VangVieng--a party with scenery...

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Hello again!
We spent 8 days in the small town of VangVieng, a place that used to be a stopoff point for backpackers on their way to the north of Laos, but which has become a total party destination. The town itself isn't much, but the giant karst limestone cliffs and mountains across the gorgeous river are really something. You can go caving, rock climbing, biking, tubing, swimming, or just sit in a hammock and drink BeerLao while watching the sunset. Our first impression was of tuk-tuks filled with young drunk travellers returning from a day of tubing down the Nam Song river. We went the next day, of course, and although we tried to float the river all the way back to town, we didn't make it and joined the crowd of wild tubers. Quick note: the tubing isn't really tubing, it's floating from one bar to the next and swinging off their huge swings 40 feet into the air and then plummetting into the few deep holes in the river. It's amazing that more people aren't badly hurt doing this, but it was funny to watch the bellyflops. We had to go a second day and try the mulberry mojitos and make Julija go off the swings, which she did repeatedly. I was, of course, going huge off the swings by this point. Afterwards, we hung out at one of the many bars where a person can sit and watch Family Guy or Friends (?) episodes while enjoying a wide variety of food (gravy pizza) and delicious shakes (some with special ingredients.)

We had to leave our first guesthouse because there were spiders the size of your fist in the bathroom and the blaring music from the Smile Bar down on the party island by the river. One night Julija went to the bathroom to find 4 huge cockroaches scurrying out of the drain. We took a wicked motorcycle trip out to some villages for 2 days and went to some amazing caves and swimming lagoons. Some of the local farmers peeked out of their huts and gave me a look of concern and amazement that a falang (white guy) would venture that far out. At one point, we tried to ford a decent sized river on the XingZang (crappy Chinese motorbike) and it died on the edge of the opposite bank. At this point a truck piled with 20 Lao people arrived and casually unloaded, bathed, then forded the river at a higher point that I hadn't seen. They saw me trying to kick start the bike and all began laughing hysterically for 10 minutes, then just drove off. I got it started after 40 minutes but the key later fell out of the ignition while I was driving and I had to go back for 10 km to find it lying in the road. Meanwhile, Julija was being chased by 2 boars, but she got away. Caving in Lao is so awesome! There are no rules or signs and you could easily fall off a precipice and never be found again. I was amazed at how many tourists go "caving" with flip-flops and no flashlight. Duh! We were prepared and went deep into several less-explored caves. At one, we were in the top chamber of a deep and twisting cave when a small boy appeared and told us he was our guide. I laughed and said that it was too late, we had already figured it out and were leaving. He, of course, didn't understand this and followed us around pouting until I gave him some money; then he pouted more because it wasn't enough. We left. You find this all over Lao. The people are so kind and disarming, but if they think they have an angle, they will exploit it. We have to keep a tight hold on our cash to make it last. VangVieng is an awesome place to meet people from all over the world, especially Swedes, a ton of those crazy guys here; but it's also immensely beautiful and relaxing. We're off to Luang Prabang in the north, the home of the last King of Laos, who mysteriously disappeared--sort of taboo subject here.

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Comments

[Mom]

reassuring
Well-that was certainly full of reassuring adventures....Let's see--diving 40 feet into deep holes in a river; giant spiders: motorcyle dying on side of river; risk of fallingoff precipice in caves where you would never be found. Wow--what's a mother to think?! Every entry scares me to death. PLEASE--be careful!!! I love you!! Mom

[raminta]

"special" ingredients from the "smile" bar?
I don't wanna know what THAT might be. Watch out for little Julija, she might get eaten by a boar! Your caving story reminds me of a time spelunking in the Ozarks with Tonya, when we picked up some $7 headlamps from Wal-Mart, and entered a cave. A group of 8 or so Arkansaw natives entered the cave behind us, with one dim flashlight. One of them exclaimed, "look ma, she got's flashlights on her head!"