Everyone loves Vang Vieng. WHY??? I got here just this morning, and already I'm over it.

I woke up this morning with the intention of going to a small forest resort/park called Lao Pako. I heard another traveler rave about it and I read in my trusty Lonely Planet guide that bus no. 19 would drop me off that Somsomai, from there I could get a ferry. I found the spot for bus 19, it was heading in the right direction, and the LP's times were right. Unfortunately, the bus never showed. After 60 minutes of waiting, I went with Plan B, Vang Vieng.

VV is supposed to be this place of opium delights and a backpackers heaven. I am not much for the poppy so that leaves caves and river tubing- neither of which is that exciting. As I walked into town, I noticed that it was much smaller than Vientiane and all the buildings were detached and a maximum of 3 stories high. Always a good sign.

However, what I don't like about VV is that it's only purpose seems to cater towards fat, blonde British broads with tiny tank tops on that display their hefty guts just over a too short skirt or sarong. Of course I'm exaggerating (they come in many nationalities), but farang have been strutting around in next to nothing. There are more pizza joints than I have fingers, all of which seem to have gotten their "pizzeria" sign from the same signmaker's sale- they're all exactly the same.

While sitting in just such a place (there's a lack of anything else around really), I watched as other farang wandered by. I often wonder why places like VV, Yangshuo, Goa, basically all of Thailand, appeal to this type of tourists because they just want everything they have at home. Why bother coming to Laos, India, or China?

I also feel partially responsible when they wander around half naked- I feel like they should know better. They should, but it's me who winds up getting worked up about cultural sensitivity. It makes me think of the two girls in Goa who had their sloppy boobs out around a hoard of horny Indian prepubescents. It's just asking for trouble and it makes those kids think all westerners are a bunch of "loose women" and life harder for me. Same thing happened in Thailand when Vanessa and I saw the scariest woman topless on the beach who looked like the old lady from There's Something About Mary. Hell, if I were on the French Riviera, or almost anywhere in the Mediterranean, I'd pull off my bikini top too, but these people aren't and they should remember that. I'll get off my soapbox now.

The sad thing so far about VV is that it seems to have not much to itself anymore and completely dependant on farang. This could be me talking about stuff I don't know, but there is a different feel to the town, people don't smile back as much. The most contact I had with a Lao person today was when the girl I bought fruit from giggled at me and the man who sold me tweezers gave me my change. Perhaps I will have a different experience tomorrow. I'll rent a bike and see how I feel about things then.