Ok... let's get one thing straight. If it's culture and a quiet night in you're after, Vang Vieng is not the place. But if it's loud music, dangerously cheap alcohol, and partying then it's definitely the place! We arrived in Vang Vieng and again, it couldn't have been more of a change to the last place we were at. If Luang Prabang was all about sophistication, class and quaintness, Vang Vieng was the opposite of all of these multiplied by ten! We arrived in the daytime and everything seemed eerily quiet. Travellers were sitting like zombies in restaurants and bars, eating pizzas, banana pancakes and watching Friends or Family Guy. We found a very cheap place to stay with a bed as hard as concrete and noticed that the downstairs restaurant of the hotel served its very own homemade goats cheese and mulberry tea. We realised that this was probably going to be our culinary highlight during our days in Vang Vieng so the following morning after our first night of decadence, we tried the goats cheese with baguette and salad. As we dreamily munched away, it dawned on us that the cheese was really good although our bellies were probably just grateful of any food to eliminate the toxins. Silly me forgot to take pictures because my head wasn't working properly so my photograph is of the second time we had the cheese which didn't look as good as the first time as it wasn't warmed up, melting and oozy.
There weren't really many other food highlights in Vang Vieng other than some really tasty chicken, bacon and melted cheese baguettes (real cheddar!). We stood as the lady cooked all of the ingredients from fresh, it really was a good baguette. I could go on and on with the list of comfort foods that we were eating in an attempt to make us feel better from our excesses but I'm sure you get the picture. Melissa had lost her circle shape lens sunglasses that she bought in Thailand for a quid. She was very attached to them and nothing I said would make her feel better, so she found consolation with another cat friend. We sat in the restaurant where the cat lived and watched a DVD and suddenly realised that we were the same as them travellers we saw on the first day.... zombies!! It was time for us to leave.
We left the crazy Vang Vieng with all limbs intact, probably because we didn't try the tubing or the rope swings into the very shallow river. I did have slightly bruised hips but that was from our bed... it really was that hard! On a side note, we also met Mr Cha from Korea!! A totally random incident but it was very nice to see him and his friend (we look forward to seeing you again in Korea!!)
Vang Vieng's a strange place, comparable to an Ibiza (without the good music) in the middle of Laos!! For backpackers, mainly young, fresh out of school, college or university, it's just another place to get drunk, meet lots of fellow revellers and have a good time. On the other hand, there are many backpackers and travellers who completely turn their nose up at Vang Vieng and wouldn't dream of indulging in such reckless activity in such a beautiful country. Now, we might not agree with everything that goes on in Vang Vieng but we love our partying too much and couldn't resist the cheap thrills. Even though the music was god awful, we were happy to just let our hair down and party for a few days before we got back on the road. And party we did!!
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