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Published: August 25th 2009
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Vang Vieng is a perfect midway point, south of Luang Prabang and north of the capital, Vientiane. It was once a place traveler’s came to experience small town Lao. However, now tubing and Vang Vieng have become synonymous and has put it on the ‘beaten track’.
Our first day in Vang Vieng was a glorious day, a perfect time to have yet another epic experience: tubing!! Tubing in Vang Vieng entails renting a big tractor trailer tube and cruising down the river stopping at the various bars. It also includes various zip lines, rope swings and slides if you are in possession of enough liquid courage. Local Lao people tow passing tubers into their bars for yet another bucket, thus creating an adult amusement park. The day was a great success. The first stop was Smile Bar, where we met Trant. He was a different bred of Canadian…well human being really, he proudly showed off his sharpie tattoo, stating “235 days tubing”. His medal’s in the mail.
We cruised down the river, receiving free lao-lao (local rice whiskey) at each bar and most of us attempted the zip lines and swings. We had gorgeous weather, met loads of backpackers,
all in all had a ton of fun, and most importantly kept safe.
Vang Vieng doesn’t have a lot of cultural sites, but it does make up for it with various outdoor activities. The next day some of our group moved onward to Vientiene, the rest of us with less of a time constraint decided to rent bikes and explore some of the rice paddies and caves.
We set off at midday and rented “Granny Bikes”; in hindsight not the most effective on the dirt roads, pocked with potholes. Regardless, we made our way to a clear freshwater stream. A few passengers joined us along the way, small Lao children who ran and hopped on the small seat above the rear wheel. Ironically (but not surprisingly), they asked us for money, despite having received a free ride!
After riding the 7 km stretch we finally made it to the stream, a welcome reward, as we were all dripping with sweat from the ride. The water was cold but incredibly clear and allowed us to cool off before we started the steep 70 meter ascent to the cave. The cave was huge and had a reclining Buddha just
inside. We continued deeper with two small lights enabling us to see the amazing stalactite and stalagmite rock formations. We later found out that many of the Lao people hid in these caves from the American bombing during the time of the Vietnam War. Lao holds the title of the ‘most bombed country in the world’, a title no country wants to receive.
Later that night we checked out one of the many bars in town. We traded backpacking tales over buckets with fellow travelers.
The next day we woke up early for a cave and kayaking tour we had booked. At this point our group had dwindled to just four of us, 3 of which being Sarah’s! We headed to yet another cave, however this one we were able to sit in a tube and cruise through. When it was our groups turn, all outfitted with tubes and head lamps circa 1970 we followed a rope that disappeared into the rocks. We cruised in our tubes for short while, but because it is rainy season; water levels were quite high, so we were instructed to stash our tubes and go on hand and foot the rest of
the way. We ended up slithering in the mud like snakes, scampering over rocks and squeezing through small crevices. Our guide, a small Lao man, made it look natural to move his body in this way and was hard to keep up with. After the cave we had lunch and then headed to the riverbank for kayaking. Similar to our bamboo rafting experience, Sarah and I partnered in a kayak, had to navigate down a fast moving river. We encountered a few tour groups along the way and after observing their paddling skills were happy that we had spent many a summer canoeing at Camp Tawingo.
We arrived back around 5pm wet and tired and dragged ourselves to the hostel. Later that night we again checked out a different drinking establishment, where we participated in a friendly pool tournament. We found ourselves later that night relaxing in hammocks at “Sunset Bar” again conversing with more 20 something year olds.
The 4 of us left for Vientiene the next day around 1pm, all feeling like we had got the most out of our experience in Vang Vieng. I am sure Trant was sad that he didn’t manage to convince
anyone to tube out the rest of 2009 with him.
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