Vang Vieng: Tubing without the Hangover

The stories about Vang Vieng (party haven, mad tubing, tourism gone wrong) apply to an earlier time when you could tube your way along the river, stopping at bars along the riverbank and enjoying heady hedonism before collapsing back in town after rampant overindulgence, whatever your pleasure. Vang Vieng isn't all that much different now in that it still attracts a party scene, but the riverside bars have been closed down and the zip wires taken down after too many accidents (and even deaths). You can still go tubing, but the party scene is strictly on dry land in the town itself these days. With a bit of control it probably would have been great fun (my lovely friend George visited when it was in full swing and had a great if crazy time! http://georgieandjames.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/vang-vieng-parties-and-tubes/ - check out her blog for an entertaining alternative version of Vang Vieng!), but even without the crazed party scene it is still popular for having a let-your-hair-down good time.

Anyway... The bus to Vang Vieng was a nightmare, roller-coaster ride sick-inducing journey - I think the driver had a death wish (maybe it's the same guy who drove you guys, George?!) and if I hadn't been strapped into my seat I might have hit the roof of the bus as speed bumps (or potholes, any other type of bump in the road) did not deter the man. At one point I flew a foot into the air before my seat belt threw me back down...! Despite the crazy driving, the scenery was incredible and it just kept getting better the closer we got to Vang Vieng. The town and river (Nam Ou) are surrounded by karst peaks and it's no surprise that this area became the setting for a popular tourism hotspot - from any vantage point, it looks spectacular.

By the time we'd settled into our hostel and recovered from the journey, our appetite returned so we decided to have a wander around the town and find somewhere for lunch. It is a small place, full of bars and happy hours to keep the party scene going. We found this tiny little cafe with a lovely view (above!) and filled up on pancakes (me) and spaghetti carbonara (Bradley) which tasted amazing. We decided to save the water sports for the next day so we booked up some kayaking, and went shopping for a dry bag (abundant everywhere, with 'In the Tubing' written on everything) and Bradley bought the obligatory Tubing T-shirt (I wish I had too now!). We had a couple of beers and watched Family Guy (EVERYWHERE in Vang Vieng had Family Guy DVDs or occasionally Friends - or, bizarrely, Wallace and Gromit! - DVDs running on repeat!) and grabbed a street sandwich before getting an early night in preparation for the next day.

The next morning we set off for our kayaking trip – we were driven upriver and dropped off for a two hour kayak back to town with our instructor. The scenery was awe-inspiring and it was so peaceful - though we had great fun going over the rocks and fast bits too, we got very wet at times! The instructor tried to direct us away from bits that were too white-water, but we whizzed through a couple without capsizing!

Kayaking was great fun and very chilled out, so we decided to just grab another street sandwich and some beers and go tubing too! Tubing has changed a lot since the aforementioned party days, but even though it was minus the spray paint and vodka buckets, alcohol and tubing still merged pretty well - the driver who took us to the drop off with our tubes even stopped in case anyone wanted to buy some beers from the shop! It felt very teenage :)

Despite the encouraged drinking, not everyone was as prepared as us, so one group of guys were left negotiating with a friendly local from their tubes to get them some beers. We left them waiting on the riverbank while their new friend dashed to the shops for them... It must be a lucrative business!

The other lucrative side-business comes from the kids (only 10-12 maybe?) waiting at the side of the river at the end of the route (where the tubes are returned to get your deposit back) who help pull you in (to save you drifting downstream!). It's very opportunistic, especially since the water is so shallow and it really wouldn't be too hard to manage on your own, but you can't blame them for trying! Even if you say you don't need help, they still haul you in regardless, so you feel you ought to give them something for their trouble - a nifty little after school job, I just hope they get to go to school too!

There's no denying it - tubing is brilliant fun! The river flows gently with the occasional shallow fast patch, so for the most part you're just drifting with the current, drinking your beer and watching the sun head toward setting. Occasionally, you could find yourself losing control of your tube and drifting away from your group - when this happened, you had to somehow reach for each other and paddle back into position (this usually happened after whizzing over some shallow rocks, where you had to watch your exposed lower back!). It was more of the same scenery from the morning, but with a slightly more raucous group to distract you than our lovely kayaking instructor. You could see the debris from where all the bars used to be, but actually I think this way of tubing was just as much fun - or maybe I'm getting old!

The trick with this new era of tubing seemed to be to keep all your beers in a plastic bag, to keep them all together and provide a handy recycling station. The big problem with this is that not everyone is as green as they could be, so while you're busy being conscientious and enjoying a quiet beer in the countryside as you bob along the river, other people are littering their BeerLao cans all over the place. Admittedly, this follows a trend of littering across many of the places we've visited, but in Vang Vieng it is almost wholly tourist-led, so it's particularly frustrating to be part of a blot on the landscape! Once we finished tubing for the day, we collected as many cans as we could squeeze into our bags - though we knew there would be more the next day... A small attempt to balance our environmental impact!

We had so much fun and felt so happy and positive that we decided to go tubing again the next day! We dropped off our tubes just before the sunset cut-off, and went for pizza and more beers (and inevitably, several episodes of Family Guy) before trying a couple of other bars on our way back to the hostel.

The next day was much like the day before - tubing, beers and, as we got back a little before sunset, we were able to watch the sun set from a bar on the riverbank while having dinner - perfect!

After a leisurely dinner and another beer or two, we headed back to the hostel and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1) and got an early night since we had an early start the next morning for our bus to Luang Prabang. This proved to be a much nicer journey than the previous one - it had the gorgeous scenery through the mountains without the race-car driver!

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Vientiane: Capital Splendour!

The bus journey to Vientiane was much more pleasant than the trip to Tha Khaek, though the last phase required being ejected from our big, comfy bus and switched to a pick-up truck taxi (a truck with seats improvised in the back) and taken on a roundabout tour of the city before we were finally deposited near our hostel. This way we did get an open-air view of the Victory Monument, known locally as Patuxai (though also nicknamed the vertical runway because it was made from cement donated by the US to build a new airport!). The monument itself looks like a replica of the Arc de Triomphe and therefore presents a rather grand welcome. We checked into a rather dingy place with a room not much bigger than the bed, and quickly decided to investigate elsewhere for an alternative for the next two nights. Fortunately, the hostel’s neighbour offered us a good deal on a much nicer room with a bathroom, and we were able to sort out a bus to Vang Vieng just over the road too, so it was a tedious hour or two but left us with just a room swap to worry about the next day.

We were based right alongside the Mekong once more, so we strolled over to check out the start of the sunset before choosing to sit outside for dinner at a lovely Indian restaurant called Aashifa, on the corner of the waterfront and our road, and watch the sun continue to set. It was a nice relaxing end to a functional day, and we decided to catch up with some blogs before bed (we weren’t quite as far behind then…).

The next day we decided to explore the city after a catch up on some sleep! Once we’d switched to the neighbouring hostel, we discovered a fantastic little café that offered breakfast at lunchtime (which was required after our late start) and I might have stayed there all day drinking tea (glorious tea!) if we'd had more time in Vientiane. 

It was a very pretty city to explore; lots of small boutique-y shops filled with local crafts and foods, and even a well-stocked bookshop, which also had some beautiful cards for sale (and which some of you will have received on the run up to Christmas!).

We also found some temples that were off the map, hidden down alleyways but very beautiful if a little unkempt. First we stumbled upon Wat Xieng Nyean, which had a cute drum and bell tower.

We then found Wat Chanthabuli (while on our way back up to the waterfront for a drink at Bor Pennyang). Wat Chanthabuli was clearly popular with the locals, and had plenty of monks on-site enjoying the sunshine too!

Bor Pennyang had been recommended to us for its view as much as anything else – it is a well-situated rooftop bar with a view across the Mekong, so we enjoyed a drink or two in the late afternoon sunshine. Feeling nice and relaxed, we opted for takeaway pizza and garlic bread from our neighbouring pizza parlour for dinner, and headed back to the hostel to do some more blogging (honest!) before a couple more beers and a film.

 View From
Bor Pennyang

On our final day in Vientiane, we still had some big sights left to see after a day of appreciating the cultured streets, so we headed out the opposite way to our previous adventures, starting with a waterfront stroll past this guy:

 
Then we set out to find the COPE centre http://legaciesofwar.org/, which was fascinating and very sad, but also full of hope as there are so many great projects at work for the people of Laos. During a long period of turmoil around the Vietnam war, Laos fell victim to extensive US bombing (the Secret War, where the US attempted to disrupt Vietnamese supply lines) between 1964 and 1973, with an estimated 270 million bombs dropped during this time. A huge number remain along the Laos border and lost in the forest, unexploded, creating the problem of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Laos – more than 50,000 people have been killed or injured by UXO, many of these since the end of the war. The COPE centre, as well as providing an excellent educational facility for visitors, also helps victims of UXO return to a functional life, by providing physiotherapy, prosthetic limbs and support for people re-entering the workforce after injury. This is an essential place to visit, as it tells the story of an often-forgotten part of the complex history of the area; how Laos became an unwitting victim of the Vietnam war.

The history of much of SE Asia has been affected heavily by the Vietnam war - everywhere we've been we've seen different representations of the war and it is hard sometimes to sift through all the evidence and make sense of the reality of the war for all the nations affected. This museum is a must-see because it's such an untold story amid all the horrors of the 60s and 70s (and beyond) for this part of the world.

We'd intended to visit the Laos National Museum next, but unfortunately it was closed as it was a public holiday, but we were able to visit the two major city temples, Wat Si Saket and Haw Pha Kaew. Wat Si Saket has an amazing interior, whose walls are lined with silver and ceramic Buddhas in carved-out niches, and the room is also a real ‘curiosity shop’, littered with standing and sitting Buddhas of varied size. 

Haw Pha Kaew was also very impressive...

The Mekong is surrounded by mud/sand banks on each side, and we could see that several of the local kids had walked right out to the waters’ edge – so of course we decided to do the same, and get close to the water (from the temple end of town, the river was much further away than it was where we were staying).

It was another gorgeous day, and despite getting rather muddy it felt great to be able to view the city from the riverbank. We found our way back to dry land and decided to return to Aashifa for dinner, plus another drink at Bor Pennyang, before an early night in preparation for the bus to Vang Vieng the next day. We’d heard the stories… it may not be quite the party haven it was, but we thought it made sense to be prepared for the madness Vang Vieng promised!

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