Vang Vieng

In the words of the Lonely Planet, "Love it or hate it, Vang Vieng is a jaw-dropper." Let's just say, this is one interesting town!  It's main draw now is what some would call a must-do in backpacker's culture - tubing down the Nam Song River. But this isn't just any tubing! There are rope swings that allow you to pretend you are Tarzan or Jane, at least for a moment, and there are water slides that have proven lethal in recent history. It is a place that is famous for drinking and drugs, and for scary stories from foreigners that involve jail and guns and a lot of money being handed over, and sometimes even death. In fact, the morning we left town, we heard that a Swedish traveler was found dead - he just never woke up. I am not telling you all of this to scare you, or to make you wonder why on Earth I would go to a place like that. I am just giving you some background, so that you understand why I had reservations about heading there in the first place. The main reason that I went was because I had heard how beautiful the landscape was in and around the town - it is surrounded by limestone karsts that look like mountains, and is lush and green. That, and I was traveling with Isabel, so I felt more comfortable with the whole scene, knowing I wouldn't have to check it out alone. Our original plan was to tube all day, beyond the infamous bars with the swings, free shots, and buckets of Lao Lao vodka mixed with pepsi and Lao's version of Red Bull. But, we did what everyone seems to do - we got sucked in and didn't move beyond the first four bars. It was a beautiful day, and very fun, but something I am glad I only experienced once, and that I came safely away from with nothing but some good stories and mysterious scrapes and bruises! The next day, Isabel and I rented motorbikes and headed out of town to enjoy the beautiful scenery. We meant to do 'the loop' that was mentioned in her guide book, but we missed the turn, so we just kept heading North.

We stopped to take a lot of great pictures, and ended up at one of the many caves in the area, which was fun to explore. As we headed back into town, we had about 2 hours left of daylight, and were just about to make another new turn to check out a different area, when my bike died. Once Isabel realized and came back to rescue me, and after several attempts to restart it to no avail, we moved it off to the side of the road and headed back into town on her bike to tell the man we rented it from. When we got there, he was fast asleep, and surrounded by about 10 of his friends and about 20 empty beer bottles! His friends woke him up, and we explained what had happened, and where we had left the bike. Of course we were not going to get onto a bike or into a car with him since he was clearly drunk, although he did suggest this at one point. We politely declined, and told him that we would be happy to lead him to the bike on Isabel's bike, but he said he could figure out where it was from our description. We did go back later to insure that he had indeed found it - he had, and it still didn't start. Not sure what happened, but we were very glad that it was only 6 km from town rather than the 50 km we had gone initially!
One odd bit about the town that I should also mention is that the streets are lined with bars that all have comfy seating and show reruns of Friends and Family Guy. People, including us a couple of times, sit there for hours and watch these shows like zombies! I'm really not sure there is any other place like this anywhere. After 2 days and 3 nights, I was definitely ready to bid farewell to Vang Vieng!