Tom’s Adventure Through Southeast Asia Part 5 — Vang Vieng & Vientiane, Laos
As I’ve been writing this blog series I’ve become increasingly excited to talk about my time in Vang Vieng. I should start with some background on this place for the unfamiliar. If you’re backpacking in Laos, it would be silly to skip over Vang Vieng as the town is more or less designed for you. It’s surrounded by mountainous karsts and filled with hostels, bars and restaurants for backpackers to let loose or chill out.
Many of the bars are situated along the Nam Song river, which has led to Vang Vieng’s most famous attraction: tubing. That’s right, you rent an inner tube for the day and make your way through what is essentially a lazy river for adults. There are people standing in the river who throw ropes to you and pull you into each bar. After a few drinks, you hop back in your tube and make your way to the next bar. It’s as good as it sounds.
So good in fact that it almost came to an end about a decade ago. In its prime, literally thousands of backpackers were tubing down the river every day! Not only were these bars serving alcohol, but they were also supplying marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms and even opium to any young tourist looking to have the time of their life.
In 2011 alone, twenty-seven people died partying at the river bars. This led to the Laotian government intervening and heavily regulating the bars. As a result, only two or three bars are open at a time and serve alcohol only. While many feel that this has left the town in a shadow of its former glory, I’m actually quite happy that things are much safer and more regulated now.
Now that you understand the reputation this place has, you can imagine my anticipation and curiosity as the minivan bus dropped me off on the outskirts of town. Fortunately, two American guys were heading to the same hostel as I was. After checking in we decided to walk around and explore the town ourselves. This is when we stumbled upon Smile Beach Bar, which ended up becoming one of our favourite spots.
For a backpacker looking to relax, Smile Beach Bar has everything you need. Whether you’re looking to tan in the sun, relax on a hammock or switch between the two, it’s easy to spend several hours here just chilling out. They have food, smoothies, beer, and downtempo music playing through a stereo all day. What else could you want? Oh yeah, and you get to watch the tubers go down the river near the end of their run which is quite entertaining.
If you’re interested in Vang Vieng’s nightlife there are two bars that are essential, but don’t take my word for it as you’ll probably hear this from people soon after you arrive. These two bars are Sakura Bar and Viva Pub. You’ll probably end up at both of these bars at some point, the reason being that they both offer free alcohol for one hour. That’s not a typo. The drinks are obviously not very strong, but still, all you can drink for a whole hour is unreal!
If you’re into the partying lifestyle, you’ll probably end up staying in Vang Vieng longer than you anticipated. Personally, I was pretty tired of it after five days or so, but there are some backpackers that stay here for weeks or even months! Some even get jobs promoting the two aforementioned bars, handing out cards promoting their happy hours. It’s not something I would ever do but hey, to each their own.
For my first full day in Vang Vieng I knew I had to do the tubing and it was awesome! If you’re staying at a hostel, you sign up the day before, meet in the morning in the lobby and go down together. I don’t have any photos as I didn’t want to risk ruining my camera or phone, neither of which are waterproof.
At the first bar we played a few rounds of flip cup and some volleyball. At the second one we played giant Jenga which had dares written on each block. It was a fun way to bond with fellow backpackers, especially after a few (read: many) drinks.
Near the end of the river it gets pretty shallow so you have to steer yourself with your hands to avoid scraping your butt off the bottom. It was here when I could tell how dangerous this would’ve been in its heyday when there were rope swings and water slides everywhere.
If you plan on tubing, make sure you bring your tube back to the rental place by six as they will keep your deposit otherwise. Exhausted from the day, we changed out of our bathing suits and grabbed dinner at an awesome pizza place on the other side of town. Overall it was an amazing experience, but if you do it please be careful and stick with your friends!
While tubing is still the main event in Vang Vieng, the town has reinvented itself as an outdoor adventure destination so there are many other things to do as well. The next day I checked out a cave with a fellow Canadian I met from Ottawa. The cave was really cool, not quite as spectacular as Lod Cave in Pai but it did get very dark at points. Even with our headlights, we eventually turned around so we wouldn’t get lost. Hiking through the cave is quite intense, there are points when the light shines through and you can actually see the steam coming off your body!
Below the cave is Blue Lagoon (known as Blue Lagoon 1 as there are three in the area) which has rope swings and tree branches to jump off of. It’s a great way to cool off after hiking through the cave. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of this place.
The next day I checked out Blue Lagoon 3 with my new hostel friends. Compared to 1, number 3 is further out of town so it’s way less crowded and touristy. In fact, there were more locals here than backpackers! As you can see, the lagoons have a similar blue colour to the Kuang Si falls in Luang Prabang.
My last full day in Vang Vieng lined up with the weekly jungle party held in the outskirts of town. It’s not really in the jungle (although the one in Ko Pha Ngan was, but that’s for another blog) but set up and decorated to look like a jungle for the night. Regardless, it was a lot of fun and the area was full of psychedelic, black light graffiti which made for a cool experience. I also learned that Korean people definitely party the hardest. At one point I was pulled onto the dance floor as I was told I had to dance with this wild group of Koreans on an elevated platform. Turned out they were right!
The jungle party was where I had my first exposure to a party staple in southeast Asia: fire limbo. I watched others participate from a distance as a third degree burn is not my idea of a good souvenir. After a while the loud music started to get to us, so we hung out in a gazebo further away from the dance floor.
The group of friends I made in Vang Vieng was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It made me realize the importance of the people you meet when travelling over checking off the sights or anything else. It helped me open up a bit more through the rest of my travels, both to other people and to new experiences. I ended up staying in Vang Vieng a day or two longer than expected, but I don’t regret it one bit. While I could’ve stayed longer, especially with these great people, I knew it was time to move on to my next destination.
The next stop was Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It doesn’t warrant its own blog post as I wasn’t there very long, and to be honest there isn’t really a whole lot to do there. The main reason I was there was for their airport which would take me to the third country of my trip.
By far the coolest thing I checked out was Buddha Park, which is about an hour bus ride from Vientiane. While not technically a temple, it feels like a very modern one. Built in 1958, there are over two hundred Buddhist and Hindu statues which are very modern and surreal looking. This is definitely worth the bus ride and resulted in a bunch of Instagram-worthy photos.
I also checked out the COPE Visitor’s Centre. COPE is an organization that makes prosthetic limbs for victims of UXO (check out my Luang Prabang post for an explanation of UXO). The history was sad but learning about the work this organization does was uplifting and inspiring.
Lastly, I had something in Vientiane I never thought I’d have during my trip in Asia: Belgian beer! I stumbled upon this bar by accident and it was a fantastic surprise. It’s called Chokdee Belgian Beer Bar, the staff were super nice and they had some cool art and statues related to The Adventures of Tintin which I didn’t even know was Belgian.
On my last morning in Vientiane, I met a French girl in the lobby of my hostel who gave me a free ride to the airport on the back of her motorcycle. Talk about nice! I didn’t spend as much time in Laos as I did in Thailand, but that didn’t make my time there any less memorable. My next country would end up being a bittersweet experience, but sometimes getting through the difficult times is what makes you grow the most.
Next: Hanoi & Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
Last: Luang Prabang, Laos
