From Luang Prabang, we took a hair-raising minivan ride to
Vang Vieng. I think our driver thought he was playing Gran Turismo or
something, managing to shave an hour or so off the very windy and hilly journey
but leaving us all a little queasy and glad to reach our destination. Along the
way, we did stop to admire the scenery from a beautiful viewpoint amongst the
mountains – stunning scenery, although not very clear due to the haze from rice
paddy burning.
Vang Vieng is a huge tourism spot in Laos, with many coming
here and venturing little elsewhere in Laos. Most go floating down the Nam Song
river in giant tractor inner tubes, and while this sounds idyllic enough, there
is also quite the party, booze and drug scene to go along with it. Restaurants
play endless episodes of Friends or The Family Guy as people recover from their
hangovers and almost all seem to offer some form of ‘happy’ pizza, shake, or
whatever you want. In this sense, it seems a completely different world from
the rest of conservative Laos.
Since these inebriated antics aren’t really our scene, we
had just a short stay here, hoping to explore the beautiful scenery around the
town. We rented a scooter and headed off to the Blue Lagoon, a short distance out
of town. It’s a popular destination and many restaurants have displayed signs
with the name to direct tourists their way – making it quite confusing to find
the actual blue lagoon. We did make it there though, first climbing up a steep
cliff face to see the extensive cave and its reclining Buddha image, before
cooling off in the beautiful aquamarine waters of the lagoon at the base of the
cliff. This was a great trip from the town, highly recommended.
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