Kathleen
Vang Vieng, Laos – February 26-29, 2016
With jutting cliffs lining the beautiful Nam Song, it is not difficult to understand why this little town is a destination for tourists from all areas. Adventure and Party travel is what’s on tap here. There is climbing, hiking, kayaking, tubing and caving on tap, the most popular of which is the river tubing. The town developed quite a reputation for the beautiful river and the series of bars that were built by profit-seeking locals along the shore. Different establishments would compete to reach the tubers with a line, and reel them in for a few drinks at their bar. The scene continued to deteriorate for many years, with the level and number of drunk youngsters increasing until finally, after more than 20 tourists managed to kill themselves in random alcohol plus rapid-flowing river plus lots of bridges into very shallow water incidents in one year, the government cracked down and closed most of the bars down. At the same time, boutique hotels started opening up and the age of visitors started to increase.
It was actually fairly cool while we were there,so we opted for kayaking over tubing. We first got to do a short tube ride into the center of a cave, visit another cave, and have a lunch of Shish Kebob and fried rice. Our full day kayaking tour, which started at 9:30, included no kayaking until about 1:15 PM, at which time we hopped in the kayak for about 10 minutes and kayaked to a river bar. I have to admit, sitting at the little bar along the river with a very happy vibe, good music, basketball hoop and ping-pong table (although both were a bit delapidated) seemed like a very easy way to while away the afternoon. The crowd was happy but not out-of-control and the average age was probably over 30. We were glad we got to have a bit of the river bar experience. After about an hour, we got back in the kayaks and kayaked for about 10 more minutes, at which time we took a break on shore. By the time Steve had drained most of the water out of the nearly full kayak and I saw the gigantic slit in the side of the boat, we realized why our kayaking stints were so short….our boats had holes in them!! The group of young Koreans on our tour didn’t seem to notice, and we all had a fun little break getting ready for our last big stretch of about 15 minutes in which we barely managed to keep from sinking. Although this might seem horrifying to some, Steve and I had a very enjoyable day, and are so comfortable in the water, that we really weren’t nervous. We were laughing at the state of affairs and the whole day trip which included about 55 minutes of actual activity. The scenery is the big deal here and we had it in spades. We followed up with sunset at the hotel on a patio that overlooked the river with beautiful views and a surprisingly delicious Lao meal of Duck Laarb with flash fried mint and and yellow noodle vegetable curry….delicious!! We were also able to get some decent Chilian (from Chili, how do you spell that?) wine.
Next day was for planning and relaxing at the pool (although I stupidly put my bathing suit in the laundry so I couldn’t swim), and then on to Vientiane, the capital, our final destination in Laos.