When you reach Vang Vieng by land from Vientiane or Luang Prabang, you see yourself on a defunct air strip where dogs run about freely and kids play in the dirt. A tuk tuk picked all the passengers of the bus up and dropped us at one of the guest houses (depending on who they have a deal with I assume). Vang Vieng is a very small town. It takes at most 20 minutes to walk from one end of the town centre to the other. The main riverside stretch is crammed with bars which play re-runs of Southpark, Friends and Family Guy. That can be pretty neat after a night of partying which I’ll get to later on. The economy of Vang Vieng seems to be single-handedly driven by tourism. The town is crowded with foreigners, mostly young Westerners one more wasted than the other.
Stay
In Vientiane where I was prior, I heard from travellers that EasyGo Backpackers Hostel provided some of the cheapest rooms, so I headed there. It’s at the end of the main riverside road. I got myself a bed in a three-single bedroom with shared bathrooms for LAK23,000 (USD2.80) which is really cheap even by Lao standard. Other guesthouses, albeit closer to the main stretch of bars along the main riverside road start at about LAK30,000. EasyGo is a shabby looking bamboo hut on stills but the ambience is nice with fellow travellers chilling out at every corner of the place or playing pool at the table right at the entrance. Service was also good and the manager was very helpful. They cater to your every need, should you want to book a tuk tuk or a bus ticket. In fact, I stayed there a second time on my way back to Vientiane from Luang Prabang. That time, I booked a twin bedroom with an en suite bathroom for LAK50,000. The bathroom was in pretty miserable condition but at least I had hot water.
Do
Vang Vieng Tubing
Tubing is one of the highlights of Vang Vieng and probably one of the reasons why so many people make the trip there. You rent a tube for LAK55,000 and leave a deposit of LAK60,000 for the tube. Should you return from tubing after 6:00pm, you forfeit LAK20,000. Once you rent the tube, a tuk tuk picks you up and drives you to a bar, Bar 1, which is about 15 minutes away. Tubing is essentially bar hopping (3 bars total) on a big tyre tube which involves figuring out how to get your arse secured in the tube, get pushed to the river currents and let yourself gently drift downriver in shallow waters.
Bar 1 is pretty basic with some benches and a volley ball net. I didn’t spend much time there since tubing was what I was after. So I set off in my tube with a chilled bottle of Beer Lao. Bar 2 is reached in less than 15 minutes. Now, Bar 2 is best of the three bars. It is the biggest, has a dance stage and allows you to play ‘les boules’, basket ball and volley ball. I spent most of my time there before hitting Bar 3, which is probably the smallest of the 3. By 5:30pm, you should leave that place and catch a tuk tuk to avoid forfeiting the LAK20,000. Some tuk tuk drivers take their own sweet time so urge yours to rush back.
While tubing can be fun, it’s also just daytime pub-hopping on a tube for a really laid-back experience. One day of that was fun enough for me. I decided to rent a motorbike and ride around for a more active experience. The two most common types of motorbikes for rent are 125cc semi-automatic for LAK40,000 or LAK60,000 for an automatic for 24 hours. I didn’t want to keep the bike overnight and I was able to find one for a day (until 8pm) for LAK30,000 plus LAK10,000 for petrol. There are a number of rental shops at the beginning of the main riverside road, very close to where the tubing rentals are. I got mine at the beginning of the slope, on the left, which leads to the bridge to cross the river from the main road.
Blue Lagoon was great. The amazing turquoise water is inviting and the 5m jump from a tree is fun. The entrance is LAK10,000. The place is perfect for an afternoon picnic. Phoukham cave is also accessible from there. It is a short 110-minute steep hike up a series of stairs. The entrance is LAK10,000 inclusive of a head light (necessary because it’s extremely dark inside). I was not expecting much of the cave but I’m so glad I decided to visit it. It is a pretty big cave with a sleeping Buddha statue inside. The cave goes pretty deep in and it gets frighteningly dark the further you go in. Considering I was alone and the path is rather dangerous, I gave up exploring it in its entirety after 20 minutes.
Drink
There are bars everywhere in Vang Vieng. The main areas for bars are along the main riverside stretch (for the laid-back feel like at Banana), one only a road away (for more ambience like Gary’s and Kangaroo Sunset Bar) and the main road (for Room 101 which opens until the wee hours of the morning). My favourite and the place where I spent most of my evenings in Vang Vieng is Gary’s Irish Bar. The bar is own by, you guessed it, Gary who is a young Irish fellow. He’s been in Vang Vieng for quite a while and he’s one of the friendliest faces you’ll meet there. His crew is no less amazing and I’ve seldom felt as welcomed at a bar far away from home. The food there is above standard in Vang Vieng. The place itself is extremely cosy complete with a pool table. On some nights, there is a game of killer pool which welcomes the participation of whoever is at the bar at that time. They are also the only bar I’ve been to in Vang Vieng with a band. It’s a duet with Simon and Marcus. Simon who also hails from Ireland works at Gary’s while Marcus, who is Singaporean, owns and runs a hotel there with his dad. They are incredibly talented! Simon is the musician of the group strumming his guitar while they both take turns on vocals. You just cannot go to Vang Vieng without visiting Gary’s!
A couple of buildings down from Gary’s is Kangaroo Sunset Bar which is pretty nice as well. The crowd there, however, tends to be younger. The owner, Will, is from Australia and opened that bar when he was just 22. Across Gary’s is a bigger bar Sakura. You can’t miss it with the free whisky shots they tout people with at the entrance. What’s striking is that the people doing the touting are all foreigners. I learned that they offer these temporary jobs to foreigners with the lure of free accommodation and food. Not far from there, on the main road, is Room 101, where everybody ends up when the bars close at 2:00am. It’s a very basic place with more expensive drinks but hey, they open until 4am or so and you don’t have a choice. Along the main riverside stretch are a number of bars which play re-runs of old TV shows such as Friends, South Park and Family Guy. These places are best visited during the afternoon to nurse your hangover with a Beer Lao. I spent a number of my early afternoons at Banana which is one of the bigger ones. The food there is pretty decent too.
Every Friday night, there is a ‘Jungle party’ organised by some of the bar owners around Vang Vieng. Apparently, Room 101 takes the lead on that. To head there, simply be either at Gary’s or Kangaroo at about 11:30pm and a tuk tuk picks you up and drops you off at the venue for free. Entrance is LAK30,000. It’s an outdoor party with a bar, a raised DJ console and a dance platform. Not really a jungle experience if you ask me but well it’s always good to have something different once in a while. I was there twice and I had lots of fun both times. You can grab one of the tuk tuks back for LAK10,000 when they have 8 people at the back. You drop off in front of Room 101 in town where you can grab a greasy baguette by the road side before calling it a night.
Eat
I’m not quite sure how to describe Lao food. In Thailand for example, you have very distincive dishes and flavours such as Tom Yam, Lab Pet or basil beef. I guess Lao food is pretty similar to Thai food. In any case, the french influence is strong and I was really pleased to see road stalls selling baguettes everywhere. The ingredients that go into the baguette may be pretty questionable at times, but hey you can’t complain when having a bacon and cheese baguette. Their cheese is really terrible though.
Roadside stalls also offer a pancake they call a crepe. Now, it is definitely NOT a crepe but more like an Indian roti. You can pick whatever ingredients you want from the cart and tell them to add it to the roti. The first few bites were nice but then I realised how much oil went into making that, so I only had one of these during my trip.
Otherwise, the two other places where I ate at pretty frequently are Banana and Gary’s. The former serves both Asian and Western food. When I say Asian, Thai dishes such as green and red curry feature more prominently. I tried a few and there were no complaints there. Western dishes include pastas and such. Gary’s serves both Asian and Western food as well. As you can imagine, the Western dishes are heavily Irish-influenced, which is great, because they taste really good.
Reminiscing about my time in Vang Vieng now makes me feel like planning another trip there. We’ll see.
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