Vang Vieng, Laos

On the morning of June 5th we left Luang Probang, Laos, and boarded a bus to begin our journey to Vang Vieng, Laos. This bus ride was probably the scariest bus ride I’ve ever been on! The whole 6 hour drive was through the mountains of Laos, on curvy, bumpy roads. I could barely look out the window because when I did I would see a cliff drop about a meter away from the bus. I was shocked that they had no sort of barrier between the roads and the cliffs, especially on all the turns! The side of the road would just break off into a steep cliff… terrifying!

In addition to the scary cliffs, the ride was extremely bumpy. I’m pretty sure the shocks were removed from the bus, and the people at the back of the bus got some serious air time as they flew off their seats during some of the larger bumps.

If you disregard the terrifying nature of the cliffs, and the nauseating bumps and turns, the ride was actually one of the most beautiful rides I’ve taken. The mountains are gorgeous, and the views were amazing.

When we finally arrived in Vang Vieng, Laos I was pretty happy to be off the bus and on some stable ground! We would be in Vang Vieng for 2 nights, and the next day (June 6) was a free day where we had nothing planned and could spend it doing whatever we wanted!

Vang Vieng is a backpackers town, and the town caters almost entirely to the tourists. When you walk the streets all you can see are young tourists everywhere, and they are all here for one specific purpose: to go tubing down the Nam Song River. Tourists come from all over the world to participate in this activity. Basically imagine floating down the river in a tube (an inflatable round donut). Along the side of the river are bars, so as you float down the river the bar staff will throw you ropes and pull you into the bar and serve you buckets of free alcohol. There are areas with rope swings and zip lines, where you can swing and jump into the river. It’s basically one giant party.

Even though all of this sounds fun in theory, I decided not to participate. There are numerous deaths reported yearly, and many many injuries, some from people being extremely intoxicated and acting stupid, some from drowning, and quite a number from being smashed into rocks in the river. Our tour manager showed us a video of a guy who hit his head on a rock in the water. He cracked his skull open, and his friends had to shove tissue inside his skull to stop his brain contents from coming out. He had to be rushed to Canada for emergency surgery.

Instead of tubing, Kate and I decided to spend the day pampering ourselves! I woke up to the most beautiful view from our hotel:

I slept in, and then we went for traditional Laos 1 hour massages. After our massages we had manicures. It was very relaxing!

We then took some time to explore the town. There really isn’t much to the town. It has been totally taken over by young tourists, and it doesn’t appear that the town has a personality of it’s own. Because of the tourist take-over, there are specialized bars and restaurants with TVs dedicated to American TV shows. For example, there are a few restaurants with a number of TVs that constantly play episodes of Friends, other restaurants that are dedicated to the show Family Guy, etc. So tourists go to these restaurants, order food/drinks and sit for hours watching their favourite TV shows. It’s a strange phenomenon, these restaurants are everywhere here!

After exploring the town and relaxing at the hotel, we decided to go back to the spa and I had a 2nd massage, and Kate got some waxing done.

While I had my massage, Kate was a few meters away from me behind a curtain, getting her armpits waxed. For about half an hour all I could hear was giggling from the other side of the curtain. Lots and lots of giggling. I had no idea what was going on over there until Kate shared her experience with me after my massage. I’m not sure if this is a normal Laos waxing procedure, but basically when the wax didn’t work on her armpits, the ladies proceeded to pluck each and every hair from her armpits using tweezers, all while multiple ladies were bent over her inspecting her armpits to be sure they got every last hair. After the thorough hair removal plucking procedure, they spent a few minutes continually tickling her armpits with baby powder and giggling at her. The whole experience was pretty strange! And the crazy part is that she paid double for her procedure than what I paid for my massage (they were both under $10 CAN though)!

Apart from Kate’s strange waxing experience, Vang Vieng has been a very relaxing change from the normal action packed, busy days we’ve been having! We had the chance to take it easy, enjoy the scenery of the city, and spend some time pampering ourselves.