We crossed the border into Laos and then headed south to 4000 Islands (Si Phan Don) via Savannakhet and Pakse, both of which were really nice towns that we were really only in long enough for dinner and a walk along the riverfronts. We spent three days on Don Khon island in Si Phan Don, which is a unique area of the Mekong where the river is flattened out before a series of waterfalls resulting in a ton (well, supposedly 4000) islands in the river. We spent our time walking and riding bikes on the dirt roads and trails on the island among the rice paddies and stilt houses, visiting the waterfalls and beaches around the island, enjoying the riverside restaurants, and reading books on the porch of our bungalow. Brian really enjoyed the hammock on our bungalow’s porch. The highlight of the three days was probably the boat ride we took out to see the Irrawaddy Dolphins, an endangered freshwater species of dolphin that has pods in the Mekong in Kratie, Cambodia and around 4000 Islands. We hired a rickety boat which weaved us through little islands and rapids to a viewing point in the river where we could watch the dolphins surfacing for air (from a fair distance…spotting them was half the game). From where we were watching, we were as close to Cambodia’s mainland as we were to Laos’…it seemed like we could just swim there if we wanted. We enjoyed a beautiful sky on the boat ride back as the sunset.
After 4000 Islands, we made our way up to Laos’ capital, Vientiane. This has definitely been the quietest major Southeast Asian city we’ve been to. Not much traffic, not many people, and probably more temples than high-rises. Usually I wouldn’t call our experiences in the city “relaxing”, but I’d have to say our couple days in Vientiane were pretty chill. We walked the riverfront, went to the Laos Museum of Natural History, and toured a temple that had an impressive number of Buddha’s, even compared to all the Buddhas we have seen in SE Asia so far (they claimed there were over 10,000). The most interesting part of our time in Vientiane was our visit to COPE, an organization that supports victims of unexploded ordinance (UXO) by providing artificial limbs and rehabilitation. Laos is the most bombed country per capita – the USA dropped something like the equivalent of one load of B-52 bombs on this country every 8 minutes for 9 years during the Vietnam war. Unfortunately, many of these were cluster bombs, and it’s estimated that as many of 78 million of those bombs didn’t explode upon impact. They still have not been able to clear all the UXO even today, so over the last 40 years civilians have been the victims of these bombs. Apparently a lot of the bombies are colorful and may look like a toy to a kid (you can imagine where that’s going), and they also discussed how there is a lucrative market for scrap metal in SE Asia, and whether it’s ignorance, or willingness to take the risk, a lot of people are people are maimed or killed either in the search for scrap metal (bombies buried along side other scrap) or actually attempting to take apart the bombies for scrap. Although a sobering subject, we learned a lot, and have found yet another cause in SE Asia (clearing UXO!) that we want to support.
Our next stop in Laos was the now internationally renowned Vang Vieng. Apparently once a lazy riverside tourist destination where you could go for a relaxing tubing ride down the Nam Song river in the midst of some of Laos’ most beautiful scenery and rural culture, it is now absolutely not a destination to experience the local cultural aspects of this country. Rather it is a very interesting place to get to know the culture of a very common ethnic group in the world today: the twenty-something-Western-drinking-and-partying tribe. This ethnic group is very common on the college campuses and bar districts of America, Canada, and Europe, but has also migrated in mass numbers to this one random destination in Southeast Asia. Here, this group has mixed itself with the entrepreneurial spirit and economic drive of the local Laotian people of Vang Vieng. We were very impressed with the Laotian’s exploitation of these Western-partiers and the income generating machine they have created out of a lazy river.
Here is the scene: A beautiful riverside town surrounded by huge limestone karsts and mountains. The town is now a booming village lined with guesthouses, bars, and restaurants. Most restaurants are equipped with multiple flat-screen TV’s that play Friends episodes non-stop (a few are now showing The Family Guy). Young twenty-somethings roam the streets in swimsuits and bikinis (nice!) despite all of the signs asking everyone to cover up with respect to the local culture (ok, not that nice). (Note: In case you were wondering, Elise was not admiring the bikinis. Rather Brian continued writing this blog entry at Vang Vieng…) You rent a tube for the day and a tuk tuk takes you to the drop-off point in the river where you then proceed to float down the river that is lined with bar-after-bar, most equipped with loud music, rope swings, diving boards, water slides, volleyball nets, mud wrestling pits, etc. Despite the fact that we are married thirty-somethings, we had see what this was all about. At a minimum, the people-watching was going to be spectacular.
Since the crowd doesn’t hit the river until the afternoon (hung over from the previous day), we picked up our tubes after lunch and headed out. Here is the first example of the Laotian’s exploitation of the western drinking culture: the cost of the tube. The sticker price for a day’s tube rental is 55,000 kip ($6.90) and includes transportation upstream. Sounds reasonable. Then – in theory – you float back to town and return your tube. Here is the “fine print:” the tube rental is 55,000 kip if your return your tube by 6pm. You have to pay an additional deposit of 60,000 kip ($7.50). If you return your tube after 6pm but before they close at 8:30pm you get 40,000 of your 60,000 kip deposit back. They say you have to return your tube that day so I’m assuming if you miss 8:30 you lose the full deposit, but I’m not totally sure what happens then. I went to college for engineering so I should have been able to do the math and known that a 6pm tube return is clearly impossible when you are talking about a two to three hour float down the river and add a bar scene in the mix. 8:30pm had to be nearly impossible as well, but we were blinded by this unique international cultural experience of which we were about to partake and therefore overlooked those details.
We were dropped off upstream and ushered towards the river and loud booming music of the nearby bars. Immediately before we reached a bamboo bridge that took us across the river to the first bar, we were greeted by a young Laotian whose appearance made him look like he might be a Bob Marley wannabe. He was handing out free shots of Lao Lao whisky. After crossing the bridge, an Australian kid gave us another shot while helping to promote a club in town that night. And that is how our Vang Vieng tubing experience began. There are no scandalous details worth providing in this blog post. It was really just one big bar and party that we probably would have enjoyed more 10 years ago. But we did have a great time in the sun on the river watching inebriated westerners be washed down on tubes from bar to bar, and hanging out with a few of the more mature participants of the tubing experience. One major disappointment: no one was using the rope swings I had heard so much about and was looking forward to. The rumor had it that someone had recently died and the government very recently banned them. I looked on the internet and cannot yet confirm that story. However, I am not surprised that there are likely some safety issues as the rope swings were ginormous and looked dangerously fun! Given the combination of a swift current, shallow waters, binge drinking, and available drugs, I can’t imagine the amount of injuries or deaths that occur. Maybe tubing Vang Vieng is nature’s way of weeding out the weak members of our Western society.
Six o’clock passed quickly and we had not really even tubed more than a few hundred yards downstream. Around dusk, we decided that we should probably start floating back to town. Not that the tube deposit was a considerable sum of money, but after a few whisky buckets and some of the most expensive beers in Southeast Asia, it felt wrong to lose the full tube deposit. Immediately after disembarking, we could hear the faint voices of British-accented female voices pleading us to come join yet another party on the other side of the river. We could not see the party or who was calling to us, but they sounded attractive. I only provide this detail to illustrate how if you are a twenty-something year old single guy, this tubing experience probably could be construed (or perhaps misconstrued) as one of your greatest experiences of all time. But of course I am very happily married to Elise for five years now and did not follow the mysterious sexy voices coming from the darkness of the other side of the river. Rather we found ourselves floating in the pitch dark of night towards town.
Tubing down the river at night in the middle of Laos was a very peaceful experience. We could see the outlines of the massive limestone cliffs that were sparkling with the small lights of fireflies and lit up by lightning somewhere way off in the distance. Every time we heard rapids coming close, it was a little nerve racking not knowing how big they were going to be. But in the end they always ended up pretty tame. As time ticked by, it started to become painfully obvious that the river was not moving fast enough to make the 8:30 return time. Every so often we could see lights on the river banks ahead hoping it was town only to be disappointed by more darkness afterwards. To make things more interesting, the lightning was now getting closer in a coming storm. This brings us to the next brilliant exploitation of this whole scenario by the local Laotians. Every so often a tuk-tuk driver would magically appear with a spotlight on the side of the river trying to sell an over-priced ride back to town. After passing a few of these tuk-tuk offers up, we realized we needed to book the ride. Luckily at this point we had run into a group of fellow tubers and were now travelling in a large floating island. With strength in numbers somehow we managed to negotiate a fair price back to town. I don’t think this particular tuk-tuk driver realized how much leverage he had on us: how much were we all willing to pay to get $5 per tube of our deposit back? With three minutes to spare, we rolled up to the tube rental shack and salvaged a few bucks back on the day.
Vang Vieng was interesting to see, but from talking to those who have been there in the past, and from what we witnessed, it is completely out of control. Tourists bused in directly from Thailand, walking down the streets in swim-suits like it is a beach, drunken, injured from being drunk, etc. Likely this whole scenario provides some good and much-needed income to the local town, but in our opinion, the situation is out of control. We can tell this behavior by tourists has become the norm by the level of service we received there. Rather than being greeted with a smile and enjoying some good cultural interaction in a beautiful setting, we felt like we were just tolerated by the locals. It felt like spring break out of control in this conservative country. We had a good time tubing, definitely enjoyed the Friends re-runs, had a great time exploring the countryside by mountain bike the day after tubing, and hopefully did not contribute to any of the cultural debauchery. However, from what we read and hear, I think that for us, we would have enjoyed the Vang Vieng of 5+ years ago much more.
We next moved on to Luang Prabang, probably the cultural capital of Laos and considered one of the most romantic destinations in Southeast Asia. It is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains and on the banks of the Mekong River. We toured a few wats (though at this point they are all starting to look the same), took a Laos cooking course, and visited a beautiful nearby waterfall complete with turquoise swimming areas, a rope swing, and an Asian Sun Bear rescue center. And of course, enjoyed Laos massages. In the cooking course, unlike every other course or activity we have done so far, we were not the only or one of the only American participants. In a weird freak of nature, our cooking course had nine participants, all of which were Americans, and all engineers or with related degrees. Elise and I were by far the oldest, though, as it seems like the average traveler age in Laos today is 23. Definitely good to see a few more Americans out visiting the rest of the world.
Laos has been nice. It is ultra-chill and a place where you simply relax. However, we think it has changed in the recent years because, with the exception of 4000 Islands, we have felt a little like we are travelling in a tourist theme park. We’re hoping to see a little more rural Laos and do some trekking up in the northern part of the country. We spent several days in Muang Ngoi Nua, a roadless river village accessed by boat only and electricity from generators only from 6pm to 10pm. That place was super-chill! More on that and the rest of our time in Laos in the next blog post.
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