Our journey in Laos came to an abrupt halt in Vang Vieng due to the inexistent standards of eating, living, breathing, showering and any other normal daily activity. We were very excited to spend St Paddy’s Day tubing down the river, however weather conditions and stomach conditions left both parties in dire straights. After watching every Friends episode in the “TV Bars”, it was still monsooning and was a blistering 52 degrees, so we decided to catch the first possible bus out of town. We went to the local bus station, and made a game time decision to head to Chiang Mai instead of Bangkok not knowing what was to come on our adventure. 2 busses, 2 borders to cross, 1 minivan and a dinner stop for a complimentary bowl of fried rice later, we were on our way to Thailand.
As bad as Laos may seem we did have an amazing first stop in Luang Prabang where we checked out some of the stunning views and countryside. We anxiously awaited the arrival of Dunn and Gilson, and tried to get a lay of the land before they got there so we could show them around the small French style town. After a nice 16 hour bus ride they finally arrived in the morning! It was great to see 2 familiar faces. We hit the town early and decided it would be fun to rent motorbikes and drive 35 km to Kuang Si Waterfalls, which is one of the main attractions outside of Luang Prabang. After a great ride there and amazing time at the waterfall it was time to go home, not knowing how much of a pain this would be… Before we could leave the parking lot riding mates Dunn and Birmy realized they had a flat tire and it needed to be fixed immediately so after driving through the local village, and realizing that the flat tire had to be a scam, we found someone who could fix the tire. 45 minutes later, a beer each, and a shot of handmade rice whiskey (rubbing alcohol) we were back on the road for a whole 5 kilometers before the tire popped again. We were now in the middle of nowhere, with nothing insight but mountains and elephants, so we flagged down a tuk tuk threw the bike in the back and headed back to the main area of town. After we made it back we decided to shower up, and since we had such a great experience at Lao Lao Garden, we wanted to take Dunn and Gilson back before our much anticipated trip to Utopia.
After keeping things under control at Utopia and considering there is a 12 o’clock curfew in Luang Prabang we got a good night sleep in preparation of what was to come for the next 2 days in Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is made out to be one of the biggest party towns in Southeast Asia, and makes Panama City look like Dubai, and Cancun look like the British Virgin Islands. Vang Vieng is a great town, but it was one of the dirtiest and unsanitary places we had all ever been. There are no health standards, laws, government regulations, or anything to make you feel comfortable. The weather did not help our cause seeing that there was a high of 56, and constant rain it was hard to have as much fun as everyone makes the town out to be. We spent the first night getting some questionable food at one of the local restaurants, and having our first experience with Vang Vieng “buckets” which did not turn out well for anyone. This was the first place in the world where shots are free and a refillable bucket costs 10,000 kip- 1 US Dollar. All buckets include local Tiger Whiskey which makes Ten High look like Crown Royal, and whatever mixers you want to put in your bucket. A standard bucket is at least 10 shots of whiskey, Red Bull, Sprite, Coke, and some fresh squeezed lime and at any time you can go back to the bar and they will actually give you the bottle, and let you tip it up for as long as you want. The buckets hit quick and hit hard and once again made for a very interesting night for the group and terrible morning for all. We had met some guys on the van ride over to Vang Vieng, who we spent the night and next couple of days with…needless to say they didn’t steer us wrong saying that the buckets were an experience. The rain had not stopped, and we all felt worse than if we were in Blacksburg and had each drank 3 Rails. But, we rallied and decided to head to the river- the real reason any backpacker would go to Vang Vieng. Once we made it to the start of the tubing course we realized how crazy this place was, since there were bars, rope swings, ski jumps, waterslides, buckets, fires, music loud enough to hear in Thailand, and crazy people all over the place on drugs we had never heard of. Some of the local Vang Vieng natives approached us to make us feel at home, when meanwhile all they did was scare the living shit out of us. Rain or shine these people are out at the river, drinking buckets of whiskey as if it was holy water. Some guy who looked and talked as if he was permanently electrocuted, informed us that he personally sells 8 kg of mushrooms a day and asked if we were interested; we passed, and moved on to the next bar for some more free whiskey shots. Dunn did the famous rope swing, and we danced with “Mama Lao”- hours passed and it took 4 bars before we decided no one felt good and Vang Vieng was really starting to take its toll on the 4 of us. After we made it back to town and spent a few more hours at the Friends Bar everyone started feeling sick and decided to take it easy that evening in preparation for celebrating St Pattys Day at the river. For the second straight day the weather in Vang Vieng did not want to cooperate…and our stomachs were a lost cause. Food, alcohol, Vang Vieng poisoning- whatever it was, rocked us.
11 AM St Patrick’s Day Vang Vieng, Laos- We hit rock bottom in tinker toy land and boarded on the first available bus out of town. Little did we know what was to come on our 16 hour adventure to Chaing Mai.
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