It’s time for teary goodbyes as mum goes on her tour and we continue our trip - but our itineraries will run parallel for most of the way so there’s a chance we’ll meet again before she goes back to Europe. We were hoping to book seats to our next destination, Vang Vieng, on the newly-opened Lao-China railway, but apparently seats are in high demand and when we inquired at our hotel they instead booked us on a minivan. The road has been recently renovated, they assure us, and the trip should take less than two hours. It’s another early-ish 8:30am start as we are the first pick-up on the van’s round of Vientiane, but once we get going after filling up, we speed along on an immaculate motorway, and before we know it we’ve reached our destination.
Vang Vieng is a very small town that became a backpacker haven in the 2010s with endless parties and free-flowing booze. Unfortunately, it’s also a popular exercise and outdoor activities hub and the combination of both resulted in a number of tourist deaths, and a gouvernement crackdown on some of the more riotous establishments. Now recovered from that, the town seems to have found a happy balance of safe-enough fun - and we’re hoping to get a piece of the action! As we alight, our first impression is shock at how rural the third most popular tourist destination in Laos is: the main street is more of a dusty road with low, ramshackle shopfronts surrounding it and quite a few empty plots. Walking towards our hotel, the buildings creep up however and it gets just a bit more urban - but still giving off very small-town vibes. I guess it makes sense with Laos’ population being just 7.5 million - coming from London which houses more than that amount of people on its own, we’re always going to think here is quiet.
We almost booked a hostel to properly soak in the backpacker atmosphere of the town, but we chickened out at the last minute and got a very comfortable room in the more upmarket Confetti Garden Resort. It’s a beautiful property, and the super-friendly, super-efficient owner David even upgrades us to a deluxe room to avoid us sleeping in unexpected twin beds for the third time in a row. We end up with a huge room, and a lovely balcony overlooking the pool - perfect for some relaxing!
No time to lose however as we want to take advantage of the afternoon. One of the main activities Vang Vieng is famous for is river tubing: floating down the Nam Song in an inflated tractor tyre, lazily admiring the striking karst outcrops surrounding the town. David can easily arrange that for us - it turns out that as well as owning one of the nicest hotels in town, he also runs Nanas Backpacker Hostel, Vang Vieng’s party hotspot. He escorts us there on his sleek motorcycle, and skidding to a halt in front of the gate, jumps off, grabs a mike, and announces tubing is about to start - and also, free party and free booze here tonight! Rave music is already pumping out into the courtyard and the pool area, and we feel just a little out of place as we’re a) sober, b) sensible and c) over twenty-five.
It’s only five minutes however before a trio of large pick-up trucks stops in front and everyone piles in to head for the river. We end up sharing the ride with a group of ten brits - they’re sweet but so young and we're very much not on the same page. They’re getting the party going early however as they brought their own speaker - non-waterproof so it won’t last very long into the afternoon. We ride a few kilometres upstream before getting down on a rocky beach and each picking a tire - and once in our swimsuits it’s time to hop in. The water is cold, as you’d expect, and most of our bodies are in even with the tires, but in the early afternoon sun it’s a welcome cooling system. I’m struggling to direct my craft, but Ollie is doing great, so I just latch on to him to avoid straying, and off we go. The river is fairly low as we’re in the dry season, and a lazy current just about pushes us along as we paddle to avoid getting stuck on the banks or on rocky outcrops. It’s a slow, sunny ride to the first bar, where boatmen are waiting to catch us and bring us ashore for a drink.
We’re enjoying the experience - there’s several bars spaced along the river, all selling beer and some cheap cocktails at decent prices, and more importantly playing quite nice party music. Everyone gets dancing for a bit at each stop, and the journey in between floating down the river is pleasantly decadent. The views are also splendid - we skirt right next to sheer karst cliffs, small bamboo bridges span the river and towards the end we even spot hot-air balloons taking off near town! The only downside is the temperature - we started out around 2pm and it’s several hours to get back to Vang Vieng, with the sun disappearing behind the mountains at 4pm. Soon we’re shivering and paddling like mad to speed up the journey, overtaking a couple of groups in the process. We get some fun conversations as we float along various other travellers - even helping one lady recover her shoe which was floating away!
We get to the last bar at dusk - luckily they know what’s up and have started a roaring bonfire to warm us back up. We had a wet bag on hand for our phones and clothes so as soon as we’ve dried off we can layer up for warmth. Not everyone was so prepared - a few came just in their swimsuits, and some didn’t close their bags properly, getting all their belongings wet including their money. One girl had to be hoisted out of the water and onto a kayak half way through to avoid hypothermia! It’s been a nice introduction to Vang Vieng however - and luckily our fancy hotel has a very nice, hot shower which finishes dispelling the last shivers as soon as we’ve walked back there.
Once suitably bundled up - the nights get cold in northern Laos - we go back out in search of a restaurant. Our street turns into a lively market at night - plenty of cute souvenirs and local fabrics on offer but we’re still watching our bag size. Just a couple of streets away, the highly reviewed Bamboo Bistro does a mean mango daiquiri and very decent food. Nothing very exotic but I have a very nice fried rice. Throughout the evening, fireworks keep going off: it’s Chinese New Year’s eve! We’re a bit too tired to party but manage to catch a show on the old American airstrip right in the middle of town before getting back to sleep - a festive end to a full day.
Lovely story! Reintje did that but she did not expand on it....