July 22
Vang Vieng, Laos
Thanks to an abundance of dramatic landscapes and a river that cuts through the heart of the town, Vang Vieng is one of the most picturesque locations imaginable. Beautiful limestone cliffs shoot up from the valley floor, rising hundreds of feet. These hills dominate the view from town, and play a critical role in both the traditional agriculture economy and the new tourist economy.
What was once a small village established in the 14th century to be a waystop between Luang Prabang and Vientiane has sprouted into a tourism Mecca. This is the first stop on my trip where there have been a noticeable amount of tourists. Surprisingly, the most common nationality of visitors I’ve encountered here are Koreans.
The dramatic landscape around Vang Vieng
There are enough Korean tourists that major Korean hospitality industry giants like Lotte and T-Mark have presence here. Many of the local restaurants and shops display menus and banners in Korean, and many traditional foods are available in the shops and restaurants.
In fact, Korean tourism is high enough in Vang Vieng that several times I was greeted in restaurants and shops not with the Lao “Saibadee” or English “Hello,” but with the Korean “Annyeonghaseyo.” Of course that reminds me that my outward appearance doesn’t match my inner voice, something that I actually forget most of the time.
Refreshingly devoid of US fast-food chains like McDonalds and KFC, Vang Vieng does have a Lotteria, a chain from Korea that is owned by Lotte Corporation
The tourism activities in Vang Vieng centers on “adventure” tourism. That includes things like kayaking on the Nam Song River, exploring the countryside on motorbikes or mountain bikes, and hiking up to viewpoints on top of the hills surrounding the town.
A plethora of natural caves have been carved into the limestone and many of these can be visited and traversed. There are many natural and man-made lagoons, each named “Blue Lagoon No. XX” that are available and open to visit and swim. The highest number I recall seeing is nine, but there well may be more.
View from Nam Xay Viewpoint. It is a steep, challenging ascent to reach, even though the trail is maintained with steps and handrails.
Other activities are designed to take advantage of the landscape. Weather permitting, Hot Air Balloons ply the air, as do parameter gliders. Charging around $100 USD for a 15-30 minute experience, the paramotors are expensive by Lao standards, even for adventures designed primarily for foreign visitors.
The Hot Air Balloons are similarly expensive, maybe more so. I saw many sunset/sunrise balloon rides being advertised in the $200 per passenger range. As would be obvious, all of these aerial activities are weather dependent. I booked a paramotor flight for one morning and it got completely rained out so I was able to fly that afternoon instead.
Even that afternoon flight was shortened and we couldn’t go as far into the valleys as originally planned because of a storm heading into Vang Vieng. Still, it was a thrilling experience and I would recommend it to anyone without too much fear of heights.
The view from a paramotor flight, with cliffs on the right and the Nam Song River winding through the valley.
Hiking up to the various viewpoints is a strenuous but worthwhile way of getting to see the cliffs and valleys in all their splendor. The climbs to the top are steep and the hot and humid weather are hinderances to many attempting to go up to the viewpoints.
Even though the paths are somewhat prepared, especially after a rain, the way is muddy and slippery. While I observed some people going up to the top in flip-flops, let’s just make it clear that isn’t the best way.
All of the viewpoints charge a nominal amount for entry, a little less than one US dollar. That allows you to park a car or motorcycle at the bottom and then work your way up the prepared path to the viewpoint. The viewpoints have platforms built that allow a panoramic vista. They also, invariably, have some sort of prop like a motorcycle, airplane, or statue so the Instagram Models of the world have something to post on their feeds.
As a side note, one of the viewpoints I visited, after being alone for about 30 minutes at the top, two young ladies showed up, proceeded to pull an entire makeup store out of their backpacks, and then applied a copious amount of makeup in order to pose at the viewpoint for cell-phone photos.
The airplane prop at the Horkham Hill Viewpoint.
A common theme with the climb up to the viewpoints is that they are strenuous. Because they climb four or five hundred feet in way less than half a mile, basically it’s like climbing up a 50 story building using rudimentary stairs and ladders that are slippery and can give way under the wrong footing. That sound fun, right?
Also, depending on which viewpoint and what time of day, you may have the viewpoint all to yourself, or you may have a huge number of Instagram Models, drone flyers, wanna-be body builders, and even random stray dogs as your company up at the top of a strenuous climb. I was fortunate because for two of my three viewpoint climbs I was completely alone either the entire time or for most of the time I was at the top.
Nam Xay viewpoint was the exception and it does seem to be pretty popular with large tour groups. It also has a restaurant and other facilities at the bottom, while the other viewpoints I visited did not.
The view from Silver Cliff viewpoint, where I was fortunate enough to be the only visitor the entire time I was there
I guess any travelogue about Vang Vieng should at least touch on the past debauchery of the town. For a period in the early 2000’s the reputation of Vang Vieng was that it was a no laws, no rules, hedonistic headquarters for North American and European twenty-somethings on their backpacking treks through Southeast Asia. Drugs and underage drinking were the norm, and one observer said Vang Vieng was like a world invented by teenagers without parental supervision.
That culminated, and realistically ended in about 2011 or 2012 when the government started cracking down on one of the most famous but dangerous activities, called “Tipsy Tubing.” There used to be upwards of 40 bars set up along side the Nam Song river, and visitors would float down the river and stop at as many of them as possible for beer, vodka, and whatever drugs were available. In 2011 alone there were two dozen drowning deaths of foreigners doing this stunt. The head of the local medical clinic said there were probably many more because a lot of untreatable fatalities were taken directly to Vientiane.
After the government started enforcing the drug and alcohol laws, things have mellowed considerably. The 40 bars on the river have dwindled to 5. The once numerous restaurants with “Happy Menus” or “Magic Menus” where you could order drug infused food items has dwindled to a couple.
Overall, it is possible to debauch if you wanted to seek it out, but most visitors today seem like they’re just here for today’s drug, taking Instagram pictures.
One of the few Happy Menus still available at a restaruant around town
Vang Vieng Gallery
Wat Kang, one of several temples in Vang Vieng
One of the views from my hotel
There's a rickety bridge that crosses the Nam Song River. It's clearly posted not to drive cars over the bridge, just motorcycles
A long boat heading upstream
Sometimes you encounter wildlife on the trail to a viewpoint
In Laos even the bugs are pretty
A view from a viewpoint where you can see other viewpoints to visit
Farmers working in a rice paddy
Rice paddies line the valleys between the cliffs
Another view from my hotel
Hot Air Balloons are in the sky during the cooler hours of the day
The morning market in Vang Vieng
Sometimes the road to a viewpoint hike gets a little wet. The poor guy in the picture waterlogged his engine
Everywhere the views are stunning
You can't get tired of admiring how beautiful everything is
It's like a framed picture
More rice paddies and cliffs
Panorama from town
Panorama from a Nam Xay viewpoint
Vang Vieng used to have a reputation of being sort of like the Wild West of backpacker culture. It's calmed down a lot.
Food carts are grouped into specific sections of town
Getting to fly on a paramotor was exhilarating
A religious parade through town, the police stopped traffic to let the procession through