Vang Viengs Walking Wounded

Before we begin...people who say that taking a ten hour bus in Laos is part of the experience are just deluding themselves and trying to make the best of a bad situation...but more on that later.
VangVieng is nuts. Take everything you have heard and know about spring break in Cancun, put it in a little dusty town in the middle of nowhere in Laos, and you have Vang Vieng.

Set amongst some of the most amazing scenery we have seen on the trip, the town comes out of nowhere about 5 hours away from the capital of Laos. It is cheap, like the cheapest food we have seen on the trip, and there are lots of hotels. And while the caves and kayaking are popular, the tubing and partying is what the town is famous for.

First the tubing...it is actually nice, going down the river in your tube, beer in hand, with huge limestone cliffs as your backdrop with bob marley playing in the background it makes for a relaxing 4 hours. The partying on the river though makes me feel old though.

Maybe its the fact that ten year old kids who would normally be in school are instead calling you into their parents bars with promises of `strong mushroom shakes and free joints` or that in 6 hours of being there we saw 8 injured people with wraps and hospital bandages over huge scars on legs, arms and faces, crutches everywhere along with the talk of 4 dead foreigners in the river in January, but something just makes me think things have gotten out of hand here. When you are at dinner and young australians (and some canadians) are falling down practically naked on the main street in front of restos and stores where local families are eating their dinner it kinda solidifies it. Makes you think that this is giving the wrong message to people and tourism.
Vang Vieng seems at the crossroads, there are tonnes of beautiful natural scenery, with lots of good fun to be had, but delving into excess with the resulting effects makes you wonder what it will be like in a few years.

Whether you want to stop here or not, chances are you will end up here since it makes a good break on the long bus ride to Luang Prabang. No matter what, you wont forget it.