Vang Vieng

Four hours on a minibus with drunken singing Aussies made for an entertaining journey to Vang Vieng, the backpacker haven of Central Laos. Once little more than a bus stop on the long haul between Vientiane and Luang Prabang, hedonistic travelers decided the long, wide Nam Song River provided the perfect tubing setting. Floating downstream at a sedate pace in an inflated rubber tube shouldn’t be a risky activity, but raising the danger level are the bars offering buckets of cheap hard liquor and numerous variations of launching yourself into the river. Ziplines, rope swings and slides line the banks, some reaching as high as around twenty feet and some that are blocked-off or were taken down 6 months ago due to frequent injuries.

Heaps of backpackers just graze on half-engulfed picnic tables, drinking, rocking tunes and people watching, with no intentions of even tubing. It’s easy to hop between the first cluster of bars as there are plenty of pathways and bridges connecting them. Westerners employed by the bars for food and accommodation hand out free shots and organize drinking games to attract/keep customers. They even offer promotions to encourage you to visit their twin bars in town later in the evening. The atmosphere of the town is one of lethargy by day and debauchery by night, as all the tubers spend each afternoon on the river and then end up at the bars collectively known as The Island. Or if you make it back to the tube rental joint by six o’clock to get your $7 deposit back, you can reach it via a decrepit bamboo and wood bridge. The competition between the bars on The Island is so fierce that the deals are pretty amazing, and if you time it right you can bar-hop for free buckets and cheap deals. You can also chill in more relaxed settings, such as Happy bars or TV restaurants playing only ‘Friends’ or ‘Family Guy’. The ramshackle town itself offers no real attractions, but the limestone karst mountains provide a stunning backdrop and a few interesting caves. One day we rented bicycles to visit Tham Poukham, Blue Lagoon, a quiet place to relax or cool down with a swim.

The spring-fed pond is at the bottom of Golden Cave, a modest 100-meter hike up a makeshift bamboo ladder. Deeper than presumed, the aboveground chamber houses a reclining gold Buddha and glimmering stalactites. 

Our rented head-torch came in very handy when we decided to explore further into the dark cavern, crawling over well-worn rock formations. The seven-kilometer bike back through several tiny farm villages on painfully rough roads brought our total to 15 km after making a few wrong turns, the most exercise we’d gotten in days. We also got the most bracelets we’ve ever worn, 13 each, force-tied around our wrists after taking the required shot to enter certain river bars. A twenty-two hour sleeper bus south to Si Phan Don will help us recover and rejuvenate from the craziness.