Current location: Don Det, Laos
If you've been to Southeast Asia, chances are you've spent a fair bit of time on the Trail. Sometimes called the "Tourist Trail", or the "Backpacker Trail", this imaginary network covers routes, cities, towns and cultural hot spots most frequented by foreign visitors. Traveling on the Trail is easy as air-conditioned VIP-buses run day and night to ferry travelers to their next destination and every guesthouse, hotel and shop on the street can fix you up with a place on the reclining seats.
The Luang Prabang - Vang Vieng - Vientiane - Si Phan Don route is the main vein of the Trail in Laos, and nowhere is the pulse stronger than in Vang Vieng.
Shops, restaurants and guesthouses catering for the needs of mainly western tourists line the streets and Beer Lao and In the tubing in Vang Vieng t-shirts, flip flops, Oreo-cookies and chocolate bars are sold everywhere.
Restaurants run Friends, South Park and Family Guy on endless loops on flat-screen TVs while happy, red-eyed westerners dig into burgers and banana pancakes.
Wife-beater clad youths prowl the streets, beer in hand, either returning from tubing on the Nam Song river or on their way to the next bar.
Drugs are abundant and most any restaurant will gladly make your pizza or fruit-shake "happy" upon request.
While floating down the Nam Song on an inner tube of a tractor tire and getting "happy" while watching reruns of Friends is what seems to pull the crowds in Vang Vieng, one shouldn't think it's a place merely to go and drink yourself to a stupor only to relieve your hangover by getting high and going tubing the next morning.
There's much more to do there, mainly stuff to do with the mountains and their caves and karst cliffs.
I stopped in Vang Vieng to do some rock-climbing and to go rafting, but as it turned out, a recently built dam has made rafting all but impossible, so I went kayaking instead. I also rode my bike to some of the waterfalls and caves in the countryside.
But like so many times before ever since I bought the motorbike, the call of the road eventually got the better of me and after having spent a week in Vang Vieng I got up early, loaded my kit on the bike and rode off at daybreak singing a certain song by Steppenwolf...
If you've been to Southeast Asia, chances are you've spent a fair bit of time on the Trail. Sometimes called the "Tourist Trail", or the "Backpacker Trail", this imaginary network covers routes, cities, towns and cultural hot spots most frequented by foreign visitors. Traveling on the Trail is easy as air-conditioned VIP-buses run day and night to ferry travelers to their next destination and every guesthouse, hotel and shop on the street can fix you up with a place on the reclining seats.
The Luang Prabang - Vang Vieng - Vientiane - Si Phan Don route is the main vein of the Trail in Laos, and nowhere is the pulse stronger than in Vang Vieng.
Shops, restaurants and guesthouses catering for the needs of mainly western tourists line the streets and Beer Lao and In the tubing in Vang Vieng t-shirts, flip flops, Oreo-cookies and chocolate bars are sold everywhere.
Restaurants run Friends, South Park and Family Guy on endless loops on flat-screen TVs while happy, red-eyed westerners dig into burgers and banana pancakes.
Wife-beater clad youths prowl the streets, beer in hand, either returning from tubing on the Nam Song river or on their way to the next bar.
Drugs are abundant and most any restaurant will gladly make your pizza or fruit-shake "happy" upon request.
While floating down the Nam Song on an inner tube of a tractor tire and getting "happy" while watching reruns of Friends is what seems to pull the crowds in Vang Vieng, one shouldn't think it's a place merely to go and drink yourself to a stupor only to relieve your hangover by getting high and going tubing the next morning.
There's much more to do there, mainly stuff to do with the mountains and their caves and karst cliffs.
I stopped in Vang Vieng to do some rock-climbing and to go rafting, but as it turned out, a recently built dam has made rafting all but impossible, so I went kayaking instead. I also rode my bike to some of the waterfalls and caves in the countryside.
But like so many times before ever since I bought the motorbike, the call of the road eventually got the better of me and after having spent a week in Vang Vieng I got up early, loaded my kit on the bike and rode off at daybreak singing a certain song by Steppenwolf...
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| The karst scenery in VV is pretty awesome, but nothing compared to the towering cliffs in Yangshuo. |
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| Blue Lagoon. |
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| Boondocks. |
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| Although the rainy season has passed, the rain clouds still hang to the mountains and heavy rains in the mountains wash sand and dirt in to the rivers, giving them a nasty colour. |
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| "Where you go?" |
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| Tubular, brah. |
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| You can not walk 500 m in VV without hearing the theme song of Friends at least once. |
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| The red-eyed-munchie-bunch and late night bar hoppers won't go hungry in VV. These carts sell burgers, sandwiches and pancakes to satisfy any hunger, and most of the time you get more bang for your buck than in a restaurant. Chicken, bacon, cheese for me, thanks! |
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