Fourteenth Stop→VANG VIENG
Vang Vieng is a small town located between the Capital Vientiane and the historic Luang Prabang. The city became quite famous in recent years due to its Tubing activities; many backpackers (especially from Australia) came to Vang Vieng to float down the Nam Song river in big tubes taken from old truck tires. On the way, they would stop at the countless bars set up on the river to drink some alcohol or consume even stronger drugs. As this kind of behaviour let to many injuries and even deaths among the backpackers, the Laotian government decided to shut down all of the bars and forbade the consuming of alcohol while tubing in October 2012. So when Yui and I went there, we experienced tubing as a relaxed and quiet activity and very different from what it must have been a few years ago.
From the start, which is located around 3 km outside of Vang Vieng, it takes around 3 hours by tube to reach the town as the current of the river isn't that strong most of the time. The scenery on the way is very beautiful as it consists of karst hills and green forests. On one of the pictures you can see the last remaining bar serving beer and food to passing by tubers.
The city of Vang Vieng isn't that interesting and mostly consists of hostels, guesthouse, bars and restaurants all serving the same food (burgers and not very good Asian food) while broadcasting old episodes of Friends or South Park on big tv screens. The surrounding area is more rural however and can be enjoyed in many different ways.
After Vang Vieng, the next stop of Yui's and my journey was Luang Prabang. I got sick on our first day there however (I partly blame the bad food in Vang Vieng . . .) and had to stay at our guesthouse most of the time. Therefore, the next entry won't be about Luang Prabang as I didn't take any pictures there but about Chiang Mai in Thailand which we visited after. See you☆彡