Vang Vieng

We are in 'Oh oh Cherso'-heaven: Vang Vieng. After a rocky bus ride through the scenic mountain landscape of Laos, out of nowhere there is this little village, the pilgrimage of badly burned, smelly, binge drinking backpackers. Salou, Lloret da Mar, Rimini and of course Chersonissos: eat your heart out. This is Spring Break gone ugly. For one day we decide to just go with the flow. Literaly. Anyone familiar with the fenomenon tubing? Well let me paint you an ugly little picture...

You rent a tube big enough to keep your but afloat. Get yourself transported upstream. Alongside the river you will find one shabby bar after the other. At the first stop we couldn't do anything but stare. Jaws dropping. Beer pong, pole climbing, big slides and boozing through a funnel. We took a big gulp of our first bucket, just to fit in. Are you too drunk to order your next bucket of attrociously bad alcohol? Jump in your tube and let the current take you to the next alcohol filled hell hole. We actually managed to go all the way downstream, back to the village before sunset. I do believe the Lonely Planet, which states many westerners die during this ungodly experience.

The next day. This time no bike rides, but rest assured: there are other ways to torture me. Vang Vieng has its own 'Blue lagoon'. Hidden somewhere in a cave. Instead of renting a motor bicycle or go by tuk tuk like everyone else does, we decide to walk. It was only 6 kilometers. We'd do it in an hour. I cannot describe you thoroughly enough how I felt after 3 hours of walking, 200 meters of steep mountain climbing, an hour of leg breaking through the dark and slippery cave without a guide or path for that matter and we did not find an f-ing 'Blue lagoon'. The only guidance we had were some nearly vanished arrows that disapeared all together when we arrived at a cavity the size of the main hall of Grand Central Station in NYC. And there, in the pitch black of the cave there was a pool of water. Needless to day I did not take a refreshing dive there... The very best part though, we still had the way back ahead of us...

Let the tubing start...

The first bucket of many...

That is how a true Vang Vieng Survivalista looks like after too many buckets and an occasional gulp of refreshing river water.

To the very left you can see our riverside suite.

There was one other cave we did not dare to enter...

... but we did have a quick swim there.

Luckily the way back was really beautiful.

PS. All the pictures you have been staring at are by VMCMV Just so you know...