Quality of this pictures is not good but the memories are.  Here we have Sebastien and I with our Canadian twins Scott and Chantal.  I am sure a Friends episode was playing in the background.

This is a pictures from a village we walked through during our kayaking trip.  Throughout Vang Vieng one could see  a lot of new development.  Schools, houses, temples.  Here they are making bamboo roofs for the new homes in that village.

View from my hotel balcony.

On our kayaking tour we also tubed through a cave.  If you look past the tubs you can see the opening.  There were large dome rooms and glow worms through out the cave.  It was a cool experience but the water was very cold.

Elephants are sacred beings in Buddhist/Hindu culture.  This cave is called elephant cave for  obvious reasons.

Good times in Vang Vieng.

After seeing what other hotels had to offer I felt ripped off and cheated by Elephant Crossing.  Yes, it is a nice hotel but for $50 it was WAY over priced.  On top of that we were given a room with two beds when we had requested one bed AND we were told we would have to change rooms the last night.  When I was checking out I also over heard another guest being told they had to change rooms as well.  The hotel is also outside the town center which was  inconvenient for me when I was walking back at night.   A positive was that it was right on the river and did provide amazing views but only for the rooms that faced the river.  Our second rooms had not view and had ugly decor.

After three days at this hotel I moved to one that was closer to town.  It was clean, had just as an amazing view, and was $10.  Yes, $10…

Several other people I had meet stayed in nice hotels that were between $10-25 and were also very nice.

I second this after spending a week there.  Once in Lao,  Sebastien had decided to head back to Cambodia and did so as soon after meet up with Scottie and Chantal.  This was the same couple we had meet in Phi Phi.  Since we had meet them we were planning to meet up in VV so it was disappointing that Sebastien was going to ditch the experience.  However, I was not and for the next 5 days had a ridiciouly ridiculously fun time in this small Lao town.

Here are some of the reasons why Vang Vieng is so much fun.

The town is small and there are a plethora of friendly fellow travelers.  It is easy to find cheap accommodations (I paid $10) that includes a clean room, AC, hot shower, and amazing views of the river and mountains.  The streets are filled with smiling friendly locals all willing to hand you their child to play with.  Little children playing with each other in the street and coming up to grabbing your leg and smile up at you.  Street vendors selling amazing baggette sandwiches for pennies.  And of course there is the tubing. 

The Drill:

Pick up a tube from town and take a tuk tuk 4 kilometers up the river.  At this starting point there are several bars with swings huge slides and zip lines that launch you into the river.  Within the first kilometer (maybe less) there are about 8 bars with music and swinging trapeze for one to choose from.  While you sit in your tube and float along the river, bar workers throw you plastic bottles with a rope tied to it.  If you want to go to that bar you grab onto the rope and they pull you in.  Beats drinking and driving.

The first day, we decided that we should try to go straight down the river so that we get an idea of how many bars there were and how long it would take.  However, after passing a few bars we decided it wouldn’t hurt to stop at one or two to partake in the action.  We did manage to tube to the end of the river that day but it took about 4 hours.   Note:  The river was very low while we were there and locals said that during rainy season it would only take 1 hour to go down the river.  One may also think that it isn’t very safe to be swinging and jumping off high platforms while there are rocks sticking out all over the river.  I would agree with this but it didn’t stop me either.

Not only is the bar scene like nothing I have ever experienced (there would be lawsuits all over this in the US) but the scenery through the river is breathtaking.

The follow 3 days we found ourselves back on the river meeting more people, flipping off swings, and celebrating St. Patties Day.  One of those day we had to get picked up by a long tail boat 2 km from the end because we had judge (stopped at to many bars) the time wrong and we were stuck in the dark.    It was a crazy, scary, but fun experience.  Here are some G rated pictures to enjoy.  Click here to see someone elses video of thier experience.

Today, Sebastien wanted to take it easy so I went off and explored by myself.  I walked up the big hill where there are a plethora of gold Buddha statues and a cave which encloses, what the Lao’s believe, is the buddha’s foot step.

Around ever corner there are young monks dressed in their traditional orange robes.  I even watched them playing in the river.  If anyone read Committed, by Elizabeth Gilbert, she talks about living in Laung Prabang and obsessing over the young monks.  I imagined I was in the same places she was in today.  Last night I swear I saw a young monk buying cigarettes from a convenient store.

Here are some pictures of our day.