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Published: January 16th 2007
Phou Kam Lagoon
The green-blue lagoon just below Phou Kam caveWater Activities in Vang Vieng
Vang Vieng, a quite little town in north Laos, was the right place at the right time. It was a return to the tranquile countryside after busy Bangkok and that was exactly what we needed. We found there a Laos that is rapidly growing to be the next north Thailand, but still hasn't reached the same level of tourist masses that have destroyed the latter. Still, we expected to find more authentic place than we did, which Laos is already not. It's still much poorer than its neighbour, Thailand, but the facilities in the main touristic destinations suit the taste of even the more spoilt westren tourist. It was no surprise then to find many older tourists even in Vang Vieng, a former backpackers town, changing it into a "smarter" place.
It is still a great place to visit and we loved every moment we spent there. The setting is amazing amid krast hills flanking the town. There are many water activities around the river that flows nearby, such as tubing, kayaking and water jumping which makes life good. The limestone caves are also a main attraction though we didn't find them that attractive, maybe
Phou Kam Lagoon
The water were so clean that we could clearly see the fish swimming below because we're not into caving so much. Anyway, we visited Chang cave which was less impressive than the Israeli Netifim cave. We decided to stay outside so we just hired bikes and rode all over the place. There are many dust trails around town leading to caves and amazing lagoons, to which you can jump with Omega, and biking in the best way to move around.
About the Lao people, well, they're still not the greedy Thais, but it seems that with the hordes of tourists yet to "discover" Laos, things will soon look similar. Anyway, they're nothing like the warm Indians who we really learnt to appreciate. The good part is that they understand the needs of the common westerner much better than the Indians. It means better food and better entertainment everywhere you go. A weird phenomenon we encountered was the nonstop reruns of the TV show iFriends in almost every restaurant in town. We never liked this show too much but it's simply pumped into your veins everywhere you go. We managed to find another place which runs movies and it was much better seeing
Face/Off (what a great movie it is!) and
Shrek II.
The Swing
This amazing swing throws you 10 meters above the river to which you fall helplessly. From my own experience - try to enter the water in 90 deg if you wanna keep your balls undamaged... :( We left Vang Vieng after a week without too much will. It's a place we could stay in much longer but time ran out and we had to move on.
The Title is taken from The Rembrandts' song "I'll Be There For You"
(Lyrics) the theme of
Friends we now know by heart after all its re-runs in the local restaurants.
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yaron and hagit
Baby makes six
come rain or shine
what a fun place!!! amazing how the place can change in 4 months between rainy and dry season. using your naming convention for entrees - we would have called ours: "These mist covered mountains Are a home now for me"