Vang Vieng (February 20-21)

To be fair I have to say that I have been warned in advance. I think Vang Vieng can be described as horrible without exaggerating. The town is dominated by 20-year old Australians who stay here one or two weeks in order to get drunk every day. The clashing of cultures couldn’t be greater: Young international party folks on the one hand and Lao people on the other hand, selling food and drinks on the street in order to earn a little money. I think there should at least be a minimum of respect being in a country with a completely different culture. If the locals here were rich, they’d probably throw all these people out of their country.

You may ask yourself why I came here. Actually the plan was to take advantage of the countless water sports activities. There is a very nice kayaking route 60 km from here but I need to hook up with more people to get a reasonable price.

I arrived Monday evening after 7h30 of horrible bus ride (for 180 km!). The “V.I.P.” bus was a joke. The leg room was worse that on an Easyjet flight. Whatever kind of transport you use in this country, minivan, local bus, V.I.P. bus, it’s just horrible! The street was in a deplorable shape with holes everywhere. Sometimes the road surface was completely missing. By the way this road is the country’s main connection between Northern and Southern Laos; it’s not a province road. In Vang Vieng I found a very nice guest house with river view and terrace – really luxury! The awakening came later in the night when I realised that the open air night clubs were all located at the river banks in front of my terrace! I first thought that they maybe have to turn off the music at midnight or so but it was not the case. The party continued until around 4am. This is one story. The other story is that I had a pizza that same evening, the first real Western food since I started my trip. I won’t go into details, only to say that the night was not nice.

Yesterday I tried the main attraction in Vang Vieng – the famous tubing. The principle is fairly simple; you take a big truck tube and float down the river, sitting on it. In dry season this is not very exciting because the river is very calm and slow. Anyway, the main objective here is not the tubing itself but rather stopping at one of the countless bars which are located at the river and getting drunk. I have to say that some of the bars are really fun because they have a zip line, a slide or a tower to jump into the river. Nevertheless a strange feeling remains being here. It’s not that I don’t like party but after all I have seen previously in Laos it just feels wrong.

I will stay one day more in order to check the kayaking options. If there is no tour available for Thursday (for Wednesday there wasn't), I will definitely leave this place.