Blogs from Vang Vieng, West, Laos, Asia - page 23

Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng April 14th 2010

Hi everyone, I will write a proper blog soon, but just to let you know i'm still in Vang Vieng, about to start the celebrations for the New Year, which is a nation wide waterfight! Hope all is well, and will send more news soon. Love Charles xx... read more

Lovely Laos !

Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng April 10th 2010

Road in Vang Vieng

Laura Payne

Hello all, here is an update on the travels so far…. We left Vientiane on a short 3 and half hour coach trip to the beautiful village of Vang Vieng. We arrived in the afternoon and instantly loved the place; the small village with just 3 main roads is set amongst huge mountains and next to the nam song river. We found a beautiful room for 50,000 kip which is under £4 with hot water and cable TV. That night we went out to explore the legendry Vang Vieng. We found the much talked about “Party Island”, which is a small island formed by the river full off bars. You get over to Party Island on a precarious bamboo bridge which is very rickety and has bits of wood missing from all over the place, unbelievably ... read more

Can't be bothered to move

Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng April 5th 2010

Swollen foot Suse

robandsuse

Woke up feeling and looking rough though think I got the the worst of the hangover out of my system last night. Had a couple of tablets then we sorted laundry, booked bus to Vientiane for tomorrow before sprawling out on the mats and cushions in the Friends bar. Had some food and about 12 litres of water and juice. Sat here from about 11am to 15:30 just watching episode after episode of Friends :p Proper hangover recovery day!... read more

In need of constant supervision

Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng April 4th 2010

Rob Tubing

robandsuse

After lunch we went down to the tubing office in town, paid for a rubber ring/tyre and hopped into a tuk-tuk (which they managed to squeeze 10 people in!) down to the river. This place is very surreal. A river lined with bars selling cheap cocktails and beers. The bars reel you in by throwing you a rope line.There are loads of rope swings, ziplines and slides as well as mud volleyball and a tug of war mud pit hahah. The river is full of travellers and tourists basically getting ratted in the most spectacular and beautiful surroundings. The tubing route is supposed to be 3km and takes 3hrs to do in dry season and 1hr in wet (it's dry at the min). As we were walking into the first (yep the first) bar there were ... read more

Air con my a***

Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng April 3rd 2010

robandsuse

Tuk-tuk picked us up at 08:30 and took us and 2 girls (1 from UK, 1 from US) to the mini van stop. When we saw the van we wondered where the hell we'd sit but as the 2 girls squeezed in next to the driver I sat at the back with 2 Swedish (? maybe) lads and Rob sat next to this couple on a magical fold down chair that unbeknown to him at this point lifted and shifted when the bus took corners! Our bags were all hauled onto the roof where we hoped they'd stay till Vang Vieng. We read most of the way till we both felt ill (the road is very twisty) and I took pics out of the open window (they lied about the air con but at least my ... read more

Bangkok to Vang Vieng

Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng April 3rd 2010

Charles91

Hi everyone, I'm writing from Vang Vieng in Laos, so I'm now into my 3rd country of the trip! I'll try to fill you in on the last couple of weeks or so since Bangkok. Seb (my Swedish friend) and I caught a night bus from Bangkok, after a day doing some sight seeing up to Chiang Mai, which is the capital of the North of Thailand. Chiang Mai was a really cool place - quite quiet, but we had a pretty relaxed time there, and met some nice people. We then decided we wanted to get further into the countryside so took a bus to a really small town called Pai. I thought Pai was really cool - people told us that its become quite developed compared to how it was, but it still had ... read more

In the Tubing

Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng March 22nd 2010

Photo 2

Das Klo

Willkommen in Khaosan Road City, Abt. Laos. Vang Vieng hat vieles gemeinsam mit Yangshuo in Südchina (siehe meinen Blogeintrag von dort). Eine nicht weiter bemerkenswerte Kleinstadt inmitten einer wunderschönen Karstlandschaft mit Flüssen, Höhlen und Reisfeldern und doch gibt es einige Unterschiede. Yangshuo ist nur touristisch, wenn man aus dem Backpackerviertel herausgeht, ist man in einer (fast) normalen chinesischen Kleinstadt. Vang Vieng hingegen wurde regelrecht übernommen von den Backpackerhorden. Vor dreieinhalb Jahren war ich schon einmal hier. Schon damals war es voll, es wurde viel getrunken und Happy Mushroom Shakes standen auch damals schon auf vielen Speisekarten. Doch seit dieser Zeit hat sich das Ganze exponentiell erhöht: Überall Springbreaker und Ballermänner, Sauftourismus vom feinsten. Während damals noch ein geringer Anteil der Stadt lokal geprägt war, ist heute... read more

Vang Vieng: Satans Armpit

Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng March 20th 2010

A Charismatic Baked Patato

Matthaus

Set within a spectacular limestone karst valley on the Nam Xong river, Vang Vieng should be the perfect rest stop from the backpacker trail through Laos, after countless hours spent on public transport and all of the stresses and excitement that comes with it… It’s not. Instead, Vang Vieng is perhaps the most repulsive, mind-numbing and tedious place that I have ever had the misfortune of going to… And I’ve been to Croyden! Floating down the river in large tractor tubes, surrounded by grotesque “bucket bars” blasting misogamist Gangsta Rap from stereos with Amps the size of the sun, the once beautiful riverside setting is chocked by Chav boozers, sleazy sexual predators and pot heads, all of whom display the combined charisma of a Baked Potato. I have a fairly liberal view on drugs and as ... read more

31 na Terra do Nunca

Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng March 5th 2010

Happy Birthday

On the red road

Vang Vieng. Guardem esse nome. Uma vila com meia-dúzia de ruas, que há sete anos não tinha sequer água encanada, e que há cinco entrou no mapa mochileiro mundial por transformar uma idéia simples em uma atração que deixa marcas físicas e mentais no seu organismo por dias a fio. Dentro do rio, aos pés de uma cadeia de montanhas de calcário, turistas descem as correntezas em bóias feitas de pneu de caminhão, uma brincadeira de uma cooperativa de moradores que hoje envolve 1500 famílias locais. Mas a diferença daqui são algumas paradas estratégicas no caminho... Na cidade, bares e restaurantes estrategicamente colocam almofadas em estrados de madeira enquanto episódios de Friends são transmitidos na TV 24 horas por dia. Felipe, o aniversariante da vez, conta mais... 28/2 - Chegada a Vang Vieng. Poucos viajantes com ... read more

Vang Vieng

Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng February 19th 2010

Tube Tuk-tuk

DanandNat

Vang Vieng...the capital of tubing! Tubing is basically floating down the river in a giant truck inner tube watching the scenery as you float by... or stopping at one of the many bars en-route for refreshments. At first glance there doesn’t appear to be much else to this town, unless you like to watch hours of ‘Friends’ or ‘Family Guy’ in one of the many TV bars. However, once you go through the town to the river you see the spectacular setting which has made this place a famous destination... tubing or not. The limestone formations that surround the river are spectacular and provide a stunning vista when dining in one of the many restaurants that overlooks the river. But we should get back to the tubing as I’m sure that’s what most people are eager ... read more

Brief history of Laos

Laos was under the control of Siam (Thailand) from the late 18th century until the late 19th century when it became part of French Indochina. The Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907 defined the current Lao border with Thailand. In 1975, the Communist Pathe...more history

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