Travel Blog Chapter 17: Vang Vieng party town

It was around 9am when I waited outside the adventure tour company for my expedition for that day. As I was waiting outside the company I saw this other guy sitting there and I struck up a conversation with him. His name was Tal and he was from Israel and eventually the rest of our company arrived which included a Canadian couple, 2 Korean ladies and a guy as well as 2 other thai girls. It was an interesting mix of different nationalities. We loaded up a tuk tuk and proceeded to the place where we would be exploring some caves first as well as do some tubing in the caves. By this time, my camera was damaged and I wasn't able to take any photos except with my handphone and from the cameras of my new found friends. As we went on our way I found out that the Canadian couple were traveling teachers. They have lived in Korea previously for a year or so and was now taking time off to travel in Southeast Asia. They would be settling down next in Turkey, Istanbul to continue their teaching career there. It seemed like a very exciting life. The Thai girls were just taking a vacation and would be back in Thailand after a week. Eventually we exchanged contact details with some of them but it seemed like the handwritings were too blurred to make up accurately the alphabets when I got back to Singapore.

Our first stop was a trek to this place called the "Elephant Cave". It was a relatively short trek through some forested areas to a relatively small cave. There were alot of elephant statues in the cave; hence the name. By this time we have hooked up with another group of trekkers. It seemed that the Asians I saw the previous day had settled on this package as well. Their Singlish was unmistakable and in this combined group where there were more than 7 or so of them with a demographics of an almost equal number of males and females, they were the dominant group in this expedition. We struck up a conversation and I found out that they were from NUS as well and have just finished an expedition in Cambodia and was taking some time off to travel. They were in Vietnam previously also and one of them was robbed while he was there. I must have been lucky. It was great meeting your fellowmen in a foreign country.

My kayaking Israeli partner

The most uncapsizable kayak that day

The Koreans

A difficult pose for the kayak to maintain its position

After the Elephant cave, we went to some caves where we could do some tubing. The water was very cold and each of us wore a head band with a torch to show the way. It was a great time of fun as we splashed and navigated our way through the caves. After that it was lunch and we got to eat very tasty Laoatian food from banana leaves. We were all taking about a particular place that we would eventually be going to. It was this party place where you get to buy cheap drinks and where there were high swings and slides that you can land. We started on our kayaking session after the lunch and I was paired with Tal. It was going to be one of the most hilarious session in the trip as the Singaporeans were capsized umpteen times in the kayak where Tal and I proudly declared ourselves the best kayakers as we didn't capsize once. The Singaporeans tried to steal our bottles with drinking water next with Tal shouting at them to stop stealing our "whiskey". It was classic piracy. Eventually we arrived at our much talked about destination.

Chilling with the Thais and Israeli

Canada/Israel/Singapore vs Singapore..didn't end too well for the international group

Korea/Thailand vs Singapore..Singapore won..again

The aftermath

We tied up the kayaks at the bank of the river and around us we could see people tubing down the river and all kinds of ziplines lining the bank of the river. Further into the banks, there were loud music blaring from stereo system which eventually I realized was a pub. This didn't look like Laos at all but rather like a party enclave. There was a place for tug of war where you fall into the mud if you lost, a mud volley ball court and also a lot of foreigners were sitting around drinking their concoctions. We ordered a few beer lao and some other alocholic mixture and chill in small sheltered huts while we watched people going up a rather high platform, grabbing hold of a bar and going down the zipline while letting go and landing into the river. My dislike for water and really such rides required me to drink more to summon more courage to attempt this zipline. While everyone was taking their turns to have a go for the zipline, there was suddenly a commotion coming from under the platform. One of the girls from our group has let go prematurely and landed in shallow waters. She was dazed from the impact but still unharmed. It was a reminder to be careful as there was no safety net and I read later from the internet that some people have actually died while attempting this zipline most often while they were wasted. Finally I went for it and it was surprisingly not that difficult even though I must say it looked awfully high up while you are facing the zipline. We spent the rest of the time competing in tug of war with Singaporean guys against Canadian, Israeli and yours truly and also Singaporean girls competing against Thai and Korean girls. On both counts, the Singaporeans won with the losers falling into the mud pit. Must be the NS. After that, it was the mud volleyball and we were practically unrecognizable as we were covered with mud when we left the court. The wash up was done jumping into the river via the zipline with the more conservative just splashing water on the bodies through a hose.

It was an awesome afternoon and we finally had to leave and kayaked back to main land and we ended the day by each of us going our way and washing up. It was world cup fever in Laos at this time and you have painted patriotic faces cheering for their national teams. Every pub at night was filled and saturated with a very intense atmosphere of competitiveness between hardcore world cup fans. I wondered how they would react if I strolled in with my face painted with a Singapore flag.

Beautiful landscape

Lost in the forest during my hike

Without buildings, cattle was the only "landmark" available to find my way out

Thought there was a path somewhere but all I saw was wet padi ground

The next day in Vang Vieng I met the Singaporeans again in a cafe while they were having breakfast. They were going to do more tubing that day and eventually when I met them again later some of them sustained some minor injuries from the slides. I decided instead to do some trekking around this picturesque juxtaposition of a town and wilderness. I find it difficult to categorize Vang Vieng. For Singaporeans, think Clark Quay or Sentosa in the wild. I couldn't find any place that sell maps so I asked for directions from the trusty trekking company regarding where I could go and set off. I made a mistake not to rent a bike, thinking that it wouldn't be that far but I was wrong. Halfway through the hike, I was sweating, thirsty and seeing people on bicycles and motorcycles riding past me past me. I met the Koreans on the bikes and I looked enviously at how fast they were covering ground.

My company along my hike

Very thirsty at this point

The road seemed never ending

...and the road continues

Eventually I visited 2 caves, 1 which was rather small and cold with a Buddha statue inside. It was a strange sensation being alone in the cave with no one seemingly around. After that, I hiked for another few hours to another cave location and met the Koreans again where we had Beer Lao together. They had met other Koreans along the way and in the midst of this double marginalized situation, I appreciated the rest that I have. I made my way into the cave and I realized my torch was too dim to explore further. I was going to leave when some Canadians came in and with their stronger flashlight we explored the cave together. We were lost at one point but eventually found ourselves back near the entrance but at a higher ground. That was where I met my Korean friend. He was only 17 years old but was traveling alone in Southeast Asia during his summer break. He would be on the road for 6 months. That was pretty cool. He offered to ride me back to Vang Vieng town but we found that out to be impossible after awhile as there were too many uphills and downhills and at one point we almost went careening off a bridge into a lagoon. Since I was almost halfway back, I told him to go ahead while I would walk the rest of the way. I admired the beautiful scenery and sunset as I made my way back. It was evening when I arrived back in Vang Vieng town and I realized I have been hiking for more than 6 hours. I was tired and went to chill at those cafes with reruns of Family Guy. The food was delicious and I made plans to go up further north to Luang Prabang by booking my bus transportation that night. Vang Vieng was too touristy and was an interesting place to be in for awhile but not for too long. I was looking forward to see what else Laos has to offer.