Vang Vieng and Vientiane, Laos

We left Luang Prabang the morning of the 13th en route to the small city of Vang Vieng, about 6 hours south of LP. We had planned in advance to meet up with Moniek and Sven, our Dutch friends from Turtle Islands National Park in Borneo, to celebrate our one year anniversary on October 14th by doing what one does in VV... floating down the river in an innertube, with intervals of drinking and rope swinging, of course.

We had read in our guidebook that the stretch of highway between Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng was actually considered to be quite dangerous until recently due to Hmong rebel activity. We had heard stories of travellers riding buses accompanied by Lao guards armed with semi-automatic weapons on bus rides to fend off unfriendly fire. We encountered nothing of this sort- our bus ride was windy, uneventful and quicker than scheduled. The bus station is actually located on an out-of-use gravel airstrip, used during the Vietnam war by American planes. The entire thing is pretty surreal looking.

Vang Vieng is a study in bizarre contrasts. The town itself sits nestled amongst beautiful, soaring karst cliffs, their sheer, vertical faces plunging into the gurgling Nam Song River... and from afar appears to be quite tranquil. The town itself, though, has in recent years become a "must" on the SE Asia backpacker circuit for tubing, getting "happy," and watching hours and hours of "Friends" episodes over tainted pizza and fruit shakes. We weren't really into the happy scene (I saw that movie "Brokedown Palace,") but the tubing on the Nam Song sounded alright. We met up with Moniek and Sven at the guesthouse that night, had a few delicious chicken baguettes and charted out the next morning.

Tubing on the Nam Song is usually a pretty quick affair, as most backpackers opt for the short 4km circuit at the end. This section of the river is almost completely bordered by family-run, ramshackle bar-type affairs, selling cold BeerLaos, liquor drinks, and snacks. Being on the riverfront, many of the bars will try to entice- or even kidnap- tubers by hooking their tubs with long bamboo sticks, or throwing out a long rope. To visit these establishments, you simply dock your tube, climb up a (usually) rickety bamboo ladder, and you're at the bar. In addition to the drinks on offer, there are spots for jumping into the river, either from a bridge, dubiously constructed rope-swing, or ladder-type thing. Wikipedia warns (as do the guidebooks,) that it pays to exercise caution on the 10 meter high swing, as it's common to "perforate your eardrum and do permanent damage to your hearing if you land the wrong way." There are typically several backpacker deaths on the Nam Song River each year, due to drunken swinging, etc.

Moniek and Sven had already tubed once, and were true veterans. They bargained out a deal where we got to tube not 4, but 17 kilometers- the first 13 being completely rural, surrounded by cliffs. The whole thing cost us 80,000 kip per person- or about 8 bucks- for transportation, the tube and a lifevest. Not bad! It was relatively safe, too- we'd hit the ocassional rapid, snake, or rock in the bum, but for the most part we were alright. Not a shabby way to celebrate one year of marriage!

One year anniversary!!

soaking up some sun on the river

keens should endorse our trip for this...

Catt and Sven

Catt and Meg floating down the river with the dramatic cliffs of Vang Vieng in the background

Moniek

Megan going it skeleton-style

Moniek riding calm

snakes on a tube... in attack mode

Moniek and Sven on the river

Catt dreaming about tubes... on his tube

sometimes there were rapids

Our tubing took up almost the entire day, and by evening we were tired. We went to dinner at an empty (but atmospheric) Lao restaurant on the riverside, and dined by candlelight. Thanks, Moniek and Sven, for helping us celebrate! Many of the pictures above from our time on the river are from their website, too.

After a few days in Vang Vieng, we said farewell to our friends, and started the last leg of our Lao journey on towards the capital, Vientiane. Vientiane is really more of a gigantic village than a capital city- with only 200,000 residents, it is by far the smallest Asian capital city. The pronunciation of Vientiane, is "Vyen Chen." Here is a little bit of background on its evolution, both in meaning and spelling:

The name of the city is derived from Pāli, the literary language of Theravada Buddhism, and its original meaning was "The king's grove of sandalwood", this tree being prized for its fragrance in classical India. It is also believed that the original name of Vientiane (Viangchan) means "City of the Moon" in the native Lao language. Modern Lao pronunciation and orthography do not clearly reflect the Pali etymology. The romanized spelling "Vientiane" is of French origin, and reflects the difficulty the French had in pronouncing the hard "ch" syllable of the Lao word; a common English-based spelling is "Viangchan", or occasionally "Wiangchan".

We had heard that the French food there would be delicious, and we were not disappointed- it was absolutely amazing value. We decided to celebrate our anniversary with our tastebuds, and had two amazing dinners- the most outstanding being the meal we had at French Bistro, La Cave des Chateaux. Perhaps most unforgettable was the smoked pear and camembert cheese appetizer. I still have dreams about it. They also had a fairly decent selection of French wines, at very good prices.

We only had a few days, but we took in some sights, especially the famous Wat Si Saket temple, built in 1818 and home to over 2,000 silver and ceramic Buddha images. Here are some pictures of Wat Si Saket, and our time in Vientiane:

I love Laos!!

Wat Si Saket... check out the hundreds of tiny Buddhas sitting in the wall

Broken Buddhas

Vientiane tuktuks

Sadly, though, all good things must come to an end... and we had a pre-booked flight from Vientiane to Hanoi, Vietnam on October 17th. As if you couldn't already tell from our entries, Laos has definitely been our favorite country so far. Every experience we had there was positive- from the locals, the food, the beer, the accomodation, the scenery, the culture, even the fellow travellers we met on the road. It is an amazing destination for those willing to get off the beaten track a little bit. We are hopeful that the tourism industry there will continue to develop on the right path and it won't go the way of, say, southern Thailand. It's one place where genuine interactions with locals and culture can still quite easily take place. Go now!

That night we took our flight to Vietnam. A whole new set of adventures were just around the corner...