So we have a plan, we all need a find a river somewhere in the southeastern US (somewhere that it gets hot enough that tubing down the river is a good plan) and we all need to construct float-by river side bars with 40 ft tall swings, slides and zip lines in to the river water. If we add enough mud, loud music and falangs (thai/laotian for westerners) you'll have pretty much exactly what we got to experience in our latest town. Believe me, it was awesome. If we build it, they will come.
Vang Vieng is a sort of backpackers hedonist mecca that has sprung up in northern Loas (a country that brings in much more backpackers and upscale travelers than one would expect). It is something that can't really be adequately described, but is somehow simultaneously a wonderful and terrible place to be.
Imagine a small college town. Very small. With a big, easy college. Now leave all the students, and subtract all the classes, textbooks and professors leaving cheap beer in place to fill the void. Plop this town down in the middle of Laos and you have Vang Vieng. It was outrageous. We couldn't stay too long, for fear of never leaving, but the time we had there was incredible. We spent a day hiking, climbing and tubing through a handful of caves, walking through some amazing traditional villages an, of course, tubing down the river.
Though we didn't have as much time to invest in to the last activity as we would have liked (thanks to our icky tour guide) it definitely took the cake as the most memorable. We were hauled off of our tubes, and in to one of the river-side bars by a 18 year-old crossdressing laotian guy, where we met up with a throng of bathing-suit clad backpackers, all in various stages of drunkeness. Like we said above, this bar had all sorts of exciting swings and slides you could play on (between shots of lao-lao whisky, of course). It was incredible, we only wish this computer had a way to let us upload a few of the pictures (dad, thanks again for the loaner waterproof camera!).
Alas, all good things had to come to an end and our time in Vang Vieng was capped off with a 7 hour minibus (basically a full-size van) ride north to Luang Prabang. The ride was breathtaking, up and down a steep, switchback laced mountain with rural rice villages scattered the whole way through. we'll definitely have a picture to post for this one.
Hope everybody is doing great,
TeamWander
Yay Obama!
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2 comments:
What a blast! Who knew the rivers of Laos would be such a party-central. Notify MTV quick!
That's cool you guys got to watch the election returns with locals! In Kenya this summer, the principal of a school we visited was so proud because when he asked the students who was the US president, they all said Obama. hehe The rest of the world certainly was interested in the outcome!
Can't wait for the next update!
Great to read up on all your guys latest adventures. And what about those tuk-tuks! I can actually share in that experience. Things are great here, and I won't bore you with to many real world things, but I am almost done with my prelim exam! Highly exciting to go from PhD Student to PhD Candidate! And, Meghan and I are headed to the Tech/Terps game tonight, should be exciting. But back to you guys, great stories, I love the one from the hiking in Thailand. And the food sounds great. And yes I think this river thing has definite potential. Have fun and safe travels
Meg-n-Shawn
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