VISITING VANG VIENG – LAOS’ PARTY CAPITAL

I’d been told previously that Vang Vieng is Laos’ equivalent of Thailand’s Pai. It’s not. Not even slightly. So if you’re going expecting this, think again.

If you want to know the truth, however, read on….

The only thing I can think of that Vang Vieng has in common with Pai is that there is a drug influence running beneath the surface, but Vang Vieng is far more hedonistic than the hippy culture of Pai.

The live music scene in Pai was impeccable, but Vang Vieng was the polar opposite. I witnessed some truly horrific live music here and later I’ll look to put up a video post showing the comparison between the two. Watch this space…

I did spend around a week in this town though, so it must have something good to offer!

GETTING TO VANG VIENG

The only way to get from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng is a fairly gruelling mini bus journey.

This took around 7 hours in total and was bumpy as hell. The roads were literally being laid as we made our way along them and this presumably had an effect of slowing us down.

Despite the state of the roads, the scenery on the way was at times breathtaking, journeying up through the hills of Laos, and we also had a number of stop offs where we could take in some of the views and stock up on snacks.

ARRIVING IN VANG VIENG

Once we arrived and checked into the hostel – Vang Vieng Rock Backpacker Hostel – I became instantly aware that the vibe here, was very young. Mainly travellers in their early 20’s and here to make the most of the party lifestyle.

There was a large communal area, with music blaring out pretty much all day, a bar, a snooker table, an outside terrace and roof terrace. The dorm rooms were fairly basic, but clean and I spent several days in a 14 bed mixed dorm room.

Walking the streets of Vang Vieng, the first thing that occured to me was that with the mountains overlooking this small town, there was a real beauty to the place

The town lies on the banks of the Nam Song river and there were a number of bars and restaurants overlooking this. I spent many afternoons looking out at the mountains and watching the boats pass by, while editing photos and trying out the local cuisine

View of the Nam Song

ACTIVITIES IN VANG VIENG

This is where it’s at. This is what Vang Vieng is all about. There are so many activities you can engage in and they really do make the most of the natural scenery and beauty of the place.

So… what can you do in Vang Vieng?

BALLOON RIDES

This is as far as I know one of the cheapest places to do a hot air balloon ride, and with the mountains as a backdrop this is a great place to do it.

The rides cost around £70 and you can schedule one for sunrise or sunset. Sadly I didn’t find time for this, but I heard good things.

Here’s a couple of snaps:

DUNE BUGGIES

You can also hire these bad boys and go tootling around the local area. Safer than a scooter and arguably more fun.

Dune buggies in Vang Vieng

ZIP LINING

There’s a set of zip lines which stretch over the river and you can get involved in this by booking a tour with one of the many travel reps in town. I believe you can combine this with other activities in a day trip, but sadly I didn’t get time for this.

TUBING

Carnage. Absolute carnage.

There was a list in my hostel where people would sign up daily to go along for a day’s tubing antics.

If you’re in Vang Vieng and looking for a day partying then you simply must do this.

Check out the video below of my day out tubing to give you an idea of what to expect:

It’s worth noting that tubing in Vang Vieng has a bad reputation. There used to be a lot of deaths due to tubing with people getting too drunk and drowning and injuring themselves by jumping from rope swings into rocks in the water.

Apparently in 2011, 27 tourists died tubing!!!

They’ve cleaned up their act here a bit though, by getting rid of the rope swings and cutting down the number of bars operating on the river.

It was still carnage though. And great fun.

Go with friends! You might lose them, but they might also save your life!

KAYAKING

Another activity I got involved in while in Vang Vieng was kayaking. I signed up for a half day kayaking which involved paddling about 10km down the river and stopping off for a visit to a cave.

Check out this vid for a run down of how it went!

ROCK CLIMBING

One last activity that I managed to get involved in was rock climbing. I’m not great with heights, so I put this to the dice.

The dice said I should do it, so obviously I obliged.

Here’s a couple of pics from the rock climbing

Johan busting out the Warrior 2 pose at the top of the climb

Watch below to see how I got on!

THE BAT CAVE

On my last night here I headed over to the ‘bat cave’.

Every evening at sunset a stream of literally thousands of bats come flying out of a cave within the Vang Vieng mountains and this was something I had to see.

It was probably a 30 minute walk from town to get to the area where the bats would appear and I was told to expect to see them anytime between 5 and 6.

Not wanting to miss this and not quite sure where to view them I left around 4 and headed in the general direction.

I first headed across this bridge that spanned the river

I found a trail leading away from the main road towards the mountains and decided to head down there to see if this was the right way.

This led me through a herd of cows, which were peacefully grazing:

It was ridiculously hot and I’d run out of water. Having gone down this trail as far as I could I met a woman and asked her where and when I could see the bats and whether there was anywhere nearby to get hold of any water.

She told me about a restaurant just half a mile further up the road where you could get a good view of the bats coming out of the cave, so I turned back that way.

I knew I was at the right place when I saw this sign:

I had a bite to eat here and topped up on water and then headed out of the back of the restaurant down a small trail to where you could view the bats coming out of the mountain.

I really wish I’d had my zoom lens for this, but it was a great sight to see. Literally thousands of bats streaming out of the mountain for a couple of minutes.

You should be able to make out what looks like a swarm in the bottom right of this image:

The bat cave

I headed back and the sunset was gorgeous. Here’s a couple of shots from the walk back to the hostel:

OTHER OBSERVATIONS FROM VANG VIENG

FRIENDS:

There’s a strange obsession with the sitcom Friends in Vang Vieng, but I’m not sure where this stems from. There’s a couple of restaurants which continuously show episodes of Friends on repeat.

One of the restaurants is called ‘otherside’ and is on the bank of the river. I spent many afternoons here watching friends while catching up on blog updates and eating noodles.

Certainly worth checking out if you’re in town. Good times.

KOREAN INFLUENCE

There is a major influx of Korean tourists in Vang Vieng and they’re all here to enjoy the party culture of the town. I asked the locals to try and understand why there was such a Korean influence and they explained to me it was all down to a reality TV show.

There’s a show in South Korea called ‘Youth Over Flowers’ where a few celebrities are sent to a random location with no luggage and intended to fend for themselves. Apparently on one such episode, they were sent to Vang Vieng and presumably had an awesome time. Ever since, this place has been flooded with South Korean revellers.

DRUGS

As I mentioned previously, there is an undercurrent of drug culture in Vang Vieng, but this is limited to just a few venues in town. The Rasta Bar and Space Bar being two that I’m aware of.

In these places it’s possible to get hold of ‘happy pizzas’, which are pizzas topped with your choice of weed, magic mushrooms or opium. Take your pick.

There’s also mushroom shakes, weed tea and opium tea on offer.

As far as I’m aware this is totally illegal in Laos and apparently if you’re caught out on the street with any of this you will be fined heavily! I assume there’s some deal with the local police to keep it behind closed doors to satiate the revellers, to keep the tourist culture intact.

Crazy town.

VIENTIANE

So usually I would write a totally separate blog post when covering a major city that I’d visited in a country. With Vientiane, however, it’s really not worth it, so I’ll just add this as a little side note to this blog post.

I left Vang Vieng and headed to Vientiane so that I could get a flight to Myanmar – based on my last dice decision – and spent 3 nights here.

The ride to Vientiane was a 4 hour bus journey, which I have to say was the most luxurious transport I’d encountered on my whole trip. Huge leather reclining seats, like ‘lazy boys’, and excellent air conditioning. I only paid for a mini bus (50,000 Kip – approx £5), but I assume there was some mistake! Lucky me.

I hadn’t heard much about the place and having had enough of dorm life for a while, I booked myself into a private hotel – the Hemera hotel – which gave me a chance to catch up on blog updates, such as the videos included in this page.

If it wasn’t for wanting some quiet time and needing to catch up on work, I would suggest that one day is enough here and you should really only visit if you need to get a flight out of here.

The place itself seems very confused. It’s a large city. As far as I’m aware the largest in Laos, but it has no character at all. It doesn’t seem to know what it is.

It’s also very expensive compared to other places in Laos, so not too conducive to backpacker travel really.

Where I was staying had the feel of a post-apocalyptic wasteland:

A couple of things that I did see, which are worth mentioning though, are the museum of Laos history – which was interesting to get an insight of the colonisation by the French and the US involvement in the country – and the Patuxai monument:

Patuxai Monument in Vientiane

I also heard that the Buddha park was worth checking out, but I didn’t venture out to see this.

Other than that, don’t waste your time, there’s much better ways to spend your time in Laos.

MOVING ON

Ok, so I was now done with my time in Laos.

Obeying the dice, it was time to head to Myanmar….