
Feb 05, 2008
1
25
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Vang Vieng,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Oddly and for the first time, when I arrived, I had trouble finding a good guesthouse. All of the better spots were full. Prices were better than we had seen in LP and back in line with what we'd seen elsewhere in Laos. I had to spend the night in an adequate place on mainstreet for about $7.00 before settling into a beautiful bunglow set in a large nicely landscaped open area alongside the river at a place called, strangely enough, Riverside Bungalows
Vang Vieng-View From My Bungalow
. It was the same price. Most of the rest of the posse was there too. Okay, tubing. You rent a tube for about $5 and then pay the $2.50 fine when you bring it back after 6:00 p.m., which you do. They throw you into the back of a tuk-tuk and dump you off at the side of the river about 3 km north of town. Before you even hit the water the first bar is serving organic mullberry mojitos. You gotta have one. Besides it's Easter Sunday! Once on the tube, local kids fight for the right to push you down to the next bar, about 30 metres on, splashing each other and you along the way and hang about to wait for a tip after you get there. From there it's basically skipping from bar to bar listening to distorting speakers that pound out classics from the likes of the RHCP's and drinking buckets--a concoction comprising lao lao (rice whiskey), redbull, coke and whatever. Two or three or many for that matter, can share a bucket. There's beer and shakes too. Some places serve pretty good food. You can swing on ropes from 10 metre high platforms, something I tried once. My feet touched bottom! I think I let go too soon. When we got to the last bar it was starting to get dark and we were able to hire a boat to take us back in, about 10 minutes up the river. It was a really fun day but a bit of a marathon. Once was enough for me and Vanessa. We knew that this was one of those things that just wouldn't be as good the second time around
Vang Vieng
. The rest of the crew went again the next day. They went on to do it a third time as well. Rumour has it some go as many as seven or eight times before getting out of town. Vang Vieng is also known for its 'Friends' restaurants (there's four of five them) where you can go and watch reruns of the popular series all day and its chill-out bars down by the river. While the rest of the crew went for another day of tubing, Vanessa and I decided to check out these other two popular attractions. First, it was a late breakfast over four very good episodes. Then at around 2:00 p.m. we headed down to the Sunset Bar, ordered a couple of special shakes and climbed into a couple of hammocks inside a small open air hut set back about 20 meters from the river. We sat and chatted and watched the world go by. It was as though we were inside of a peaceful, slow moving Laoation film. Occasionally some locals would cross the river, three or four at a time, with straw baskets over their backs, on their way to or from the fields. Sometimes they would sing as they wandered by. Small long boats would go by now and then. Later in the afternoon some kids came along and played around us as if we weren't there, climbing in the hammocks in the hut next to us like little monkeys and never once asking us for anything except the straws from our drinks--they'd use them for a funny little game
My Bungalow
. Eventually tubers would start returning from their day on the river, climbing out of their tubes at the side of the river while water buffalo sauntered through. All day the lounge/R&B music playing in the background was perfect. I thnk it was about 6:30 and getting a bit dark when somebody finally came to ask us if we could pay our tab. It was absolutely one of the best days I've had yet. At night the riverside bars turn into party central. That's where the tubers who are already blotto from a day on the river go to party at night. It can be good fun and it was particularly so during our first night down, but you know what's up when the soundtrack is essentially the same on consecutive nights. Unfortunately there's a dark side here too. It's the side where some travelers get shitfaced and behave badly, to the extent that they are an embarrasment to their homelands and the rest of us. What must some of the locals think? In one particular instance as four of us left the Smile Bar we came upon a bagette sandwich stand where for a buck a nice old man with a fantastic smile will maticulously put together a declicious handcrafted bagette sandwich, complete with toasted bagette. Andy wanted a sandwich. As we waited and watched, some drunken prick walks up and asks the sandwich man if he has a lighter. The guy says, 'No have.', and the drunken dickhead says, 'You're a liar.' I wanted to pop the fucker but instead suggested that maybe he didn't really have grounds to make such a conclusion
The Blue Lagoon
. He went away. Fortunately Laos and more specifically Vang Vieng seem devoid of having been corrupted by this sort of thing. I fear it must ultimately result from this type of tourism. Let's hope it doesn't. Too bad also that some of these people aren't going to experience the real Laos. Its people are truly fantastic.
On our last day before heading to Vientiane, Vanessa and I spent the day walking the seven K up to Poukham Cave and Blue Lagoon. It was by far the biggest and best cave I have been in. Afterwards we enjoyed a refreshing dip in the lagoon. A few open air restos can be found in the vicinity as well. We picked one and sat for a couple of beers and a stirfry.
I can safely say Laos is probably the best place I've traveled and there's two weeks to go.
