Vang Vieng, the Moab, Utah, of Laos??

From Luang Prabang, we ventured southwards, via the spectacularly scenic Route 13, to Vang Vieng,  a very picturesque city of 30,000 folks.  It only took 5.5 hours to drive the 180 kilometers over a windy, pothole-filled mountainous road.

The busy outdoor activity scene here immediately brought to mind Moab, Utah, a Mecca for outdoor pursuits in America's Southwest.

Vang Vieng is an outdoor sports destination for many backpackers and adventurers.  Tubing and kayaking down the Nam Song river is hugely popular.  The cliffs around VV are gaining worldwide renown as a rock climbing destination.  Numerous caves throughout the area can be accessed via bicycle, scooters, or, as we did it, as a part of a caving/kayaking adventure. VV is also a mecca for backpackers and it certainly has that vibe. There were many bar/restaurants along that river that featured non-stop showing of "Friends", "South Park" and "Family Guy" as youngsters were relaxing wtih large Lao beers watching endless reruns.  A very strange scene indeed.

The Nam Song, as viewed from our hotel

There has been a tendency, after a day of drunken tubing down the river, for out-of-towners to parade around in violation of the rather conservative expectations of the Lao locals, Buddhists they are.

Much of the partying along the river has been curtailed, due to repeated injuries and deaths among foreign river tubers, 24 last year, in fact.


Just guessing, but perhaps the alcohol fruitshakes contribute to the problem in Vang Vieng.

But the river is an active scene of longboats, fishing boats, inner tubes, kayaks, and locals washing themselves and their laundry in the Nam Song.

A bicycle was our mode of transportation for exploring the river banks and inland cave areas.


As part of our river adventure, we sat on our inner tubes, turned on our headlamps, and pulled ourselves along the white ropes affixed to the walls of the cave, as seen below, and we disappeared, floating along the lake inside the cave.

Some caves had religious artifacts, serving as mini-temples, often sacred places for the locals.

Our Lao guide led us down the river.

At a break spot, the guides started playing a little footy ...

as Karen became friends with the checkers-playing guides.


And sometimes you just have to sit in the middle of a river... just because you can.

And there you sit, even as other kayakers pass on by ... .

Our Dutch paddling buddy, eager to get moving again down the river.

Tubes piled up on the riverbanks

as the tube occupiers whoop it up at one of the few remaining riverside bars.

We met some rowdy drunkards from Iceland who were rather impressed that we'd been to Iceland in the wintertime.

Aarrrrrr, matey, always good to see the Jolly Roger floating along.

After our river trip, we needed a couple, or three, cool ones.  (Why do I only have two hands????)

And in our spot of leisure, Karen finally saw Psy's "Gangnam Style" video, and we were entertained by South Park episodes playing on the tvs.  A bit surreal, really.

Biking everywhere we go.

Hot-air ballooning is a fairly new activity in VV, just taking off ... so to write.
Hee hee.

We absolutely liked Vang Vieng more than we thought we would, and we would return, no doubt about it.

But we left, for the beaches of Phuket, Thailand beckoned, yet we had to head through Vientiane, the capital of Laos, first.

Markets and Monks

Luang Prabang is rather famed for its night market.  Vendors with crafts, cloths, artwork, food, t-shirts with BeerLao logos, and a wide variety of purses, bags, pouches and other garments lay out their goods upon the ground, and the shoppers weave around the lines of goods.

This woman was offering this unbelievable buffet spread for about $1.50 a plate.

The day market butcher ...

and if you look closely, the flies on the day market butcher's fine slabs, chops and cuts of meat.  Yum.

We'd bicycle over this scooter and bikes-only bridge from our hotel into town.

After a strenuous uphill pedal, Karen liked a stuffed crepe, a local specialty.

To wash down the crepe, fruit smoothies were available at many stands.

It was sometimes difficult to choose between smoothie ingredients such as "honny", "remon" or "yoguert."

Of course, their was always the Scandinavian Bakery, with its Swedish Pizza.

To get out to a local waterfall, we rented a tuk-tuk.

On the way to the falls was a bear sanctuary, where sun bears were confiscated from poachers, and kept safe here.

The multi-tiered waterfalls here at Kuang Si were gorgeous.

One of the highlights of a visit to Luang Prabang is witnessing Tak Bat -- the daily procession of saffron-clad monks through the streets to receive alms. At dawn each day, the monks demonstrate their vows of poverty and humility while devote Buddhists gain spirituality through respectful giving. The Buddhists place bits of sticky rice in the monks' alms bowls.

In one of the pictures you will see small boys following the monks.  These boys are poor and come in from the local villages to beg for food from the monks.  It was amazing the see the turnout of people giving food to the monks who in turn would pass on some of their gifts to the less fortunate.

Kayaking the Nam Khan in Luang Prabang 

Departing Bangkok, we flew to Luang Prabang, Laos.  Luang Prabong is the former royal capital of Laos, situated between the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. While there are no 'major' historical or cultural sites, the town is really charming. Time passes slowly; monks stroll the streets; and backpackers are plentiful. However, it is not a party town as most everything shuts down by 11 p.m. French colonial influences are seen in the architecture and presence of French food.

Wherever we go, we like to find kayak touring opportunities, and this was a very fine trip down part of the Nam Khan.

Our companions on the trip were a couple from Trinidad and Tobago, currently residing in Saudi Arabia, as the husband is an executive jet pilot for Aramco.  With them were their daughter and her fiance, a fellow from Denmark who had been running nightclubs in London, and was soon returning to his hometown, just across the sea from my Norwegian relatives, Skagen, Denmark, with his bride-to-be, to run a bicycle shop.

We had a great paddle, and met some net fishermen on the river, amidst some very rustic sights.

In this post, we let the pictures tell the story.

Our guide led us to a Hmong village alongside the river.

Words are not needed, as the following images capture the beauty of the children we met in the village.

All kinds of young ones were running around.

Alas, we did not stop at this floating bar in the middle of the river, perhaps for the best, as you can see the owner lying asleep in the front of the vessel.

Around a bend, these elephants with their handlers were crossing the river.

This gentleman was on his cell phone, as he crossed the river with this elephant. This may be the best photo of the entire trip.  Or the most stunning clash between old and new.

Bye bye, our cute river friend. 

Next post, Luang Prabang night market, monks, and why I usually like to eat my rice, not drink it.