Our first trip out and about in Vang Vieng (and we tried to keep as busy as possible to keep away from the town centre) was a kayaking and caving trip around the mountains in the surrounding area. A group of about 15 people, some English, some Canadian and some Chinese. First stop: pulling ourselves through a very dark cave while floating on inner tubes with the route only lit up by the miners light wrapped around our heads and powered by a car battery hanging by a loose thread round our necks (seemed safe at the time). For the second half of the cave we had to crawl on our hands and knees through muddy sand to reach an opening where we had a quick presentation on the history of the cave and how many people hid there during the bombing by the americans.
After lunch we hit the kayaks and paddled our way downstream towards the town chatting, laughing and splashing each other along the way. Met a couple of very pleasant, funny Canadian guys who we would later meet up again with in Thailand. A few fun, but not exactly adrenalin fueled, rapids later and we were home in time for the Family Guy where Stewie kills Lois. Excellent.
We only intended to stay in Vang Vieng 2-3 days but due to a 'mystery illness' affecting first me and then Tash we ended up staying for 6 nights. Whatever can be said about Vang Vieng, its a great place to rehabilitate and get your strength back.
On the final day once we'd both recovered, we decided to see what all the fuss was about with Tubing. Even the driving rain couldnt keep us (or several hundred other young people) away from the tube rent shop that afternoon, a little place where you hire the inner tube of a tractor or something of similar size and then catch a taxi up to the start of the river in the mountains. Before i go on let me just remind you that its wet season in SE Asia at the moment, the river banks are mostly broken and its running FAST, about 70 yards across, and with dirty brown water. Anyway, at the place where the taxi drops you off, you plop down into your inner tube and let the current take you, round the first corner you start to hear the pounding house music of the first bar with its crowd in bikinis and shorts playing drinking games with the free shots, cocktail buckets and cheap beers. If you want to stop at a bar, you grab one of the ropes flying through the air from the kids that are employed there all day to stop the tourists and haul yourself in. Few beers, few shots, bit of dancing later and then you take off again in your inner tube, worse for wear but 100% more confident in your ability to drive it downstream. The next bar we stopped in had a mud volley ball court (its still raining of course), basically a massive brown puddle with a volleyball net in the middle, guys throwing themselves across it and girls who have just found the latest (and free) spraytan.
More shots, more beers, jumps off the side of the bar into the river, river surfing on some wooden pallets tied to a tree (yep the rivers running that fast you can surf it) and then back into your tube for the journey to the next bar. This one had an enormous slide made of tiles that shoots you into the middle of the river. Unfortunately this is where it starts to get a bit messy for Chris and Tash as Tash decides to confidently take a run up to this slide, her legs slip out from under her and she cracks her head on the tiles before being shot off into the middle of the river. When she emerged im not quite sure who was panicking more, me or her. By some miracle she pulls herself into the side and tried to make her head stop spinning. She seemed ok after ten minutes or so we continued down to the next bar. At 'Smile' bar someone actually had the job of rolling up spliffs all day and handing them out free to the crazed western tourists. By that time though Tash's lips had gone blue and it was starting to go dark so we set off on the 30 minute inner tube cruise back to Vang Vieng (you arent supposed to float all the way home but after 7 beers, shots and buckets we thought we could do it). We arrived in Vang Vieng just as it was getting really dark (i really would not like to be stuck on that river in the pitch black).
All in all a great day. Fantastic, reckless, dangerous fun that your parents would be ashamed of you being irresponsible enough to be involved in. Oh and by the way 8 people have died this year already.
The next day we caught the 4 hour bus down to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Its a funny little town situated on the Mekong river (the other side of the Mekong is Thailand). There's a strong French colonial feel to most of the buildings but its definitely starting to be overtaken by the rapid development the Laos capital is starting to suffer from. We stayed 2 nights in a little guesthouse called Syri 2 although Tash still insisted she would not use the bathroom in our room after dark. We ate well, visited some of the surrounding temples, fountains and indulged in the many drinking holes...the Jazzy Brick being our favourite with old wireless radios, spinning dial telephones and 1950 artwork on the walls. Also had the best Tom Yum soup i'd tasted in Laos in Vientiane.
We set off to Thailand on a bus over the river at 9am the next day. Will fly to Chang Mai in the north from Udon Thani the border town.
Books: About half way through The Secret History by Donna Tartt which im enjoying. Typical american campus novel set in Vermont, NY. Great characters and a story thats peppered with greek and other literature references.
Most embarrassing British person quote: 'Zoe really wants to go to the killing fields in Cambodia (estimated 3 million people killed under the Khmer Rouge regime). I just want to stay in Vang Vieng and go tubing with my friends, i dont mean to desensitize it but its just a big field right?'...18 year old 'home counties' traveller.
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