Vang Vieng

I took the bus with Janeth, one of the girls I had met in Luang Prabang, arriving in Vang Vieng early afternoon. It didn’t take us long to find a hostel, and while we were booking we met a guy who decided to take a single room upstairs, splashing out in his final week of travel ($20 a night which is extortionate by backpacker prices). Discovering he had a balcony with a sunset view, we ended up grabbing a beer and watching the sun set over the most amazing backdrop. We were awed by a mixture of mountains, a river, picturesque buildings and flocks of birds circling overhead, all while the sky became a deeper orange by the minute.

Later that night a group of us went out to verify the rumour we had heard about bars offering free drinks. True to word we found a bar, which gave out as many free whiskey and mixers as you could drink within an hour. The next bar was a bit of a let down as you could only get one free drink during the full hour the offer was on. All in all we had a great night though, and as I am only able to consume several drinks within an hour, I was still standing, and coherent, by the time we headed back to the hostel!

The following day was tubing, an activity which has put Vang Vieng on the map throughout the backpacker world. This involves floating down river on a large rubber ring, then doing the strangest paddle while lying on your back every time you reached one of the four bars and needed to make it to shore. Luckily there were men on hand with plastic bottles on string to catch those of us less competent at the ‘back paddle’.

We ended our afternoon in the grandest fashion, with around ten of us all holding onto each other creating a huge makeshift raft. As the sun began to set, floating for nearly an hour down the river to the finish became rather cold, so to get ourselves through these tough times we sang our slightly drunken hearts out all the way back. This peaceful end was only slightly disrupted for me when, unprepared for everyone letting go, I started to speed away in a current as they began to exit the river. There was no time for the ‘back paddle’ this time, as I threw my legs in the hoop and began a frantic doggy paddle to shore!

Aiming for something more relaxed the next afternoon, we headed out to the Blue Lagoon on the outskirts of the city. This had a slightly more theme park/Centre Parks feel about the place than we were prepared for, but still made for a great afternoon out. A tree hanging over the water had been made into a dive board of sorts, with a high and low platform. Also attached was also a swing and a rope to swing on, meaning you could hear a splash and/or scream of someone hitting the water every few seconds. It did make for fun watching though.

Hidden away near the back of the park area was a long, steep set of stairs leading to a cave. Once in the cave we had to adopt a varied technique of scrambling, side stepping and just sitting/sliding to work our way through. There were no lights so we had to take our own torches, luckily these were good enough to spot the random holes that would appear in the floor every now and then. It was a great little exploration, one I am sure you would need a hard hat for in England, but we all managed to come out in one piece. We even found some interesting sparkling sections, and a strange wall covered in hand prints and people’s names, all in the same brown red paint (well, we hoped it was paint).