Laos: Vang Vieng

Or "The Town of the Killer Ants"

We got to the train station ok despite Bangkok peak hour traffic and a confusing taxi driver who took his shoes and socks off while swerving all over the road, spoke to us in Thai, refused to answer questions or confirm where he was taking us, and told us the meter was broken moments before switching it on. He also kept gesturing madly out the back window, until we realised a RedShirt propaganda newspaper was sitting on the back of our seats and he really wanted us to look at it even though it was all in thai.

The station was disgusting; people laying all over the floor, homeless people peeing in the corners. We had 2 hours before our train and didn't want to sit in the hot smelly station so ended up checking our packs and going on a wild and frustrating tuktuk goose chase (they promised us MBK was open, but of course it wasn't-and was guarded by armed military- so promised to take us somewhere else that was open... but wasn't) and anyway ended up back where we started without any food and kindly relieved of some baht. Typical tourists! Luckily a delicious and cheap chinese restaurant opposite the station restored Scott's love of life ;) but we couldn't get out of BK fast enough, especially when we planned to buy snacks for the train and bus but everything shut down for the curfew!

The overnight train to Nong Khai was okay, the sleepers were clean and we felt very safe from theft because security guards and men in military uniforms were in our carriage. The only bad thing was that I was on top bunk close to the fluroescent light, and I kept waiting for it to be switched off... but 12, 2, 3am came and I realised it was going to be left on! So didn't get much sleep with the light in my eyes and was a bit of a zombie grump the next day.

From Nong Khai we tuktuked to the thai border and then laos border with some backpackers we met getting off the train- an Aussie, 2 Brits and a Canadian- and jumped on a bus with them straight from Vientiane to Vang Vieng which was about 4 hours. The whole bus was full of westerners around our age, it was like going off to a uni camp or something, Swiss germans drinking beer, loud and embarressingly stupid Aussies up the back, someone playing a mouth organ.

Vientiane (capital of Laos) was interesting after Thailand because they drive on the right side of the road and everything has a french influence, like the streets are called 'rue's. It's a tiny and quiet city... more of a town really, but it was pretty.

Vang Vieng itself is a tiny town on the Nam Song River, and is surrounded by karst mountains. It relies on tourism from the infamous tubing which is a S/E Asia backpacker rite of passage like the Thai full-moon party. We 'tubed' for one afternoon but didn't actually hire tubes to float in, meeting our friends at the first bamboo bar on the river and just swimming across and back to buy buckets and go on the different giant swings and to different bars- and it turns into a big party when the sun goes down. It was hilarious watching people trying to swim across the quickly flowing river keeping their buckets above the water and dodge the cannonball people flying off the swings, ziplines and flying foxes. Would definitely not be able to run in Australia, so many people get injured by falling in shallow water or onto rocks! There were more bars further down the river which you could float down to, but we didn't bother. Sitting on the side of the river we got absolutely massacred by ant bites but didn't really notice until later- now we look like we've got chicken pox and they're so itchy!!!

Scott and I also hired a scooter one morning and rode around Vang Vieng, luckily the streets were pretty empty because we kept driving on the left and turning onto the wrong side of the roads.. We followed a hand-drawn map to some caves in the mountains where the Laotians hid during Vietnam war when they were being bombed. To do this we had to ride through some muddy paddocks where men and women were working and cows didn't even bat an eyelid at us. It had rained the night before and the little trail was so muddy the bike kept spinning out, we only took one tumble in the mud though!

I hardly knew anything about Laos before I researched coming here, but because they allowed North Vietnamese troops to hide and walk through their jungle, the Americans bombed Laos more than the Allies bombed Germany and Japan combined in WWII. Laos is the most bombed country in history. It was something like a planeload of bombs was dropped on Laos on average once every 8 minutes, 24/7, for a nine years. Anyway the most affected area is around Phonsavan which is about 8 hours from Vang Vieng, where they are still digging up UXO every day.

I didn't remember I was so scared of caves before we climbed right up into a massive one... I guess I expected it to open up nice and wide right from the entrance, but as soon as we had to duck around a couple of walls so it was pitch black (we had 2 little torches though) and walked through a couple of big caverns with bats I freaked out and had to get out of there! Suddenly remembered the last time I had been in a cave was on school camp and I'd hated it then. So no more caves for Jess this trip.

Laos is cheaper than Thailand, even this tourist trap. Our room was the second nicest we've had (after Phi Phi) and it was the cheapest so far! Some people stay in VV for a week or more, tubing every day and partying every night, most of the restaurants are set up with pillows and low tables in front of TVs for people to zone out to Friends and Family Guy repeats, but after 3 nights we were ready to move on even though it was fun.

We caught a bus from here up to Luang Prabang with Nadeane and Soraya, two of the friends we made from the overnight train- the others bussed straight to Hanoi.