Vang Vieng was a good stopoff to break up the journey to Luang Prabang, at only 4 hours in a mini bus, the afternoon departure can still get you in before nightfall. I was looking forward to a few days relaxation to get over my cold (seriously who gets a cold in SE Asia, it's like having one in the middle of summer back home). Upon checking in to my hotel on the small island in town, the manager was sitting down with a mate to drink on the river side decking and invited me to join them, so I sat in for a few rounds. In Laos social drinking is usually conducted by sitting in a group with one glass to be shared, each person in turn is poured a glass and the next person must wait until this is consumed (usually in one quick mouthful), the process is continued all day and probably the next one too.
This town is world renown for 'tubing' which until recently meant hiring a big tyre tube and being dropped a few kilometres up town, where one will float down the river and be enticed in to one of the many bars. Its here that activities like mud volleyball, bowling, dance floors, rope swings and slying foxes are couple with pumping music and hordes of intoxicated backpackers. In 2011 alone 27 tourists died along the river and the government responded by bulldozing most of the bars and officialy shutting down tubing. There still is 3 or 4 bars along the rivers and a trickle of backpackers taking part. A curfew on the town means everything shuts down by 11pm, with Fat Monkeys bar being the main draw card for evenings.
Along the hotel strip there are bars furnished with Thailand triangle cushions, large decking's with amazing views over the mountainous river outlook and flat screen TV's with an and endless loop of either Family Guy, South Park or Friends depending on the restaurant you choose. The decks make for some spectacular morning and evening views as the clouds semi engulf the mountains. It was here I discovered my latest shake sensation; Banana, Peanuts and Peanut Butter.
The following morning I set out to the Organic Mulberry Farm which is community initiative that encourages visitors to take part and learn more about organic farming. Profits from the farm are used to provide training and support local villages. I had biked out there to try the recommended breakfast set of fruit, muesli and yogurt, pancakes, fruit platter, lao coffee and a mulberry shake. It was not quite the healthy fresh standard that I had expected.
Not wanting to be a sloth for my whole 4 days in Vang Vieng I booked on to a full day caving, kayaking and trekking tour. There are plenty of agencies throughout the town offering various tours, mine weighing in at $15 including lunch. We started about 17km up river where we each got allocated kayaks to paddle across to where the short 'trek' up to the caves started. Here we got in to tubes and tubed across to the low opening point of the cave For the next 100m a rope was used to pull ourselves against the decent current to a dry point where we left the tubes behind and with the guidance of our headlamps ventured through the cave. This expedition is defiantly not for anybody who suffers claustrophobia as sections needed to be negotiated flat on your stomach between two rock faces or slipping through on your backside. I felt it appropriate to bring up the story the manager of my hotel told me about the tourist who recently got lost and died in a one of the local caves when his light died and his attempt to leave trails of money failed, don't think it went down to well.
After the caving we had a barbecue lunch of chicken and vegetable skewers followed by a visit to a much smaller cave housing a Buddha statue. It was named Elephant Cave because with a bit of imagination one of the rocks did actually look a little like an Elephant. We then headed back to the river and paddled the 17km to Vang Vieng, negotiating some small rapids along the way, apparently a bit more exciting when the river levels are lower. The following morning I booked a mini van (from the choice of mini van, VIP bus or super VIP bus) for the winding journey up to Luang Prabang.
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