Vang Vieng - the 20something paradise

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So, I'm pretty sure that Gravol was invented because of the roads in Loas. Honestly! The ride from Luang Prabang to the small town of Vang Vieng was the most picturesque drive, but my God is it ever twisty! Every time I take a bus anywhere in this beautiful country, I am reminded of my motion sickness-filled childhood - car trips where I would be pressed up against the window, breathing in fresh air and concentrating SO hard on not barfing (Leah - you remember those horror-filled days!? hahah) Anyway, up into the mountains we drove, higher than any bus trip I'd ever been on. Like I said, it was gorgeous scenery - beautiful mountain peaks jutting out of the cloudy mist that filled all of the valleys that day (it rained the WHOLE day).

Although I didn't think it would be possible that Laos scenery would get better, the country has outdone itself through the town of Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng consists of jutting limestone cliffs, a lazily flowing river (Nam Song) and rice fields galore. Gorgeous. But first of all, to put everything into context, Vang Vieng (the town) is like Disney World for 20somethings. Mostly it offers restaurants where you can eat pizza and watch Friends on repeat ALL DAY LONG (which we did every night for a good couple of hours), many outdoor adventure opportunities like caving, kayaking and rock climbing, but the biggest attraction - tubing!

Ok - so a typical day in Vang Vieng goes like this. Wake up late. Eat. Go into town. Get your rubber inner tube for $5. Take a tuk tuk a couple of kms north of town. Get in your tube and start your very hard and strenuous day floating down the river 😊 This isn't a continuous journey back to town though - although it is only a couple of kms of river to get down, it takes ALL DAY due to the many, many makeshift bars that dot the shores of the river which offer plenty of beer Lao ($1US for almost 1L of beer!) and various forms of entertainment. By entertainment I really mean very high things that you can jump off of/swing off of (all only possible in the absence of liability issues!) the most popular being these MASSIVELY high rope swings!

The first bar we got to had the highest rope swing ever! We stayed there for 3 hrs! hahah Basically, everyone sits on the dock drinking beer while watching each other do tricks or do painful flops off of the rope swing into the river. Although the platform shakes and the rope that you swing on is only supported by a beam wedged b/w some rocks... you can be assured that the Lao ppl who run that bar will NOT let you float down current after you fly off the swing! They want your business so anytime you swing into the swirling, brown river, about 2 or 3 young Lao boys will either throw you a rope, a tube or will swim after you. Hilarious.

The next couple of bars are same, same but different. More beer Lao. More rope swings. The 3rd or 4th one though down river had something new to offer! An insanely high platform that had been just recently built that you could jump off of. And jump off it I did. Twice (I couldn't let just boys be brave enough! I had to represent! ahhaha). The second time, the impact of the water caused my jaws to snap together super hard and made me chip my tooth! Not good!

Anyway - hopefully you get the picture. It was a lot of fun - Tory and I did two days of tubing which did some severe damage to my body (arms sore from swinging, body bruised from landing in the water, liver not happy because of too much beer Lao...).

The third day in Vang Vieng we did something different and decided to explore some of the many amazing caves tucked away under massive limestone cliffs. I've never been in caves like this - it was great! We went deep into some, where the water was up to our waists and in one that b/c of the rain was only accessible by tube - you had to pull yourself along a rope in complete darkness with only about 2 inches of space from you head to the top of the cave. The caves were incredible though and really fun to explore (although a bit creepy too, I have to admit).

Next off - Vientiane, the capital city where we will spend a couple of days before Tory heads to Hanoi and I continue South!

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