Third trip to Vang Vieng (3 hours north of Vientiane by car) and we finally got around to doing some of the Vang Vieng "Must-dos": tubing and dune-buggying.
We went with a large group this time, including Nick's cousin and her friend who were visiting from the States on their way across SE Asia.
Needless to say, we did Vang Vieng the backpacker way, which included drinking crappy alcohol and staying up wayyyyy later than I am used to-
Many of the backpackers going through Vang Vieng stay there for many weeks, working at bars or organic farms in exchange for room and board. They also party all day/ all night.
Friday we left work early, got to Vang Vieng in time for dinner, and went to a couple incredibly sketchy/ dive-y bars. Then a bunch of us headed to the "Jungle Party" that is a weekly event right outside of the "downtown" area, which opens at midnight, after the bars close. We got there at midnight and were among the first 20 people.
It had a DJ. He played House. Since I am no longer a European club-goer and have never been a raver, I am somewhat over the House scene. When I requested some Latin music, the DJ nodded and said he had some coming up. He lied.
Sobriety at it's finest. Also, no idea who the guy on the right is... he just showed up and jumped in the picture.
The next morning, this happened. (Wes came in, either drunk or super hungover, and took over my side of the bed before Nick had even gotten up)
Then six of us headed to the dune-buggy rental shop- pretty much anyone can rent a dune-buggy for 100,000kip an hour (in exchange for either passport/ driver's license). We got three, and headed out of town to the waterfalls.
On the way to the waterfall, most of the roads are dirt, and incredibly dusty. Wes and James came upon this puddle, and went around. Allison and Mary went most of the way around, but got a bit on themselves and the buggy. Nick and I looked at each other, I yelled "WHOOOOOOOO!" and threw my hands up, and we tore right into the puddle.
"WRONG DECISION! WRONG DECISION!" Nick yelled, as the mud- which turned out to be hot liquefied cow poop, rained down on us, getting in our hair, our mouths, and all over our bodies.
As I started laughing hysterically, Nick alternated between apologizing profusely and muttering "That was a bad idea... That was the most disgusting thing that has ever happened to me..."
We cleaned off at the waterfall, clouds of cow poop floating down the water off of our clothing, our hair...
After the waterfall hike we drove the dune-buggies north of town, through a small village. Once the small dirt path got even smaller, we turned around, and our wheels spun a bunch of new, fresh cow poop onto ourselves. As I freaked out, a village woman came out from her small house on stilts and started laughing her butt off.
Since tubing is synonymous with lost sunglasses, we bought some crappy ones in Vang Vieng. 30,000kip/ $4 each and we still got ripped off...
As there is no safe place to keep your phone while tubing, I left mine at the hotel room. Tubing was AWESOME, although mostly just an excuse for a bunch of smelly backpackers to get around and day drink. The actual "time-in-tube" was probably only 25 minutes, even though we were "on the water" (aka "at a series of bars") for over 3 hours.
The tube rental place writes your "rental number" on your hand in blue permanent marker (which- Nick found out the next morning- can easily rub off onto your hotel sheets). You also get bracelets from each of the bar- and free shots. But after the jungle party the night before, I skipped out on the free shots. Yuck.
Late night tuber- you're supposed to return the tube before 6pm. This photo was taken at 11pm.
Friends cafes are awesome. There are at least nine in Vang Vieng- you get a drink or some (crappy) food, then hang out and watch Friends all day. Super relaxing.
The next day we went back to the Blue Lagoon (mentioned in previous posts) and showed the girls the caves, and had a quick lunch at Sae Lao, this volunteer hotspot/ restaurant/ organic farm. So many cats...
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