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Vang Vieng - what a place! Unlike anywhere I have ever been before but for once the hype was to be believed. Laos had been a slow-burner for us up to this point but we really started to enjoy it last Monday when we rolled into town after a sweaty 5-hr bus journey from Vientiane.
Arriving in the evening, priorities first, let's get a hostel where the action is - as a guy I once knew used to say "GooseCentral"!! It proved to be a wise decision. Now others may have shuddered at the thought of a cockroach infested room with a building site on one side and the towns only late night bar on the other but for us it was perfect, and all for $2 each a night. The licencing laws in Laos are fickle and subject to constant change without warning, in general pubs turf you out countrywide at 11 or so but luckily for us next door we had the Rising Sun which seemed to stay open as long as people were thirsty...
Lao Lao is the local rice whiskey, think poitin with a taste like sewer water, but every bar seems to offer free
shots to its customers so avoiding it becomes a battle! On our first night out though, as custom dictated we were offered three glasses on arrival. Nice enough of them you might think, and it was. But wait, on closer inspection of the bottle there was a dead snake inside....I'll say that again...what looked like a dead python was staring out a us. Well at that stage there was no turning back and we couldn't offend the guy but it tastes just as bad as you would imagine a drink with a dead snake in it would but I guess it makes a good story to tell sometime.
To date in Laos we hadn't met many Irish, that all changed in Vang Vieng. This town is backpacker heaven, and seems like the town has doubled in size in the past year or so as word spreads. The entire town seems to be a construction site and the roads when it rains turn to rivers of mud, maybe not the prettiest town to look at but it sprung up for a couple of reasons. Firstly it is conveniently located halfway between the big two cities in Laos, Luang Prabang and
Vientiane and breaks up an 11 hour journey nicely. Secondly it is located in a picture-postcard location, surrounded by tree covered mountains and valleys that remind you of 'Jurassic Park' and finally someone once had the bright idea of inventing "Tubing" using the lovely river Nam Zang which runs next to the town...
For anyone who doesn't know, tubing involves sitting in a bright yellow rubber ring and floating back into town from 3km out. Every couple of hundred metres or so you have a bar offering cold beer Lao and they bring you ashore using a giant bamboo cane. Every bar also tries to outdo the other by having the maddest, biggest, highest swing, zipline or slide around. We were visiting in the dry season so the river is pretty low at this stage and safe enough although apparently it can become a raging torrent in wet season.
Next morning was a bit of a struggle but 3 keen-beans struggled down to the start with midday with our giant rubber rings under arms. Even if you don't have the courage to do some of the jumps at the start, a couple of Beer Lao's later you will
Splash
I don't think that's quite the way you're supposed to land... be standing at the top of a 10 metre swing knowing that turning back with earn you only jeers and boos from baying mob watching below!
We were lucky in meeting a good bunch of irish and english guys and gals who were great craic and we met in every pub we stopped in on the way in. It is great, great fun, a brilliant way to spend the day and everyone is friendly and out for a good time. You are guaranteed a cheer everytime you pull off an impressive jump or an "oooooohh" everytime you execute a bellyflop from 10 metres, this was heard more than once. Hope the photos give you some idea of the antics and banter. The title of King of the Bellyflops was conferred to this big fat Spanish guy who came off one of the swings at a very wrong angle. No-one was more amused at this than the little Laos guy operating the yoke who probably didn't even know people of that size existed let alone ever met one. "Same Same Buffalo" was as well as he could convey his mirth in English. It cracked us up as well.
Before
Travelling
Really difficult to meet people right enough... you know it, you are listening to "Hotel California" or "Scatman John" for the 10th time and the darkness has set in, which means you have left it too late to get back into town. First night myself and a lad from Clare thought it might be a good idea to go the whole hog and paddle in the dark with the thunder and lightening overhead and rain pishing down. Not my brightest ever idea and wish I had taking the tuktuk for a dollar now, arms were killing me next day.
Anyway it was so good we did it twice although all day sessions have the habit of giving you all day hangovers next day so we were a bit late starting the second one...still great craic though.
The nights out that followed were classics too. All nights followed the same formula - a feed in Zayoh Cafe, accross the road to the towns only Disco at 11 and on to the Rising Sun after that. The town disco was quite the experience, I don't think the pictures can do the tackiness justice. The music was far too cool for the setting though, with all the latest
Afternoon delight
Beer Laos, not Bugs... R&B and dance tracks so we decided to bring it down to the level the decor deserved and had a worst dancer 'dance-off'. Emma from Australia was the star of the show with her "sprinkler" and "lawnmower" but the "crab" and "lunge" (another country clocked up Bourkie!) also proved winners on the night!. Anyone with an ounce of shame or dignity would have run a mile but luckily we left ours at the door! Highlight of the night though was undoubtably the singsong afterwards with the Kerry legends - Sean and John and their party piece "Jumbo Breakfast Roll"!
Our time in Vang Vieng came to an end a bit too quickly. There was lots we wanted to do, such as the caves that we never made but time really flew by there and every one of us promised we'd be back.
The journey to Luang Prabang is probably like no other on earth. The scenery all the way there is stunning, what is also breathtaking however is the road to get there. It winds up and down through the mountains and valleys of northern Laos and you find yourself staring out the window and pinching yourself at
Snake bite
Enda a bit worse for wear after sampling the local firejuice. Men of Quins lookout, there's a bottle winging it's way back to Bishopbriggs right now! the sight. More than once you also find yourself in the unnerving position of looking out your window and not being able to see the road edge beneath you. They have had trouble in the past on this route (Route 13) with bandits in 2003 and for this reason sometimes you have armed guards on the bus, but that trouble seems to be long gone and we had no trouble or armed guards at all for the journey. We did however pick up 2 Laotians with dogs, who proceeded to put the poor dogs in bags and tie the top before sitting down in front of us..... Got the fright of my life in the end when I was awoken by a moving bag at my feet - the dog had wriggled his way back....poor dogs got there ok in the end don't worry although I am sure they went beserk when they were finally let out 6 hours later.
Laos has really grown on us now, it has probably the most beautiful scenery of anywhere I have been and the people are so friendly and very laid back. If anyone reading this wants to visit Laos and is
short of time, in hindsight I would probably give the south a miss. It is lovely and so relaxed but really all the action and scenery happens up north. But it depends what you like and you need a lot of time to travel around and see all there is up there...
Luang Prabang seems great, we've just arrived and have two days before we head off to the Gibbon Experience...
Enda
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