Northern Laos Part 2

Buckets cost about $2 for 4 shots.

You know, travel through Asia teaches you to just stop asking questions. In Australia one can fall in to the habit of asking a waiter to describe a meal in more depth so as to make an informed choice, you can inquire about where the wifi router is located or how long it takes to get your laundry done. In Asia you just know that you don't speak Lao or Thai and they don't speak English (and why should they, I am not an elitist on this issue) so why bother?! This also means that you are likely to get ripped off or miss out on things you may have wanted to know just because you have formed a habit of keeping your mouth shut (repeated miscommunications and misunderstandings will do this to you). Some would argue that this habit would be benificial for a woman, but in my case this frequently results in getting crap food that I can't (or perhaps prefer not to) eat. Its a good thing that food here only costs $3. As a psychologist in training, I should know that it is the job of a scientist to always as questions.


Anyway back to travel. David and I are now in Vang Vieng, one of the delights of the banana pancake trail. This place is a mecca of 20-something backpackers that are interested in one thing; tubing. After recovering from being mildly drunk (in David's case, very drunk) the night before, a group of us ventured out in to the daylight to begin our adventure on the river. After getting your oversized rubber tube, a tuk tuk takes you out to the first stop on the river. A free shot is a requirement at the first bar, even before you have entered the water, and the atmosphere is like big day out on speed!

The day progresses in the following sequence; beer, floating down the river on your tube, beer, jumping out of trees on massive rope swings, beer, free shots, more floating and so on. In my case, I even found some guys to have a mud volleyball match with. This soon denegrated in to a full on mud fight and more death defying jumps off trees into the water. This sequence happens every day to the several hundreds of tourists who flock to this area. One of the guys we had been hanging out with since Luang Prabang has done this for 18 days in a row. For me, it was a fantastic experience and seriously fun, but I think once is enough. Don't be fooled by the first picture in this blog, I had decided long before I went on this trip that I genuinely don't understand the need to get drunk all the time. Unfortunately getting drunk is pretty much the point of tubing. Personally I believe that it's unnatural to have upwards of 6 drinks in 2hrs anyway (unless it is water).

Vang Vieng is also scenically, very beautiful. The town is surrounded by limestone cliffs and as perviously mentioned, there is a river running through it. This means that there are an abundance of caves, kayaking, trekking, rockclimbing etc. One of my favourite days in Laos was spent cycling 13km through various small villages to a triangle of 3 caves. We had some drama with a tour guide charging us 10,000kip for lights and then demanding more money afterwards for his services (unbeknownst to us – he just came with us for no reason for gods sake!). Nonetheless caving is always lovely as it is quite, serene and beautiful as the stalegtites sparkle in the minimal light. On the ride back, we stopped in for lunch at an organic mulberry farm and we had dinner that night at the only Irish pub in Laos. Vang Vieng is a fun place to be and you will get stuck there if you aren't careful.