Vang Vieng- A Love-Hate Kind of Town

Vang Vieng is known for being a town that creates a love-hate relationship for some people and I can understand why.

This town is notorious for being a backpackers stop- which generally means an environment conducive to drinking, partying, "happy" pizzas and brownies, and other various things of this nature.

On the other hand, the scenery here is amazing. It's beautiful all around, and looks like one of the last untouched places on earth that might still resemble what it looked like during an era when dinosaurs roamed the earth (minus the town of course.)

Worth the stop?

Yes. But don't stay longer than a couple days. And book activities to get you out of the town and to the surrounding area. We went kayaking on the river for a day (next post) and saw some caves, this was a nice way to see some of the area. You will float past the area where all the riverside bars are, many of the backpackers spend a lot of time just floating down the river in inner tubes, stopping off at the bars, and swinging in to the river via rope (which is not really very safe right now because the water is low- but no one stops you from going anyways.) We also saw what is called "the Slide," which is literally a huge slide that has been built on the side of the river and you can go off it with or without inner tube and in to the river- it's a pretty big drop in to the river from the slide. I'm not sure how deep the water is right under it, but a girl died here last week when she went off of it- and it's not the first time. It sounds like she may have injured her back or something and she popped up once for air, then went back under and didn't come up until 2 guys went in after her, which by then was too late. So beware the risks involved I guess- we were not willing to try this. If you're here earlier in the year, the whitewater rafting would be pretty fun to do, it was too low to make it worth it right now.

We booked our day trip with Green Discovery which has a good reputation, and the more people on the trip equals a cheaper price for each person (there is a limit which keeps the group small, which is good.) The restaurant scene leaves something to be desired, and every bar will be playing reruns of Friends- kind of bizarre in a way, but funny too. Don't order anything with the word happy, ecstatic, etc. in the name unless that's what you are going for. You can get a sandwich baguette and huge fruit shake at Le Bon Cafe for a couple bucks which were yummy! We stayed at Kamphone guesthouse which was alright- made even better when we went to check out and there was the 4th book in the Twilight series on their shelf for sale!! I'm reading 2 books right now and I'm having to exercise a huge amount of self control to not start this one as well. :)