Vang Vieng, Laos

May 15th

As we get off the bus in Vang Vieng the English boys ask us which hostel we’re staying at, reluctantly I say Chillao and they decide to follow us there to check it out. After we check in I remember literally being so excited that the boys were in a different dorm room than us. Harrison and I decide to go next door for some lunch before hitting the pool to cool off. Again, Harrison is shocked by the beer prices. If I remember correctly, 10,000 kip for a big beer, which is less than $1.50 USD. The boys, who I finally match their names to their faces, Tim, Jack, and Max join us for lunch after they wandered and couldn’t find anything else to eat. We actually get chatting and found that these boys aren’t so bad when you’re not trying to sleep. They were kindaaa funny and actually really nice.

For the rest of the afternoon we all played in the pool and drank at our hostel before going out. We were drawn in by Sukura Bar promoters for free whiskey (turns out everywhere in Vang Vieng has free whiskey and if you go to the right spots at the right time you can pretty much drink all night for free), which is where we met two girls from Arizona, Rowan and Keri. YAY, more Americans!!

Also, we found out Vang Vieng has the most dope drunk food sandwiches sold from carts on the side of the road. Kinda sketchy but sooo yummy!

May 16th

Vang Vieng is definitely catered towards backpacking/young people because there is not a whole lot to do in this small dusty town. One of the most popular activities is a river float down the Nam Song River. Sam from Perth convinced us to do the river float so we just hung out that morning before our shuttle. There are bars set up on the riverbank and the bar workers will throw rope out to you to pull you in to drink at their bars as you make your way down the river.

Our floating group was mostly with people we knew, the English boys, the Arizona girls, Sam (from Perth) and a girl named Jean, who was from the Philippines. She was an angel, she didn’t drink, she was the only person who wore a lifejacket so she always stood out in neon orange, and just loved laughing at our shenanigans down the whole river. S/O to precious Jean! There were other groups at the bars and sometimes you would all float together down the river just chatting, listening to music, and swimming.

At one of the bars along the float

We tubed from about 2pm till sundown, getting off at random bars and drinking until someone would yell that we were moving on. Besides getting turnt AF the journey down the river was spectacular, the limestone rock formations towered over the river and made for some really beautiful scenery.

Limestone rock formations in the background

It got sort of dicey when the sun went down and we were still on the water and we almost missed the exit point, which would have been disastrous floating down a river in the dark. I think if I remember correctly there was a waterfall after the exit point.

Anyway, we headed back to the hostel, showered, got ready for dinner and met the whole gang up at Harry’s favorite spot in Vang Vieng, Milan Pizza. Here is an important backpacking lesson: no matter how daggy money belts are, USE THEM. I had just gone to the ATM that day, had put all my money in a little coin purse, and stuffed it into my jean short pockets. Somewhere along the way from the hostel to our dinner spot, the bag fell out. I lost a few hundred dollars and quickly put a damper on the rest of my night… I mean I was sort-of-really inebriated from tubing so that doesn’t help but still… Wear the fricken money belt or purse or something to keep your possessions safe.

May 17th

We spent the day trying to recover from tubing from the day before by laying at the pool at our hostel but the twenty local kids that showed up to swim had different plans for our relaxing day. Worked out alright though, because we had a big day planned for the next day.

Jack with some of the local kids

May 18th

There are lots of cool things to see around Vang Vieng and we debated whether or not to rent motorbikes and go see them all on our own or pay to get shuttled everywhere with lunch included ($30 USD I think…). We chose the later, and the boys joined us. The tour included kayaking the Nam Song River, zip lining over the river, cave tubing, and visiting one of the blue lagoons where people rope swung and jumped from trees into the waters.

After all of our activities we went back to the hostel for an afternoon nap before going out to the infamous Jungle Party on Friday nights in Vang Vieng. You have to buy tickets and arrange shuttles ahead of time out to this random location a bit out of town. There was a lot of European techno kind of music, they had firey limbo, and I don’t even know how to describe the bar, it was outdoors, lots of shrubbery everywhere just so random.

The gang at the Jungle Party

Harry, Aamajl, and I headed back early around 2 because Harrison and I were catching a bus out the next day.

May 19th

All we did this day was hang around the hostel until our shuttle (unsurprisingly) picked us up late. At this point we had spent ALLLL of our time in Vang Vieng with the boys and to think that a week before this I pretty much hated them for ruining my sleep in Vientiane. Turns out you can't judge people by their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd impressions sometimes you need four for them to really show that those rowdy kids from Vientiane were also really sweet, hilarious, and genuine guys. We had a sappy & cute goodbye to each other unsure of when we would see them next because the boys wanted to stick around Vang Vieng for a few more days. So then we headed north, our bus took approximately 5 hours to get us to Luang Prabang.