Vang Vieng

Not a lot to say about Vang Vieng really. The story goes, a few years back, a local farmer had some western volunteers come and stay. In their spare time, they got some old tractor tubes and floated down the river with a beer in hand. Sounds like great fun. However now, it is a tourist hot spot on the South East Asia Route. An assortment of cheap drugs, techno music, same same restaurants with stoned foreigners sitting around eating pizzas and chips while watching countless reruns of family guy or friends. I guess that spins some peoples wheels, however it is sad to waste such a beautiful part of the world on an activity like this! Every year at least one foreigner gets killed tubing down the slow flowing river.

An old US runway. The scenery was unbelievably beautiful. 

From everywhere in town you could see the limestone mountains in the background.  

We rented some bikes for a day. 

                                             

And rode to a local organic farm. It was pretty cool, and the satay chicken was amazing! 

Organic goat products were a specialty. 

A really nice peaceful place. 

However it happened to be right near the start of the tubing part of the river. All along the river there are stilted bars serving "cocktails" or a variety or alcohol and happier substances. As you tube along you have to keep your eyes open to avoid being whacked in the head by a water bottle on the end of a rope, which is chucked out for you to grab and they pull you ashore to their bar. All these bars in close proximity meant we toured the organic farm to the sound of trance music floating up the valley. One of those moments you feel a little bit ashamed to be a foreigner! 

After the organic farm we continued out of the village to where we had heard of some amazing caves.  After  being ferried across the river and a quick lunch of Foe (spicy noodle soup), we headed off to see the caves. 

Which turned out to be not too bad, but definitely put us in the heart of the amazing scenery. This karst  mountainous landscape similar to what we have in the Waitomo area in NZ is all around Laos. Hidden caves and abrupt vertical limestone cliffs. 

Enjoying the scenery

Beautiful!

And back across the river, and on the bikes back to the village. 

More of the natural beauty

We had to keep asking ourselves if we were being a bit sensitive, or old and farty about the place .  Don't get me wrong, a cold beer as you float down the river on tubes in the middle of amazing scenery would be awesome. But the reality is that the majority of the tourists here couldn't care less about the culture or scenery, and are just out to enjoy the cheap drugs and booze.  High hopes for the next place, Louang Prabang.