Advertisement
As I started to write this blog (which is backdated by a couple months), I decided to look at the Wikpedia description of Vang Vieng just for curiosity's sake. At the end of the entry, under the "See also" section was a hyperlink to "Banana Pancake Trail." That name made me chuckle to myself, because I think that Courtney and I have definitely been on that trail once or twice and we certainly indulged in a delicious late-night banana chocolate pancake whilst in Vang Vieng (and other places!).
I clicked on the hyperlink to see what it was all about and here is what the entry said:
"The Banana Pancake Trail is the name given to the well-trodden and constantly growing routes around South East Asia travelled by backpackers and other tourists. The Trail has no clear definition but is used as a metaphor for places that are well-visited by mostly Western tourists who have left their marks on the local tourist industry, which has created restaurants, hotels and entertainment catering to these travellers' needs."
Spot on. I have definitely been on the Banana Pancake Trail (BPT) throughout Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, and Vang Vieng is absolutely 100%
as Banana Pancake Trail as you can get, as far as I'm concerned. It is a beautiful but rather bizarre little town that seems to have grown up around the backpacker scene. Ok, the town itself isn't actually beautiful per se, but the limetstone formations in the area truly are special. I don't know who the entrepreneurial genius was who came up with the idea of building up a tubing business with bars all along the way downstream from upriver, but it has put this little place on the (BPT) map and is somewhat of a legend--everyone seems to have their Vang Vieng story and/or at least one of those ugly sleeveless t-shirts from there to prove that they, too, can drunkenly tube down a river.
Courtney and I specifically determined that we wanted to experience this place together so that we wouldn't have to go it alone and be forced to make spontaneous fun friends to go tubing with. We did end up making friends on the river and also bumping into some TEFL girls we knew, but it was more fun to be with a buddy for the adventure. We planned on doing one day of tubing
and one day of exploring beyond the river (biking, walking, caves, etc. etc.), but we ended up doing two days on the river because a) it was a lot of fun, and b) we got a really late start the first day due to a late night out on the town our first night in Vang Vieng.
The town is wall-to-wall guest houses, most of which have a lounge-y kind of restaurant attached to them on the street level. For some reason in this warped little microcosm all of these restaurants play episode after episode of Friends, or alternatively, The Family Guy. These seem to be the only two series they show, for undetermined reasons. So basically you can sit at the restaurant of your choice (food is pretty much the same at most of them, I'd say) and eat and drink beer until your eyes glaze over and you realize that you've just watched 4 or 5 straight episodes of Friends (which is about my limit for one sitting, I discovered).
And after an evening of chilling at one of these places or alternatively going to one of the bars (Bucket Bar, Smile Bar, etc.) across the
bamboo bridge, then you are ready for a day of action on the river. The tube rental system is completely streamlined and efficient. After you get your tube and dry bag, you and the tube are loaded onto a tuk-tuk, which, when full, shuttles people to the drop-off point, upriver from town. The idea is that you float all the way back to the shop and pop out of the water to drop off your tube, but we didn't make it all the way down the river either day and instead had to catch a tuk-tuk back to town.
And the reason we didn't make it down the river is that there were so many places to stop along the way! The river is lined with bars on either side. Some people don't even bother with a tube but rather just swim from bar to bar. Each one has some sort of gimmick to attract people--trapezes, ziplines, mud pit tug-of-war, free shots, a waterslide, whisky bucket specials, etc. (pretty much all of which Courtney and I were compelled to try). Competing music pulsates through the air. A man (usually) is standing by the edge of the bar, ready to
The jumping off point and first bar
I'm pretty sure that some people come to this bar just to hang out throw a tow-rope to reel you in if you give the cue (or sometimes even if you don't). There is a real MTV Beach House vibe to the whole thing, which seems so strange when you take those moments to realize where you are and what the locals must think of the whole thing! It is a place that should be experienced and enjoyed for what it is. I recommend putting a limit on the amount of time you will stay there ahead of time, as we met some people who got sucked into the vortex for weeks and weeks.
As you might sense from this blog, I am somewhat ambivalent about Vang Vieng. I can't emphasize enough that I had a ridiculously fun time lazing down the river, cold Beerlao in hand, stopping for some dance party time, scaring myself on the high trapeze platform, and most of all playing in the mud pit. But it is the kind of place where you really have to wonder, "Is this tourism really good for the local people in the long run?" What is it teaching their children who spend their days right alongside hedonistic backpackers every day? Just one
cultural note (without even going into public drunkenness or PDA): Showing your body is pretty culturally inappropriate in Laos. I think that most adults in Laos would probably bathe in the river with their clothes on, as in Thailand. And maybe being on the river in a bathing suit is one thing, but I think that strutting (or should I say staggering?) down the main street of Vang Vieng clad only in bathing suits and drunkenly shout-singing Justin Timberlake songs is another thing altogether (which is what some jokers seemed to do each night). But maybe that's just me.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.135s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0753s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Courtney
non-member comment
Ditto on the whole blog, well written! And I love that they have named the Banana Pancake Trail. Exactly as you said, spot on. But oh how I miss it so sometimes... :)