VANG VIENG - Vientiane, Laos
Vientiane, Laos
Vangvieng We had managed to get ourselves on to a "VIP" bus to Vangvieng, although we paid for a regular one. The VIP bus isn't all that different to a regular one, maybe a little bit more leg room and ever so slightly comfier seats. The bus journey was fairly uneventful until it's latter stages as we made our way through the mountains of Laos. We were apparently eighteen kilometres from our destination. The roads had straightened out a bit on our approach to Vangvieng, the four of us were doing our own thing. I was reading my book and had got to a particularly important part. All of sudden the whole coach aggressively tilted to its right side, there was a large bang that accompanied the sudden movement. A few brief shrieks could be heard from a few of our fellow passengers as the bus abruptly ground to holt. Dust filled the air due to the force of the bump, it covered the print in which I was reading. I wiped it away and continued to read whilst everyone looked round frantically. I was perfectly aware of what had happened having experienced a blown out tyre on a number of occasions and the commotion wasn't enough to steer me away from my literature. Eventually we were all ushered from the bus and my initial thoughts were confirmed. One of the back tyres was ripped to shreds, bits of it lay everywhere. We all sat on the bank of the road whilst the driver used a large branch and substantial rocks as a jack to change the tyre. We did eventually make it to Vangvieng, we got a tuc tuc to "Central Backpackers" the place where Jamie was staying!! He had split off from Aengus with the intentions of doing Laos as he had missed it due to his impromptu visit home! We booked into to a four bed room, once again it was a welcome change to take a break from staying in a dorm. We didn't do a lot that night, I didn't really leave the hostel after checking in. Mash, Matt and Jamie went out and had a look round the town for a few hours. I stayed in our room with Will, he was in a bad way, he said his stomach felt like a Ferris wheel and to back up this symptom he spent most of his time in the bathroom. I managed to stay awake until the lads returned home, but was asleep not long after. I awoke to a glorious day, which was perfect as we had planned to do the well known activity of "tubing". If you are not aware of what tubing is, it basically consists of renting out a small rubber tube and floating down a river in it, stopping off at bars along the away and getting very very drunk. We had a big breakfast to line our stomach and then went about finding the place to rent tubes. Within an hour we were on a tuc tuc with our rubber tubes on the roof rack. The tuc tuc took us down a dirt road to the edge of the river, the first bar was immediately to our left. We put our tubes down and got our first drinks. The bar was completely uncovered, it consisted of a large sandy playing field on which you could play volley ball, football, beer pong and Beersbie. We tried to create the classic game of Beersbie that we had experienced in Halong Bay, as much as we enjoyed it, it wasn't the same. We had a base group of seven of us, the four Prestonians, Jamie, Sam (the lad with the incredible moustache) and a lad from Chile named Petro. We stuck together through out our tubing experience. I was getting stitched with the Beersbie and I could feel myself peaking far too soon so after a while I decided to sit it out. Me and Mash then thrashed some rather annoying "tubing reps" at beer pong, bringing them down a peg or two in the process. Then we headed to the second bar, whilst the first seemed to be a good bar to get to know people, the second had more of a party scene. We jumped in our tubes and the current of the river gently carried us to our next "watering hole". As we neared the bar I realised I was too far away from the bank and I was quickly floating past. Fortunately some random girl had seen me and threw me a rope and pulled me in. I was very appreciative as I didn't want to miss out on all the fun! A basketball court sat in the middle of the bars grounds, with water spraying out of the top of the backboard, making it difficult for anyone who tried to play. There were limbo poles and a big stage in which everyone danced on, details did start to become hazy for me at this bar, it was only about 16:00 but we were all well on our way. Will kept a close eye on us though, his illness held him back from drinking somewhat, so it was good to have a sober head around us. Mash was on top form making me laugh with his hilarious remarks through out they day. I remember having a fair few drunken conversations, the alcohol lubricating the banter, allowing it to flow better in a non confrontational way with people you didn't know. We then made our way to the third bar, I don't remember much of this bar, I danced on a platform with a load of people, Jamie was with me. Sam and Petro were mellowed out around a fire. Will, Mash and Matt were playing pool I think, I just know I was having a good time. I could feel myself getting tired though, like I normally do when enduring an all dayer my body starts to slow down at around 19:00. I made it back to the centre of Vangvieng and our group was still pretty much intact we went back to the hostel to clean ourselves up but I found myself finally FaceTiming my Mum instead, as well as a few other people. The fact I was drunk didn't seem to bother her, I think she was just glad to be finally having a catch up. I did make it back out eventually, I didn't know where the lads had gone so I sat down in the hostel bar and had a few beers whilst chatting to a German Engineer (who was very efficient) and a Dutch history teacher! I spoke to her about colonisation and how it broke down before and after the Second World War, it got pretty heavy and whilst I was enjoying the conversation it didn't really suit my mood. I eventually found the lads as I walked out the hostel. They were all really tired, we just wandered round for a bit in a half drunken daze. The aches and pains of the previous weeks activities started to break through the anaesthetic of the Beerlao so I decided to go for a massage. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep once or twice whilst the masseur worked on my bruised limbs but by the end I felt a bit better and slightly more rejuvenated. I left the massage parlour with every intention of heading to bed, but I realised I'd completely forgot where our hostel was. As I tried to get my bearings I noticed a piece of insignia that I'm very familiar with, it's the "insoc" insignia as described in my favourite book of all time, George Orwell's 1984. It was the sign for a bar called "Room 101" (a very significant part of the book) I felt compelled to go in due it's theme and name. I walked into a very small and completely empty club, a well built man stood behind the bar he was bald and must have been in his late twenties. The only other person in the room was his brother who was behind some raised DJ decks. I was too close to the bar to make an exit without it being awkward so I ordered a small Beerlao and got chatting to the barman, who also turned out to be the owner. He had been an English literature student at a red brick university (I can't remember which one), who had lost his way after gaining his qualification. He and his brother had somehow ended up in Laos with a lot of cash (the circumstances seemed a bit suspicious) so he decided to open a club and chose a theme that was close to his heart. I got the impression he was a bit of a tortured genius, a man who was so intelligent he had struggled to comprehend and come to terms with life, ultimately making him quite eccentric in a strange sort of way. I enjoyed speaking to him but I was glad to leave, the theme matched Orwell's description of Room 101 very well which was quite eerie. Half an hour later I was sat in my boxers whatsapping various people in the corridor (it was the only place the wifi worked). I don't remember going to bed but that's where I woke up the next morning. I would like to put a little footnote beneath this paragraph. We all had an amazing time tubing. It was a great day. However, there has been a recent clamp down on tubing by the Laos government. Various rumours have made the rounds as to why they have done this, the death of an Australian senators son, tubing run by the Mafia, man made slides that would paralyse people. I do think safety whilst tubing should be monitored closely but I can't help thinking it would have been so much better if the original fourteen bars that lined the riverbanks were still there. The days of early tubing are talked about as though it's legend amongst the more seasoned backpackers. I think it would boost the economy of the local area and create jobs for the residence Vangvieng, providing it was monitored and run properly. There was an initial hour of feeling ill when I awoke, but as I finished my breakfast the last of my hangover wriggled from my head and I felt ok. We said our goodbyes to Jamie, he was heading up to the North of Laos, hitting Luang Prabang on the way. The four us were joined by Sam and Petro for the day. We made the hour walk out of town and up to some caves, whilst I didn't think it was a wasted journey, the caves were pretty standard. It was well lit and the path had been cut out of the rock to form a very smooth pavement. We then got a tuc tuc out to the "blue lagoon". It wasn't what we had envisaged, rather than a vast field of water surrounded by high mountains, it was a small but deep stream, with a mini outdoor complex built beside it. We spent our first hour playing football-volleyball which was fun. Once we had finished our game we went too cool off in the stream itself. A large tree stood on the bank of the stream and it's thick branches hung over the deep shade of blue that was the stream. The first branch couldn't have been anymore than 5 feet from the surface of the stream but the higher one must have been around 6 metres! I did eventually pluck up the courage to do this jump, as per usual in these situations, it felt a lot higher once you were up there and when you did jump, your journey to the water felt like a long time. We headed back at around 18:00 and spent the rest of the night eating and watching "Friends" in a bar. For some reason all the bars have episodes of "friends" on repeat which I found quite strange for the duration of my stay in Vangvieng. At midnight we got our bus to Vientianne and thundered through the night, within 5 hours we would be heading the furthest South any of us had ever been, we would be heading to Malaysia!