Vang Vieng

Is about half way up the Mekong River to Luang Prabang our eventual goal in Laos.  Its on one of their main highways and while we'd been told to expect a bumpy ride (and we were well prepared by over 4000 kms of dirt tracks in Africa), we weren't prepared for a Laotian "highway".  Frankly, I have no idea what's in their heads so I'll make it up as I go along...  Joe is a good little communist so he has a paved stretch of road in front of his house.  Frank is a nasty capitalist so he gets dirt with excavations and ditches throughout his stretch of road.  There is a Frank for every Joe and they each get about 100' of road and they alternate.  Its impossible to get going more than about 20kms/hour before you need to slam on the brakes for the big holes in Frank's stretch.  ALL.... THE..... WAY.... TO..... VANG VIENG!  (about 150 kms).

The scenery looked nice but we were all too busy holding our lunch in to enjoy it much. And it starts within 10 kms of the outskirts of the capital city!  This wasn't looking good for our big trip up to Luang Prabang!

Well... we actually did get there and even Rachel somehow managed to keep her lunch down although she and I got out and walked about 3 kms of the way (the Van hardly had to wait for us).  Vang Vieng is party central for Laos.  It really isn't much more than three streets and a bus stop but it does grow on you and has some charm as its nestled into the cave filled hills and along the Mekong.

Laos is known for being fairly laid back and sleepy but this place is the exception.  It is known as a hedonistic hangout for drugged up backpackers seeking cheap thrills.  We knew that when we were coming so we booked a place on the outskirts of town far away from the "TV bars" that play all day episodes of Friends and the Family Guy and then party all night.  Our place was run by a Singapore Chinese gentleman called Michael who was very helpful in steering us to the best spots within Vang Vieng and away from the seedy crowd.

The first morning we took his advice and did an early morning adventure tour.  We started out in the back of a truck with about 10 other travelers and drove up the River about 20kms to a Hmong Village near a cave.  This cave was used during the "American War" to hide (they don't say from which side - many of the Hmong were on the existing government/US side which of course isn't acknowledged now although the Hmong still see themselves as different).  It had a natural rock formation that looked a bit like an elephant and hence this cave was known as Elephant Cave.  It also had a Budda temple and is used as a Wat.

On our way into the "Elephant Cave"

And here's Budda again.... also the Elephant's Footprint.

Can you see the Elephant?

After that, it was a short 1km walk through some dried up rice paddies which was interesting as it showed the irrigation techniques used by the locals.  The soil was clay hard and its amazing that anything can grow in it.

Another "sunny" day in the smog of Laos

A series of (dried up) rice paddies on the way to the river

It would have taken an amazing amount of manual labour to make these - especially as they are perfectly level.

Once we got to the river, we saw the REAL Hmong village (the one at the road was obviously much more affluent).  It was basically a few ramshackle shacks around the river.  Some enterprising soul had put up a canteen for the tourists to eat at and buy light snacks and another had set up a washroom and was charging 25 cents to use it.  Even the back woods tribes have gotten the spirit of Capitalism!

There was also a low hanging that had the river running through it and some old inner tubes that we would use to float into the cave with.

It had a series of ropes to pull you along but this was actually the tightest spot.  Most spots inside were well above standing height.

We went along inside the cave for about 1km but were told it went on for another 2-3 kms in much the same fashion.  There weren't many stalagmites, or stalactites as it looked like the river current gets strong occasionally and washes them clean.  It almost looked drilled.  I can imagine in peak flood season, it's quite wild in there.  There was one spot where it widened out a bit and we had to get out and walk in 12" water (slightly bent over for the ceiling) but it was obvious that this thing goes for a long while!  Very cool.

Yup, its dark in there...  they gave each of us headlamps.  I was last out and stayed back with mine off and it was absolutely dark (and quiet).  Quite peaceful actually (til Shawn yelled at me to stop fooling around)

See what I| mean about almost being drilled?  You can tell that it gets some pretty strong currents (when we were there, they weren't noticeable at all).

The entrance from the inside looking out

Local Hmong making good use of our tubes and the pool outside the caves

The Hmong McDonalds...

Yup, they found another dog!

After a very tasty and filling packaged lunch (at the Hmong Mc|Donalds), we piled back into the truck and headed back towards Vang Vieng for about 10kms before dropping back on to the river, this time in Kayaks!

The start of our Kayak journey

Hmong fisherman... he caught a big one on his second throw that we saw and quit for the day

Rock collecting, Laos style.  Those are neat little tractors.  They basically are an engine on wheels with a big power take-off (PTO) belt that can drive all kinds of gear... including those big wheels.  The long handles allow them to swivel it at the hitch.  They'll go over just about any obstacle.  

The scenery was spectacular and we even had some small class 1 and 2 rapids for fun.

We proceeded down the river like this for about 5kms over the occasional rapid which added to the excitement.  None of us tipped or anything but there were a few hopeless kayaks that seemed to flip or go down the (obviously) wrong ways which provided some good entertainment.  The water wasn't deep in any of these so they'd simply stand up and right their kayak and head on again.  Made me wish to do another Algonquin trip on the Petawawa!

After those 5kms, we arrived at the "bar scene".  It was basically a series of shacks with big decks and an assortment of slides, swings, zip lines, etc for the drunken patrons to demonstrate their bravery.  They lose about 1 person every two weeks to either drug overdoses, drowning and/or injuries from them jumping on to each other or rocks, etc.  It would be good fun but the space pizza's and easy drugs make bad judgments almost normal.  Listening to 10 other drunken people try to agree whether or not the landing area is clear is not my idea of safety!

One of the river bars ... see the guy zip lining into the river?

Off the slide (upper right) into the river... without being able to see the landing.  You rely upon OTHER drunken/durgged up idiots to say its safe.

The slide....looks like fun but I'd want a sober person saying the area was clear!

Yikes

Well after exposing our kids to the antics of doped up young "adults" (and having two of them try hard to convince us to let Shawn go down the slide/zip lines), we all got back in the kayaks and headed down the river again.... contemplating that on this trip we'd managed to show our kids EVERYTHING we don't want them doing (and eight year olds smoking dope in Africa!).  The rest of the paddle was pretty and not many rapids but we did come upon an unusual sight..  from a distance it looked like some "rocks" in the middle of the river... then as we got closer we could see some thing small climbing around the "rocks" - I thought it might be otters.  Then as we got closer we realized they weren't rocks/otters at all... they were Water Buffalo!

Albino Water Buffalo to boot!  Some of them have two horns growing out of each side of their head.

All in all, a very good day.  And none of us needed cheap drugs to get the high we felt after 4 hours on the river.

The next day, we rented some bikes from Michael for about $1.50/each and rode over a couple of very rickety bridges to get over the Mekong and then along a dirt track about 7kms to the "Blue Lagoon".

The hill was a bit too steep for these short legs

It wasn't much of a road

But the scenery.... wow!

Even passed through some local villages

I never get tired of looking at these mountains

And into the "Blue Lagoon" to cool off!

Everyone got into the action... even Mom and Dad.  You could also jump off that branch which was fun.

We played in the water there for a few hours and then Jen revealed that there was a hike and a climb to a cave she wanted to do...  luckily for me I was in flip flops so that was out.  It looked darn near straight up.  Rachel and I stayed behind while Jen/Shawn climbed up TWICE.. they didn't think to bring money to pay for the headlamps they would need.  They did get some great shots and said it was well worthwhile but Rachel and I played some cards in the sun and just chilled.

OK... looking at this, perhaps I should have dragged our sorry carcasses up that moutain

She did say, I shouldn't attempt it in flip flops though....

The mountain goats love to climb!

Shawn's found a big crystal!  (He's been buying all kinds in local markets)

Looks like a dead person's knee to me!

An apple core?

Now, that is pretty cool.... 

This is why you want to bring a headlight.... they said this just popped up with no barrier/signs.

After that, it was back to Vang Vieng for a nice (cheap) dinner and we got some Ray Ban's for Rachel for about $2.  I was ripped off for my $8 Oakley's!  No luck getting Jen to ditch her 1970's sunglasses though

Stunning.

Looking up the river with Vang Vieng on the right

Vang Vien from the Mekong

Kids were jumping from here into a hole that seemed to be surrounded by water about 3' deep.  I never quite figured out how deep it was but they all seemed to walk away from it despite the fact that we were at least 20' in the air over the river.  They'd land and stand up waist deep.

Yup, we went over that one too.

The next am, it was to be back in a mini van for the drive up to Luang Prabang... we weren't looking forward to that drive!