Vang Vieng: The Highlight Reel
The quick and dirty details of my trip to Vang Vieng!
Pan's Place: We stayed at this small, family-run guesthouse near the main part of the city. This backpacker's hub was anything but luxurious but it was charming nonetheless and totally worth the $4/night that we paid. It had a coffee shop, restaurant and free wifi on the main floor.
Biking, Hiking, Caving and Swimming: On Saturday morning we woke up early rented mountain bikes and headed on a tour of the caves and lagoons. The scenery was absolutely stunning. Vang vieng is surrounded by beautiful mountains and greenery. While the city is oozing with backpackers and tourists, the countryside is quite quiet. Farms fill up the space between villages.
In one village we stopped to watch a young girl and her mother do traditional Lao silk weaving. It looked like a difficult and tedious task, apparently it takes two days to make one scarf which they then sell for 45,000 LAK ($5).
In the early afternoon it started to rain, that's when we saw and heard the rockets being launched into the air and figured we better head back to the city to make it to the festival.
Rocket Festival: I don't even know where to begin in describing the rocket festival. Apparently it is a tradition that occurs just before rainy season begins where farmers create homemade rockets and launch them as high as they can into the sky to ask the gods for lots of rain. But really, it's just an excuse to have an awesome party. Everyone (locals and tourists) was drunk, most men were cross-dressing and people took turns carrying then dropping you a mud puddle or smearing mud on your face as Lao music and trance/EDM blared through the speakers simultaneously. As the afternoon wore on the rockets launched less and less effectively, some back firing others just making a lot of smoke before fizzling out.
At the Rocket Festival we met up with my friend Sara, a Norwegian who teaches in Vientiane and some of the people she had been partying with earlier in the day.
Fat Monkey: Nothing much to say about this place except that it is a bar in Vang Vieng that gives out free t-shirts when you buy two drinks. Naturally, I wanted a shirt.We came here on the night of the Rocket Festival, the whole city was a total riot but bars in VV are only open until midnight, after that the police are out trying to shut everything down.
Tubing: Vang Vieng is known for the tubing. You can't go to Vang Vieng and NOT tube. It just one big, day-long party where you float, drink, dance (repeat). So, we rented tubes at 11:30 on Sunday morning, hopped in a tuktuk and headed up the river. There were about 100 people tubing that afternoon. We leisurely floated down the river until being hulled out of the water by some Lao men when we arrived at the first bar. After taking one of many free shots we met up with our friends from the day before and played some volleyball, basketball and drinking games. Oh and I also tried to get rid of the horrendous farmer's tan that I've acquired since living here. Later that afternoon we got back into the tubes and floated to the next bar. There are 4 bars along the river but only two were worth stopping at. After losing track of time, we were desperate to make it back to the tube rental shop before 8pm so that we wouldn't lose our deposit. By the time be made it back to the city it was dark, our skin was burnt and a slight hangover from day drinking was starting to kick in. We grabbed some dinner and headed to another bar called Jaidee's, a popular place for young backpackers. We called it quits pretty early as we had to catch a local bus back to the city to make it to work at a decent hour Monday morning.
Overall, awesome weekend. I hope to make it back before I leave so that I can try the rock climbing and kayaking tour...and maybe get another free shirt!
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