Vang Vieng (16 - 19 October 2007)
On checking out of the hotel in Vientiane, we went to the local bus station to see when and at what rate we could get a bus to Vang Vieng. We arrived there at 11:30, just in time to catch the 11:30 bus for only 25 000 kip (about R17,00). Lucky day - no waiting at all! A very rare sight in Laos!
Vang Vieng is a little tourist town with two things to offer: water activities (kayaking and tubing) and Friends (the TV show with Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Ross, Chandler and Joey). Just about every restaurant has the TV show blaring out of enormous speakers and big screen TV’s - it is the weirdest thing. The tale goes that some years ago, one of the restaurants started showing Friends and it attracted so many people that the other restaurants just went ahead and copied the idea. Now all the restaurants have their tables and pillows (no chairs) all facing in one direction toward the TV! Asia - same, same, but different!
I was not a 100% back to health yet and did not feel like venturing into the waters, so Eon went Kayaking with a group of friends while I spent the day with ‘Friends’ as well! I literally just lay on the pillows the entire day, watching one Friends episode after another. I think I worked in about 24 episodes! Now this is my idea of ‘a day off sick’.
Eon on the kayaking: “It was good fun, but not worth spending 22$ on it! The rapids were okay, and we had a good BBQ lunch.”
The next day, we rented two huge trekker-tyre-tubes from ‘Vang Vieng Tubing Company’ and set off to the Nam Song River. Tubing is the main tourist attraction for Vang Vieng, and for a very good reason!
You put on your swim wear, a hat and a LOT of sun lotion. Then you jump onto your tube and leisurely float down the river. About two minutes from the starting point, you find the first of many beer-pit-stops. These pit-stops are basically a bamboo bar on the river bank, with a couple of slides to keep you entertained whilst having a Beer Lao. To get from your tube to the bar, you just indicate to the guy on the ‘shore’ that you want to visit their spot and he throws out a rope and tows you in. I very nearly missed the second stop as I missed the rope and I had to swim for dear life against the current with a bottle of water in the one hand and the tube in the other to get to the river bank.
We stopped at about four or five bars and Eon had about four beers (should I remind you about the size of the beers here? 640ml!!). The beer and the sun was a great combination and we totally missed the sign that indicated the “end of the tubing”. After floating past the entire town, we realised that we had to get out of the river and figure out where we were. In the end, we had to walk back to town at 17:30 in our wet swim wear - the locals all had a good laugh at the falangs (Laos’s word for ‘long nose’). We had a great time!
All and all, Vang Vieng was a commercial but entertaining experience. The next morning we caught a bus to Luang Prabang.