Vang Vieng: Hedonistic hell or backpacker paradise?

Vang Vieng, a small, riverside town halfway between Luang Prabang and Vientiane, has a somewhat formidable reputation as a crazy party town. It is somewhere you go and don’t remember what you did. A quick google of the town’s name will pull up reports and new stories of tourists dying in double-digit numbers annually. Then these are followed by reports of the Laotian government bulldozing the riverside bars, and the town as a result being a ghost town. When reviewed by fellow travellers, everyone either raves about what a ‘blast’ they had, or they hate it from the moment they step off the bus.

It was a town I was eager to see for myself.

It certainly has the looks.

In my last blog, I recounted how I went tubing and loved it, but even whilst tubing, the fun was soured by the attitude of locals towards tourists.

That experience is roughly analagous to my experiences in Vang Vieng as a whole. It is a beautiful, fascinating little town, but it is clear that some of the locals resent what their town has become, and all of them seem to see tourists not as fellow humans but as money bags to be squeezed.

The villagers do have some right to feel the way they feel. They have watched their town change from a sleepy, provincial town into a tourist mecca. Everyday, they have to deal with drunk, obnoxious backpackers dressing inappropriately; leaving rubbish everywhere; vomiting in the street; and treating the locals as mere staff. Is it little wonder that the locals are far from welcome when the main street in Vang Vieng has been degraded and turned into a row of souvenir shops, sexy massage parlours, and restaurants screening endless loops of Friends re-runs.

Vang Vieng at times feels almost sad because of what has happened to it, and it is used as an example across South East Asia of how not to embrace tourism.

My experiences of the town were definitely mixed.

My first impression was decidedly not favourable when I found out that the bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, a 4-5h journey, that cost me 120000K (£10). For that money, I have just bought a ticket for an overnight, twelve hour sleeper train taking me 651km across Thailand. The return trip to Luang Prabang cost only 50000K. Annoying.

Conversely we got a brilliant deal on the private twin room Niko and I stayed in. 40000K (£3.20) each for a big room with AC and a balcony. Amazing.

I strangely liked the town itself. It had a slightly dystopian feel, and because of the low season, it felt lonely and a little sad in places.

There were of course the famous restaurants playing Friends on repeat to seemingly permanent denizens lolling on cushions and mats. It should have been depressing, but I actually enjoyed spending a couple of hours at one of these restaurants. I got zero blogging done, but I hadn’t seen Friends for years, and enjoyed the blast-from-what-is-now-a-long-way-in-the-past.

You can just see Friends on the TV screens.

On my first afternoon in the town, after my sejourn at the Friends restaurant, Niko and I did some exploring of the town. There were a lot of food stalls, a lot of empty bars, and a lot of souvenir stalls. Standard tourist fare. We were both in search of a barber, which we fully found. Niko needed hair removing from the side of his head, and I needed a shave. Again, there were language barriers, so I had to have all the hair removed, and then I must have agreed to the wrong thing, because I ended up with my face being shampoo’d, and then massaged. I was in a complete state of blind bewilderment with the sound of Niko sniggering in the background.

I am never letting a teenager near my face with a blade again!

That evening we found a restaurant near the hostel, and had some acceptable tom sam. Only acceptable though. Laos can’t make papaya salad to save its life. After food, we headed to a bar where we were offered and declined the drug menu, and only then offered the drinks menu. We stuck to discounted mojitos, gave up trying to make friends with some guys from our hostel, and headed back to the hostel.

The sunset in Vang Vieng.

The following day was taken with tubing, which was again a mixed bag but overall a good experience, which I think can be a summary of Vang Vieng. A mixed bag, and not as easily lovable as Luang Prabang, but still overall somewhere I was glad I visited.

Well...that was until our final morning in Vang Vieng, when this happened…

Picture is awful, but it should show a cracked phone screen.

But that’s a story for the next blog.

DSP




Useful Information:
Accomodation: We stayed at Easy Go Guesthouse. It has some terrible reviews, but our room in the new block was brilliant. Private rooms with AC cost 80000K per night.
Barber: If you want to be scalped by someone half your age, the barber stop is on the N-S road running through the town, across the road from Wat That.