Vang Vieng

Hi everyone,

Vang Vieng is a well known place for tourists to stop in Laos. Most people who choose to stay are between the ages of 18 and 25. It is essentially a village along the river, and the main attraction is renting an inner tube and traveling from bar to bar along the river. We had been advised that actually renting a tube is rather burdensome, as the bars are rather close together. In fact, when we arrived it was not even possible to rent a tube, as the current was too strong. Undeterred, we went down to the bars by the river and had an amazing time.

On the first day we arrived at 2pm, and made it to the fourth bar by the time the sun went down. Each bar has its own attraction (apart from the ubiquitous cheap buckets of vodka and free shots of whisky) such as a large rope swing or a zip-line. Needless to say I took advantage of the opportunity to fling myself into the river. People working for the bar then dutifully pulled me, and the rest of their customers, out of the river before the current swept us downstream. While the combination of alcohol and water can cause serious problems, in this case most people knew when it would be unwise to go into the river. However, there was one girl who imbibed too much and was rescued by an alert lifeguard.

On the second day we began at 3pm and made it to the 5^th bar before sundown. At night we were too tired to party like the rest of the temporary inhabitants of the village, so we visited our friends at the bar, but took it easy. Unfortunately, as we are not deities, we could not wait for the 7^th day, and rested on the 3^rd. We took our books down to the river and read.

Most of the restaurants in Vang Vieng play "Friends" on a continuous loop. It is pretty much unavoidable, and I must say, I have seen enough of the show to last me a lifetime.

We took a 4 hour (coach) bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiane, where we spent an uneventful evening, though we did meet two nice girls who work in Singapore. There is really very little to see in the capital, but we needed to be there to catch our flight to Siem Riep.

Thanks for reading!

note: posted by Mike