Vang Vieng, Lao:A Snatch Shot of the Vang Veg
Ok…more about the title of this section later. You’re just going to have to read on.
Vang Vieng is one of the weirdest-strange towns i have been in so far.
As you can tell by clicking on the link above, the scenery is quite stunning. To the west, there are these limestone cliffs that dominate the view from the village. And between the karsts and the city runs the Nam Song – the Song River.
With the anticipation of many rave tales of V V, I arrived in town around 7 PM and it was already dark. I had my mind set on a particular guest house (stunning pictures taken from the balcony in one of my guide books) and it took 20 minutes or so to find it. Considering that you can walk around the whole town in about 15 minutes, not an impressive hunt by yours truly. I had been traveling for 3 days, so I am well prepared with excuses.
I did find the guest house in question and for $6 a night I have a big, clean, and comfortable room. Just outside my door is a balcony that overlooks the river and has quite stunning views of the mountains on the other side.
After I settled in (and had a big Beer Lao for my efforts), I strolled the 2 minutes back to town to find something to eat. There are plenty of restaurants here, but most are TV bars too. So various shows or DVDs play while people eat and/or drink. And the 20-something westerners are all veg’d out and zoned into the tube. What’s the world coming to?
Mostly it can be explained by Happy Meals. I’m not talking Micky D’s. One is able to request that special herbs or mushrooms be added to the food and you can have your meal happy, very happy, or ecstatic.
I just can’t bring myself to eat at a place where the TV is the main attraction. I eventually found a normal restaurant. Food in this town has been fairy bland.
The thing to do here is float down the Nam Song in an inner tube. For 35,000 kip, you get to hire a tube and ride in tuk-tuk some 10 Ks out of town.
All along the river there are these bars – not gravel, but drinking. They fish you in with bamboo poles. A big beer Lao costs a buck and there is food available. There are also these trapeze-like swings that involve a climb up a rickety bamboo tower. After the climb, you grab hold of the bar and swing out over the river and then drop in. Mostly very good fun in a teen-age sort of way. Safety?!? Really none. I stopped at one place just as a young Canadian took the plunge. Fortunately, he decided to cannonball in. The water was only chest deep where he landed. If he went head-or feet first…
Today I crossed one of the bamboo bridges that span the Nam Song and spent the better part of the day exploring the trails and caves in the mountains. I’ll do the same tomorrow but may rent a bike to cut down on travel time.
Alrighty – I’ll explain the snatch-shot quip.
As I approached this one cave, a UK couple were biking away. They didn’t go in the cave because you had to pay a guide to take you. The entry fee with guide was 15000 kip – right around $1.50. How can that be too expensive? I had no trouble popping for the fee and considering that the cave was huge with scores of side passages, I am quite glad that I did. And it’s a job for the locals…one that I was more than happy to support.
The guide was a good guy and we had fun going as far back as we could – the cave was flooded at the end, but it was fun to take a swim in the crystal clear water.
As we exited the cave, a group of 4 Kiwi girls were going in. They were dressed in short sarong-like skirts. There were a series of bamboo ladders that lead to the mouth of the cave and my guide and I paused at the base of one of the ladders to let the young ladies pass.
Curiously, their guide, a mid-20 year old Lao man was following them. My guide always led me. With over-the-top politeness, the young guide helped each young lady step up the ladder. It was easy to see why.
As the girls climbed the ladder, you could see London and you could see France. And they each were wearing thongs: a nice bit of Southern exposure. The young guide and I exchanged big grins. I shook his hand and told him he was a lucky man. He readily agreed and then scurried ahead to help the girls up the next section of ladders.
Back at the entrance, I bought my guide a beer Lao and showed him the photos I took inside the cave. I then showed him some shots of salmon and bears from Alaska…we parted friends.
The day’s weirdness was far from over.
As I headed across harvested rice paddies and back towards town, I could hear the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty album playing loudly in the distance. Naturally, I had to investigate.
The source was one of the river bars, so I figured i was thirsty enough for another big Beer Lao. There really weren’t any customers, but there were some half-dozen Lao people and one very wasted westerner sitting around a table. The guy was an ex-pat from Australia and was co-owner of the bar (or so he said). He had been drinking since 9 AM. He claimed that one the the Lao women sitting at the table was his girl-friend, but she denied it. He then changed his story saying he wanted her to be his girl friend…Time for me to exit stage right.
I took my beer down to the next bar and ordered some lunch and sat in a hammock in a covered river-front platform. Another westerner and a young Lao woman sat in the hammocks of the platform next to me. The guy is a 63 year old Swede. The girl looked to be about 20 and was drop-dead gorgeous. The appeared to be a couple. After some small talk I discovered the guy had attempted to climb Denali 3 times in the winter – and was successful once. He was a competitive C-2 racer in his younger days. He had lead a full life and spent his time traveling and looking for love. He told me that he gave up on western women that were more his age because they were no longer interested in sex. So he was now involved in a win-win situation with this very world-wise Lao woman. There was no pretense of love on his part, nor was there that expectation from her. But while hanging with him, she no longer had to work and she wore some impressive-looking jewelry.
I could write as much about the 20-somethings that have come to this place and ride on tuk-tuks in bikinis or puke in the streets…fortunately I’ve been lucky to run into some folks with sensibility…
I just wonder where i fit in?!?!
Tags: drugs, lao, Travel, Vang Vieng
jpb