Vang Vieng

So there is this little town in Laos called Vang Vieng. Hugging the Nam Song river, surrounded by beautiful mountains and practically in the middle of nowhere it has become this sort of massively popular party town. It's quite surreal really, there are a million little bar restaurants where you can get mostly western food (read: pizza) and for whatever reason watch Friends. Yes, that crappy TV show. It appears that the Lao think that westerners are beer guzzling, pizza eating, marijuana smoking, crappy sitcom watching people. While, admittedly, this is not so far off, the idea of a place like Vang Vieng is, for many westerners, hell on earth. I was weary about going but was in serious need of some party. See, unlike most of South America where even the smallest little shit town is likely to have an all night rumba, South East Asia closes early and parties seldom (outside of the major tourist areas of course). So we headed out.

Most people go tubing in Vang Vieng -- yes, apple river style tubing. You get a tube at about 11am, float down the river and get drunk and at various riverside bars. They throw out bamboo sticks, reel you in give you free shots and encourage you to go on their massive, dangerous rope swings and zip lines into the river. Needless to say, many people come back severely drunk and hurt. Apparently, some people have actually died -- getting too drunk and drowning in the river. But like any third world country desperate for tourist's cash there are no safety regulations and no one even suggesting that massive amounts of alcohol, 20 foot high rope swings and dangerous rapids might not go together so nicely. But in the end, I'm glad a place like Vang Vieng exists -- get in, have fun, get out. Though it saddens me when I meet people who waste 2 weeks of their month long trip to SE Asia in a place like Vang Vieng. It seems like such a waste; I think we'd all be better off if they'd just go to Wisconsin.

Laos is more expensive than Thailand. This is relative of course -- I mean, I'm still spending well under $20 a day. It's also a little less touristy but not by much. You also get charged for EVERYTHING. For the first time in my life I've actually paid to walk (not drive) across a bridge. Ridiculous -- seriously, I could have waded through the river. The local currency is the Kip. You get about $8,800 kip to the dollar making transactions extra fun. Plus the biggest bill they have is a 50,000 kip. This "large" bill has apparently just been introduced. They celebrate this achievement by posting billboard adverts all over the country. It's like "yay! inflation!" Obviously, I'm a bit annoyed by the wad of cash stuffing up my pocket that equals about two dollars. But anyway, hows the states? I hear it's cold!