Vang Vieng

Our following destination on our way to the north of Laos was Vang Vieng. As usual we took a bus (just 4 hours ride) since there is no other way unless you hire a car or rent a motorbike and return it in the same place you took it - kind of nonsense if you want to proceed in certain direction.


The good thing about our journey to Vang Vieng was that we went through the "BACI" ritual on our last day in Tham Kong Lo homestay. Lao people believe that everyone has 32 spirits. Sometimes one or couple of our souls may wonder away and that is pretty bad. Therefore the ceremony makes sure that all of them come back to you. So we are back to our state of 32 spirits and ready for more travelling...

Anyway the atmoshpere Vang Vieng can be best described by the picture of Rita in the hammock with the cat - very easy going. For some reason cats nowadays adore Rita and this one took special pleasure in letting himself be petted.

Vang Vieng is sort of an intersting phenomena of the ubiquitos globalization in sort of wierd way. It is located amid greenery of the surrounding beatiful hills and right by the Nam Song river. Beautiful setting for relaxation one could say - some years ago though the town has been discovered by tourists - mostly backpackers. By now the town is a neverending stretch of restaurants, bars, interent cafes, tourist agents, late night discos etc. A very artifical creature in itself feeding itself on neverending stream of tourists. Whether it has anything to do with Laos is questionable. It has been created entirely for the tourists who would like to get similiar experience as at home while eating pizza and drinking beer - just cheaper. It has indeed helped the local economy but it is wierd - imagine that there are about 80 guesthouses in what really used to be a small village...Now everyone sells banana pancakes.

Nevertheless, the scenery is great and as usual it is up to you what you make of it. We rented bicycles and went to a blue lagoon near a big cave where we had lunch. The way to the cave was an ordeal because the sun was frying us, but during lunch a short lived storm arrived and our way back was very pleasant. We missed the tubing on the river due to our late morning wake up. We usually make it before 9am to breakfast but that day we did not.

In Vang Vieng Rita found us another great accomodation in a little bungalow right next to the river. Though again we had the pleasure to get scared to death during yet another powerful night storm - a bit freaky especially considering the typhoon in Myanmar...Hope it gets better there since we have already got both the visas and the plane tickets.

In the evening we decided to enjoy a little cake and watch one of the blockbusters on a big screen in one of the cafes - Vantage Point. I got more hooked up since it was all action and I do not go to the cinema too often nowadays but somehow got dissapointed in the end. Rita was really bored - to the point that she sipped my beer (and she hates beer).


All in all we spend two days in this civilization made especially for tourists and boarded yet another bus to Luang Prabang.