Adventures in a party ghost town

I'm writing this post from Luang Prabang Loas. We left Vientiane and took a bus about 3 hours north to the town of Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is a beautiful little town set next to a river and surrounded by giant limestone cliffs that jut straight up and are covered in thick forest. It's an idyllic setting. For many years this town was nothing more than a quaint small town with a quiet rural life, then around 2004 someone had the idea of renting inter-tubes and the idea caught on like wild fire. Tourism exploded and Vang Vieng quickly turned into a backpacker party destination.

Thousands of college aged kids came here from around the world to float the river and indulged in the numerous floating bars, zip lines, water slides, and rather large drug scene. Well as you can imagine, this combination can be lethal, and it was. Some where near 90 tourists have died on this river is recent years, nineteen last year alone. It's pretty crazy, but there was really no safety measures in place and people made terrible decisions. We knew of this reputation, but we also knew about how beautiful the area was supposed to be and that you could escape the craziness if you want to. After much debate we decided to head to Vang Vieng and indulge in some scenery and not much else.

We arrived a bit surprised. The town showed the signs of a party destination--huge bars playing reruns of Friends and Family Guys, lots of western style food, etc. But it was surprisingly quiet. We asked around a bit and found out that only a few weeks ago the Laos government came in and shut the party down. There is a large Euro-Asia meeting happening in Laos in early November and apparently Vang Vieng has been ruining Loas international reputation so just like that, they put an end to it. From what we heard it was a pretty instant stop. Within a week, new police officers had been put in place, the rive bars, zip lines, and slides had not only been closed, but partially torn apart and the town now has a strict 11:30 curfew.

We were pleasantly surprised by this new development. There was still tubing, but it was very tame (we didn't float). Apparently, many tourist had heard about the change in rules and skipped Vang Vieng so the town felt really empty, and the scenery lived up to the hype. Absolutely stunning. We also met a local guy who was really friendly and agreed to be our guide for a day of touring the country side. We rented another scooter and followed him out to a nice cave with big stalactites and stalagmites. After that we drove through some local villages where we saw tons of kids on bikes many of which would wave excitedly at us. Eventually we made it to a swimming hole called the Blue Lagoon. It was a deep section of  river that had clear blue water with big fish (some of which bite!). There was a big tree above the area that people had attached swings to and added steps so you could climb up about 15 feet and jump into the water. It was a refreshing place to spend a hot day.

After the swimming we headed out to a nice waterfall that you could also swim under. We took a dip and then had lunch at a super local joint. Grilled fish, grilled eggs, sticky rice, papaya salad, and MSG covered crickets were our feast. Definitely an authentic meal. Our friend spoke very good English, but when I asked him what was on the crickets he struggled to answer. "It's like salt, but not. It gives food more flavor...and it gives Europeans cancer" was his response. From that we deduced it was MSG. We really enjoyed the sights, but more than that we enjoyed chatting with a local and learning about life in Laos. It was a great day.

The next day we took a 7 hour bus trip through some beautiful country side passing by many small villages. The road was rough and windy and we barely went faster than about 30 mph. There were constant blind corners that the bus driver would honk just before he went around and then hope for the best. Not to mention the numerous dogs, cats, pigs, cows, chickens, and children that had to be avoided. The driver managed to miss everything except for one poor dog that didn't get out of the way fast enough. We made it in one piece to Luang Prabang where we are now. We are headed tomorrow to an elephant sanctuary where we will spend the next 2 and a half days, then we will be back in Luang Prabang again to see the rest of the sites. We have some great pictures from the last few days but the internet here is super slow so I will have to add them later.