Vang Vieng, Laos

We left Phonsavan and took a bus to Vang Vieng where I hoped to get some climbing in.

The landscape of this area of Laos is phenomenal. Vang Vieng is the most beautiful place I have seen in Asia so far. Most of Laos in general is really breathtaking.

However, the town itself is ridiculous, and annoying. It's all wrong...simply all wrong.

With such stellar geography, the town has decided to market itself as a tourist-trap-party-zone. I cannot fathom why or how they came up with what they did…its nuts. Imagine girls gone wild but with guys also...lots of drinking, lots of partying, everything is reeeeaaallly expensive, and the whole town has very very slow internet.

When we first arrived and I saw what kind of place Vang Vieng is, I basically was shell-shocked after the type of experiences I have had. Once I was settled in my guest house and Leang at a temple, I began to wandered the streets.

The streets are lined with guesthouses and restaurants that all play American TV shows: Friends, Family Guy, and Simpson’s. That’s pretty much it, no variety. Every business plays them, you can walk from one where you started watching an episode and finish it at another place. Rather creepy if you ask me. All day and all evening they play this crap. You pretty much can’t sit somewhere and just enjoy the sounds of Laos because all you hear are those shows playing. They have rows of couches and TVs set up on tables for people to lounge after drinking and partying all day at the river where people go tubing.

It was so loud and outrageous; I just wanted to get away from the chaos. I stood in the middle of the street and took a good 360 degrees look around me and assessed my situation. I needed to clear my head….I needed to go for a walk.

So I began walking.

I walked through a small village market just on the outskirts of Vang Vieng.

And I walked toward the mountains….toward nature; away from the societal pollution of this town. I was already feeling better.

Eventually I came upon a more mellow area, with old men moving the water buffalo to graze in different pastures.

I came to a field overlooking the mountains in the distance, and I couldn’t wait to get out there and go climbing!

Around sunset I began walking back toward the town...dinner time! I came to a bridge and 3 boys that were eager to pratice their English with me began to talk to me.

They were walking to the bridge also to swim. In evening, people bathe in the river after a hot day working in the town and surrounding villages. Men, women, and children all 'bi apnam!!!' (Go shower!!!)

The next day, I went to the internet after seeing Leang and stopping off at the climbing school to see if anyone needed partners.

I learned that the tubing along the river has also turned into a tourist attraction. Because the river runs along the town, bars have lined up along the river, where you rent a tube in town and take a tuk-tuk to the river and then float from bar to bar. Imagine Spring-Break in Mexico. People get completely plastered and behave rather poorly. Manners go out the window.

Along the riverbanks rope swings and slides have also been set up for people...but it’s dangerous for sure. I cannot even count how many bandaged people I saw limping around town black-and-blue from these swings. They are on the upwards of 30ft high. Think trapeze style. Sounds fun, but I would rather be climbing.

Perhaps you are wondering if I joined in this tomfoolery. I thought about it....but then again, I don’t really drink much. I will have a glass of wine now and again, but the party scene is not for me. I cannot imagine how lame it would be to go and be around loads of drunken strangers while I am completely sober. I also began taking malaria medication, and had a high sun sensitivity...I would fry like a roasted pig.

So...I didn't go tubing.

I think while I was tempted to go check it out, my mind was made up for me. I went to the internet a few times to do some emailing and try to work on this blog, and it seemed about once an hour someone would fall out of their chair because they were so intoxicated. Further while walking down the street, a girl fell down and began vomiting all over herself. They guy she was with had to flip her over so she wouldn’t drown in it. Classy.
I heard another story between two girls sitting next to me at a restaurant where I was having noodle soup. One of the girls was telling her friend that when she woke up that morning she didn’t know where she was, and she was at some random Lao guys house and she had no clothes on. Her friend said she hadn't seen her since they went tubing the previous day. They didn’t seem worried about this, but were laughing about it. Totally classy.

Not exactly my kinda fun.

But my opinions don't stop there, I complain more at the end of this blog...so read on!

The climbing didn't happen. I was really upset about this because the landscape looks so great that I really wanted to check it out. I spend 2 days checking in with the climbing school to see if people would show up that already know how to climb and just need a partner. The guys at the school were not so helpful. They said it's becoming low season and that there are not so many climbers that are around that already have the skill needed to go out on their own. They told me I can hire one of them for the day to give me a belay, but it was around $40USD. Uhhh…yeeeeaaahhh…right.

So I tried on my own to find someone, eventually I found a guy and we made plans to meet at 10am the next day. I told him it would already be hot by that point but he said he was about to go tubing and didn't think he would be awake early enough to go before 10am.
The next day...he totally flaked. Decided he had so much fun partying along the river that he wanted to go again. And he had a girl with him that was wearing only one of his shirts since she couldn’t remember where her clothes were from the previous day.
To each their own.

Leang and I decided to catch a bus early the next morning to move on to Vientiane, and since I hadn’t really done much in this town, I decided to make the most of it.

So I rented a motorbike and decided to go do some other things like check out the lagoon and caves in the area that I heard were supposed to be pretty nice.

This is a bridge on the way to one of the larger more touristy caves.

These are the long steps up to the cave entrance.

The view of the area was so beautiful from up here. Too bad there will be no climbing in this area.

The cave was beautiful, but not what I expected. I was imagining a more scary-bat-filled creepy cave. This was nice though....I get spooked easily!

Next I headed to a lagoon that had another cave near by. Stunning.

Near the lagoon a family lived and the woman was working on a loom weaving silk.

Now this cave was more natural. No there were not lights in this one, and yes there were bats! Pretty spooky!

With this day of sightseeing I had a great time. It is really important to make the most of your situation even if your plans don’t turn out as you hope or expect them to. It is best to be flexible and to take in your surroundings and adapt to what is offered to you. It makes everything much more special and memorable when you have an open mind.

I checked around for bus prices, it seemed that to get to Vientiane through all the tourist places in town was roughly about $18-20 USD a person. The bus ride is only 3 hours! There is no way Leang and I could do this. I knew there has to be a local bus station somewhere, but the people at the travel agencies weren’t sharing the info. So I went online and found it for myself. I took the motorbike and went there to check prices and times. There is a local bus nearly every half-hour from 5:30 until 4pm. They told me that we can catch the bus right there in town not far from the Wat that Leang is staying at. Perfect!

We decided to meet in the morning at 5:30 at the little shop where we catch the bus so we can eat breakfast before we catch the 6am bus.

Off to Vientiane we go!

The next set of photos is from the early morning bus ride. It was an adventure for sure!