Luang Prabang’s Lazy Days to Vang Vieng’s Crazy Haze

Day 123 - written by Aus aboard a flight to New Delhi, India on January 16, 2011

Well this is a very difficult time for us---we are leaving southeast Asia :(

It’s been a fantastic past several weeks, but I suppose all good things must come to an end.  That's been quite common for us on this trip, never wanting to leave where we have had such a good time, but at the same time excited for the next adventure.  This time we are bound for what is likely our most foreign and exotic destination of the trip thus far- northern India.  We have heard many horror stories and tales of great adventures good and bad in India, and in only a few hours we will be amidst what is described to us as ‘utter chaos'.  So, despite being a bit anxious about the whole thing, we are quite excited to see India for ourselves.

For the moment though, I will bring you up to date on our latest adventures in Laos, which ranged from the very lazy, slow paced days spent in Luang Prabang, to the non-stop party in Vang Vieng, to our quick and dirty tour of Vientiane.  When we last left off on our travel stories, we were off to Luang Prabang, in northern Laos, so I will pick up there where Kim left off.

Luang Prabang, along with the country of Laos as a whole (or what he calls PDR Laos [Please Don’t Rush vs Peoples Democratic Republic]) had come highly recommended to us by our friend Alex who had travelled there several years ago, and while we enjoyed the vibe of the place, I have to agree with his statement that it all depends on the people you meet.  Unfortunately for us, we did not meet our new Lao friends until we were leaving Luang Prabang.  We had a nice, relaxing, but rather uneventful stay in Luang Prabang, instead of the high-octane experience Alex had described.  We were actually quite happy with that, as we really did enjoy just taking it slow a bit and enjoying the very laid back and friendly vibes we found in Luang Prabang.  Since the new year we have been traveling pretty much day by day and sorting where we will be and sleep etc as we go, we had once again become overdue for some serious planning, as we did in Australia to make the most of our time during all the rain we had while there (which has obviously continued after our departure! I’m sure you’ve all heard about the massive floods there). 

So, we took the time to do a bit of that planning while in Luang Prabang, and are now better off for it, as we have an itinerary now for India, and a bit more of a rough plan for what happens after that.  The cost however of taking it slow and not feeling the pressure to go sightseeing everyday was that we did not get out to see all of the sights that many tourists visiting the area will see, namely the Pak Ou caves and the nearby waterfall.  So yeah, we kind of missed out from what we hear, but when you're just not feelin’ it, you're just not feelin’ it, and Kim especially, was not feelin’ it.  I think we are now spoiled by all of our great experiences, and may even be guilty of taking some things for granted, as I could not persuade Kim to go to that waterfall due to an attitude of ‘oh, its just another waterfall’, so we did what we felt like and chilled out.  We did do some sightseeing of course, and we explored the town and it's many temples, and a nearby village, but we did not go all out non-stop as we have in some other places such as Cambodia.  I think we just needed a bit of rest really.  Luang Prabang was the perfect place for that, very nice relaxed atmosphere and nice tourist infrastructure.  We spent our time exploring, planning, lazing, and enjoying the oddly named little town (which is also a UNESCO world heritage site due to it's history and many temples).  Here are a few photos of our days in Luang Prabang. 

Kim doing some shopping at the night market, where she found some items for $1 or $2 dollars each, then spent over $25 sending them back to Canada.


On one of our trips around town exploring we found this path leading into the jungle down by the river, and it looked safe enough so we decided to check it out.  We ended up finding a trail to a nearby village where we got to see some slightly more traditional Lao homes, but I still think they were rich Lao people due to their proximity to touristy Luang Prabang.  Either way, we enjoyed it and stopped for a nice drink by the river.








Now back in the city proper, you can see one of the many temples where it is frequent to see saffron-clad monks going about their business.  No photos though as it is rude to photograph without permission and those few we asked all declined. 

Kim in the mean streets of Luang Prabang


Again at the night market, there is a bit of an infrastructure to help tourists contribute something back to Lao people in a meaningful and helpful way, rather than just handing out cash or candy or something.  It is an organized network of children's book sellers and authors, who sell the books to tourists, who then give the books away to children along their travels.  Books are all produced locally and everyone wins seemingly, so we figured we would buy some books to hand out during our travels.  We met this guy, I forget his name, but anyhow he was an author a few of the books and was proud to tell us, so we grabbed a bunch of his books and a few more, and found some kids throughout our travels to give them to.

Some cute kids hanging about at the night market…



After Luang Prabang, and our problematic check-out experience at the New Daraphet Villas (please do not stay there---its overpriced and we even had mushrooms growing in the room from all the water damage) we were off to the famous (at least among southeast Asian travellers) Vang Vieng, about 250 kms south, or 6 hours by road through the mountains.  We had originally booked a minivan to take us there but found an office selling individual segments of the Stray Travel bus tour that we had considered for our trip throughout Thailand and Laos.  We were familiar with them as they were associated with Spaceships, our van rental company in New Zealand.  We figured we would give it a go to see what we were missing, and we were glad we did.  Instead of being crammed into another minibus experience, we had a nice roomy bus to ride in with a few other young travelers, and also had opportunity to stop along the way at some (apparently) good photo spots.  As luck would have it though, the morning we travelled it was fogged in for pretty much the whole journey, which was another exciting rural drive, this time through mountains ascending above 1000 meters, so we were especially glad to have the extra space, even if the photo stops were worthless.  The best part of the journey was meeting a few like minded travelers who we carried on with once we got to Vang Vieng.  We checked in to the Somphathai guest house for which we were paying only 70,000 Kip per night, or the equivalent of about $8.50 Canadian, and were very impressed.  After just having left a room in Luang Prabang that was many multiples more, we were glad to find a clean bed to rest our heads while not overpaying.  They even had free WiFi - what a deal!  Apart from the excessive partying we did there, Vang Vieng has definitely been the cheapest place we have been so far.  You can live on about $10 per day each as a couple there if you don't go too crazy partying, as great street meals can be found for 1 or 2 dollars, and you can find a large Beerlao for about a dollar.   Best (and worst) deal going is the buckets of Lao whisky and red bull, which can be had for 30,000 Kip or less.  That is less than $4, and the bucket is essentially 2 or 3 drinks for 2 or 3 people, so good bang for your buck, and bad news for your liver. 

Vang Vieng is such a strange little place. It's an oasis of craziness amidst the otherwise pretty laid back country of Laos.  It is a backpacker Mecca, and a rite of passage for Southeast Asian backpackers to go tubing in the Nam Song river.  This is first class partying we’re talking about here, no sissies please.  Nobody under 30 comes to Vang Vieng and leaves without going tubing and buying their honorary 'In the Tubing' T-shirt for $2. 
We had heard about this from our friend who travelled here several years ago, and also seen the t- shirts as we travelled through SE Asia, so we had to experience it for ourselves.  Well it did not disappoint.  We had two solid days of fun out on that river, and despite moving rapidly towards being overcrowded, we can definitely recommend the experience to anyone who likes to have a good time.  It's very difficult to describe, except to say that it is a unique mix of adventure, adrenaline, and alcohol, all set in a very beautiful and serene setting that makes the whole experience that much more strange and wonderful.  To help me try to explain this fantastic little voyage, allow me these visual aids....
Loading up the tuk tuk in town with 10 people and 10 tubes, its a crunch….

Hitting the river, taking it slow at first…


The sun comes out and we’re feeling good…..

Getting better at every stop, which is bar after bar after riverside bar, with new ones being constructed almost daily it seems, as we passed one that looks to be just starting construction but tells us come back in 2 days for grand opening.  At the bar pictured below, they had a wicked slide (over my shoulder) and even a trapeze swing (see over Kim’s shoulder) we had to try….

Lovin’ every minute of it!

As I said, we had to try the swing along with our friends, but don’t worry, we did it safely before we got off our heads.  I should note that Vang Vieng’s streets are full of river casualties, lots of arms in slings, scrapes and bruises, stitches and crutches, and even some more gruesome stories.  Kim even spotted a sort of cautionary sign that who knows if its true, but one bar posted a notice that about 10 people die on the river each year from this extreme tubing.  It is hard to believe (while at the same time not), but why would they lie?  Anyhow, we made it through safely and managed to have a good time without being one of the casualties.  A few photos of us and our friends…
Steve (from England) on the trapeze swing…

Some of the folks we met in Vang Vieng and went tubing with, Steve, Lindsay, Stu, Kim, random Aussie guy, me, and Tessa.

Does life get any better??????

Weird thing is, you have all that craziness of bars lining the sides of the river and people throwing themselves off of 50 foot swings into 10 feet of water, getting off their heads on buckets of Lao whisky, but then at the same time, you look around and you see beautiful limestone karsts and mountains all around, and you think where the f#$k am I?   Is this real?   But it is of course, and after floating only a few more minutes down river past some bars you are out of crazytown and into this setting…..

Steve and Lindsay just taking it all in


Some people now choose to see the whole scene from the air in a hot air balloon.  In my opinion, in the water is the best way, but to each their own….



So tubing is definitely the highlight of our trip to Vang Vieng, and our whole trip to Laos for that matter, but I think that's the case because we were lucky enough to meet so many great people there.  Before I move on though, I have to mention a few other oddities of the town of Vang Vieng, and that is the TV bars and cops/drugs scheme  There are loads of bars in town, it's actually all just guesthouses, bars, and restaurants--but the most peculiar thing is that a good 50 % of them are TV bars, where they play either Friends or Family Guy literally all-day long non-stop.  It's actually kind of cool if you just want to hang out and have a meal and watch your much missed western TV, but its also interesting to see what they think western tourists want.  I suppose both shows are mainstream enough to appeal to most younger tastes.  The second interesting thing I wanted to make note of was the little scheme that the cops and bars have going on.  Obviously it's a party atmosphere full of backpackers having the time of their lives, and many of those people find themselves doing some perhaps risky things after a few drinks, namely ordering items off of the 'happy menu' on offer at many of the local establishments.  I'm not talking about McDonalds's kids meals here obviously, but instead about food or drinks containing one or more illicit substances, sometimes substances unknown.  We talked to people who had found Opium tea, mushroom pizzas and shakes, pot pizzas and even just bags of the stuff.  Well it all sounds good when you're having a good time and carrying on, but guess what, there's a not so happy free prize that comes with many of those happy meals, and that is the local police waiting outside for their piece of the action. Not necessarily in cooperation with the bars, but more just taking their cut of the tourist money, local police are known to extract large bribes from many a tourist here who finds themselves a little too 'ecstatic'.  We heard a story from a guy who had just bailed his friend out of jail by paying a fine of 500 British pounds, so not small change.  Despite this being a well known practice, there are a steady stream of happy-hungry travellers eager to test the odds and try their luck.  We managed to avoid any trouble, and we still left with a smile on our face despite not finding true 'happiness'. 
More photos of Vang Vieng….
The bus ride from Luang Prabang on the Stray bus

Mark, who me met on the bus, shown here with me sampling his Lao Lao (Lao rice wine distilled to high alcohol content)

Fun at the Aussie Bar….

A TV bar, where you can see an episode of Friends playing in the background.  Oh those poor staff.

A woman going about her daily business outside a cafe where we ate.  During our bus rides we really noticed that women work hard here, probably more than men to be honest.  

All set to go ‘In The Tubing’

A nice pool Kim found at the Vansana Hotel, which they let her use for 20,000 kips ($2) for a day pass….sweet!


After thoroughly exhausting and abusing ourselves for three days, we took the last day to chill out again and try to recharge a bit.  We enjoyed just taking in some of the more chilled out atmosphere of Vang Vieng, and we even hung out in a TV bar for a while watching a lot of dazed backpackers walk by in various states of their ascent or descent from their tubing experiences, and a surprisingly steady flow of curious looks from the older bus tour crowd who obviously does not know what they are getting into when they decide to stop in Vang Vieng, which has really put itself on the travel map in the last 10 years by attracting all, the shall we say, tubing enthusiasts.  We were told that before the year 2000, Vang Vieng was not much more than a cloud of dust along the well trodden route 13 between Luang Prabang and Vientiane.  We get the impression that things are changing fast here, and we are glad that we saw it before it loses it's charm, which for people who were there 5 years ago, probably think it already has.  Anyhow, onward to Vientiane!

Vientiane is the capital of Laos and is located almost smack dab in the center of the country.  It is about 200 km south of Vang Vieng, or about 4 hours by minibus, which this time we tried.  It was as expected, cramped and busy, but it got us from A to B safely.  We arrived midday in Vientiane, and got dropped outside the national museum where a slew of eager tuk-tuk drivers awaited.  We had an idea for a place to stay, and we asked for a price to get there.  Well the tuk tuk driver I suppose looked at us and decided we cash cows were about to burst and desperately needed to be milked, so he went for it and asked for 60'000 Kip, which is the same price we had just paid to travel four hours.  Thing is, we knew our hotel was in 15 minutes walking distance from where we got dropped, but we did not have a clue as to what direction it was.  So not wanting to reward the greedy tuk tuk driver, we opted to go grab some food across the street and see if we could figure ourselves out.  That decision had mixed results- we found ourselves on our map and we found the street where we thought our hotel was located, so that was good, but it turns out we were wrong about where the hotel was, so we ended up having to go all the way back to where we started, then in the other direction for about 400 meters to find our hotel.  So the bad news was that we had to wander around for a few hours with our backpacks on, the good news is that we got a free tour of the city, plus we didn't have to pay 8$ for a 400 metre tuk tuk ride! 
Vientiane was nice, and we enjoyed our walk around despite having the packs on, but we only had the one night and were told by many people that it is not really all that magical of a place anyhow.  We thought it was a cute little city anyway, lots of French influence obviously, and lots of temples as is typical in this part of the world.  We didn't really do proper sightseeing there, but while roaming around we did get a couple shots to show off the place...
Having a look at one of the temples, which you can’t see, but you can see me and the streets of Vientiane…..

Another action shot as we did not really feel like stopping to get great photos while carrying these giant packs that we are constantly wondering what we can eliminate from..



We did not visit any museums while in Laos, and we did not set foot inside a temple, as I think we were museum’d and temple'd out from Cambodia, but we did learn a little bit about the history that we found interesting.  Like most Asian countries, their history goes way back, and includes various periods of recent foreign occupation.  The most interesting recent history is that Laos is the single most bombed country in the world (apparently, and according to some sources), and this is basically all due to the ‘secret war’ that was fought here in the sixties and seventies, where America was trying I suppose to stem the spread of communism by keeping the Vietnamese contained.  In the process they have armed much of the Laos border with land mines and have dropped countless bombs on Laos for reasons that I must admit I don't fully understand.  Basically, as I understand, there was a whole lot of US army personnel in this part of the world who were not officially here, and hence had some pretty strange behaviours such as running drugs and carrying out various side businesses (think the movie Air America) in addition to devastating the country with bombs and land mines, all in an effort to try to secretly and unofficially disrupt the normal operation of communist countries.  It's all very weird and quite sad to see the modern day effects, which are the many people walking around missing limbs etc from land mines (which by the way are still being found, and are expected to take another 100 years to be fully cleared.  In fact, we were told that tourists can actually pay to go on one of these clearing missions for a day to see what it's like- we opted for safety over adventure and understanding though).  The most remarkable thing is the resilience of the people here, which we were also impressed with in Cambodia and Vietnam as well, who all seem to be getting on with their lives and dealing with that part of history in a very pragmatic way by not letting it prevent them from moving on and doing what is best for their future. 


That's pretty much got you up to date.  We flew out of Vientiane dirty early this morning and had a long layover in Bangkok where we spent the time organizing all of the many many many many many many (did I say it was MANY) documents required to apply for our recently required visa to visit the United Arab Emirates.  So not sure how that all got started but I know that they want exorbitant amounts of money from Canadians for a tourist visa, or they want you to fly using their national airlines and get a transit visa for a short stay of less than 96 hours, which is likely what we will opt for.  We are currently looking at Africa via the Emirates after seeing India.  Our biggest concern right now is whether to travel south or north through Africa, and where to do the safaris.  Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Ethiopia, even Madagascar, it's all on the menu (except likely Tunisia and Sudan)- but I doubt we will have time for all of it, so we have some hard choices to make over the next week or so.  It's a rough life I tell ya!

Anyhow, we are currently on our descent into Delhi and getting pumped about being amidst the chaos.  All the best to all of our readers.  It has been nice to hear from a few of you, and we hope you continue to enjoy reading our stories, even if long winded.


Cheers,
The Knotty Travellers