Vang Vieng is a little town between Luang Prapang and the capital, Vientiane. I got here on a bus that twisted and turned along a winding road that felt very much like being on a stormy sea. The distace is about 380 Kilometers and it took 6 hours to get here. It was not as bad as it sounds except that in the last leg of the journey I realised that the guy next to me was taking great pains to conceal a riffle under his jacket. I am sure he did it so that people wouldn’t freak out and that it was not loaded anyway but it made for a bit of a surreal journey.
I am now in a caffe that has screens for everybody to watch “Friends” while lying around. This is weirder than it sounds. The town is in the middle of the countryside next to a river, surrounded by limestone cliffs and the houses are nothing but wood huts. You see scenes of children bathing in the river, women washing at the well, cows and goats. “Friends” really feels out of place and yet what super entertainment for the evenings in this quiet little town. Also I finally got to see the last episode. Still, it felt funny, if the objective is to try new things and break away from old habits, sitting around watching TV does not quite cut it. But I made up for that the next day going “tubing”. “Tubing” is the local backpacker sport. This consists of floating down a river in a rubber tire. It really isn’t sport. It’s more like major relaxation as the river is quite tame, the ride extremely leisurely and the scenery breath-taking. This, combined with visits to the local caves makes for a full day’s entertainment. The group of people I ended up doing this with where quite diverse and interesting. There were 4 English people who were on their way home after a 15 week tour of Thailand, Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam, A Swiss guy who had just spent time in Nepal volunteering on a project to help street kids in Katmandou, an American girl who was in Thailand studying anthropology as an exchange student and our two local guides. The caves were great fun as they are quite deep and a welcome escape from the heat. The best one was the cave that also combined a “tubing” experience inside it. On the way back, floating down river we stopped for drinks, mud volley ball and jumping in some of the wooden hut-bars along the way to the sounds of loud beats. Jumping is basically climbing on a platform, to swing over the river and jump in the water. Hoards of drunk backpackers were busily entertained like this while a courtesy sign requested of everyone present to kindly not smoke drugs on the premises. People are funny. Going miles away to do exactly what they would do at home, mingle with each other and drink, admittedly in very spectacular settings. I loved Vang Vieng and no surprise, I could have certainly stayed more. However, the lure of the big city is too strong. Vientiane, the capital, beckons.
