the bus ride to van vieng is a long and windy road that goes through the crux of the mountains of Laos. Every turn provides epic views of endless countryside and mountains. A beautiful gorgeous ride where it's nicer to stay awake than keep your eyes closed.
On my mini bus were 2 German guys, a cezch, an old German man, charlie from wales, an Argentinian girl, and myself. The min van had a USB audio player and although we couldn't read the screen and could only put soya on once allowed us to listen to some of the chezhs music from his laptop. Nirvana and some jazz were nice for the first 2 hours but the playlist repeated About 4 times and although I didn't mind, later on in the trip any mention of nirvana brought about groans and sighs of agony. At some point of the trip as well I realized tha I had forgotten my sandals at the hostel. I was barefoot and didn't realize it until one of our rest stops. More annoyed at myself than anything I planned to send a message to my friend Coleen when I got into town and ask her to bring them with her when she departed the nex day. I was not concerned, just annoyed i had to put on socks.
On the way we pulled over to the side of the road numerous times to use natures restroom but one time while i was sleeping I awoke to everyone out of the van around the sides. apparently a strange noise made them stop. Nothing seemed appearent until after a few minutes someone closed the sliding door and let out a wild aspiration of laughter...r amazement... or startlement. Staring back was a hole the size of a dinner plate in the tire. Completely unusable I wondered how long we had driven with it as such.
About an hour later with a semi deflated spare tire we continued our journey. The semi deflated tire made no difference to our driver and he kept right at it pedal to the floor.
In an attempt to make up time he drove ridiculously fast and used his strange sounding horn incessantly to warn people of his arrival. Winding around curves where peoples homes and villages were he just laid on the horn and kept on trucking. Nearly delegging a baby cow, more than one chicken was not so lucky.
When we arrived in van vieng we were dropped off a the spicy Laos hostel. As usual it was fully booked so we continued on to find another place. In an extremely lucky and suprisngly easy turn of events we were able to find beds for all 7 of us for only 15k Kip each. When we had started walking down the road I had almost broken off from the group but had decided to stick with it for a little bit. Our guesthouse had an amazing view and was operated by Thai immigrants from chaing Mai. The youg guy and his aunt were very friendly and helpful and everything worked out well.
To relax we all sat at a bar overlookingthe beautiful limestone rock in front of us and enjoyed a cold beer Lao as the sun set over the mountain. After traveling and finding a hostel there's not often a better feeling than a cold beer and traveling tales with new friends in a new place. We talked about what we wanted to do while in vv and made some extremely rough plans. We watched the sun set from the restaurant /bar before grabbing dinner down the road in the center of the city.
not a bad view from the restaurant^
Charlie had been to vv last week so he was our resident tour guide and it seemed like whatever he said the group followed. I broke off alone for dinner so I could email my friend and find cheaper grub ( wifi, fried rice, and a pineapplemango shake for 20k Kip) I met up with them as they were finishing and we made plans to check out the town and a few bars later that night after a little downtime. That night we had spent the night by an awesome bonfire surrounded by bamboo huts with hammocks in them. I think when I get home i want to build a bambook like hut of somekind somewhere and put a hammock in it. seriously. im gonna do it.
The next day we spent adventuring around VV. Not wanting to go tubing quite yet, the older German man, myself, and the Argentinian got super lost in the woods and fjorded a river to find our way back. i kid you now. we held our bags over our heads and fjorded a river. fjorded is an awesome word. anyway it was a great adventure and it ended at a bar with some delicious fried rice. while at the bar we met a bartender from the night before who was messing around with his ipod. I offered to play him a little something and i think i saw his head grow 2 sizes as he heard my damian marley jamrock dubstep mix. he went wild for it and told me if i came to his bar that night and played some of my music he would hook me up. hmm. tough decision dude. ill have to check my schedule.
vickey the argentinian^
After our adventure we went to unwind at the hostel and took a little nap. I spent some time making a playlist of about 9 tracks i thought the bar would like and headed over for dinner and drinks and to play my mix. It was a chilled out reggae-esque bar but i knew they had a killer soundsystem so i wanted to give them some womp but i knew i would have ease into it When I got to the place i was discouraged to find out that the guy i had talked to wasnt coming in that night because he had gone too hard the night before and just went to sleep. I was a little bummed but when the waiter saw a little distress he asked me why I cared. I told him about the track i wanted to play him and he grabbed it out of my hands and took it to the dj. For the next 45 minutes or so I felt like king of the flipping universe. Im not kidding. I was on cloud nine. no cloud ten. I could see everyone in the bar swaying to the music and i could tell everyone was into it. I thought the high point was when 2 seperate people went over to take a picture of the ipod to see the name of the song but the real high point came when Bassnectar's - Maximum reverbed through the speakers. I was nervous about the tempo of the song but i led into it well. They were proper speakers and when the bassline hit it was heavy and hard but not in your face and everyone was super into it. The argentinian girl turned to me, just smiled, and told me that I owned everyone right then...everyone loved it. I sipped my pineapple mango smoothie and just soaked everyone in. life is good man. life is damn good.
That night we went to another bar on "smile island" that had a bigger fire but also a way more crowded atmospher that wasnt quite as nice. the next day we would take on tubing.
Ok in the first part of this post I didnt really describe life in van vieng very well. its a crazy crazy place. too crazy actually. i dont even feel i can do it justice on here and i dont think i want to try. while fun for a day or two its a dangerous place to get stuck in and i met many people who came for a few days and a few weeks or even in some cases months were still ignoring reality and just going wild the entire time. Tubing is the center of this craziness. I was not going to stay in VV and not try tubing once but i was still none the less prepared for the madness that it entailed. dont judge me for this and I dont know how I feel about my cousins and family reading it but none the less it was an experience and something to learn from. (ok i enjoyed it too)
Essentially , you rent a tube, taxi to the top of the river, and float down the river getting drunk at bars along the waterway. thats the simple explanation. each bar has a unique "catch" to get you to stop at it and guys and girls throw ropes at you to try and pull you into the bar. the drinks are obscenely cheap and stronger than you can ever imagine. at the first bar we went to we ordered four buckets. by buckets i mean those sand toy colored buckets you use when your a kid at the beach. in our four drinks they used an entire liter of whiskey and one half a liter of another bottle before adding in some redbull and some coke. i kid you not. four drinks. about 2 american dollars each. with enough alcohol to leave you face down after your first stop. In addition to that each bar that you stop at gives you free shots when you get out of your tube and while you are choosing a drink. lao whiskey flows stronger than water here.
So as if getting hammered and going off the richter wasn't enough each bar has a rope swing or zip line or high dive platform that you can jump of or into. Im not talking a small little ledge or something minimal here, but rather ladders 20 meters in the air that you have to swing off and jump into a small area from. slides that creak and crack as you slide down them, touching the rock bottom as you land butt first. crazy dangerous. I didnt bring a camera with me for obvious reasons (of the 5 things i brought with me, bandana, money, small towel, sunglasses, only the quick dry towel made it back home)
Everybar blasted music and everyone was just having a great time. I never did spring break cancun but if its half as crazy as a tuesday on the Van Vieng then I guess I understand. so much fun, but unquestionable danger. supposedly something like 3 or 4 people die PER MONTH on the swings and/or other abuse they do to their body. that seems absurdly high but I heard it from multiple people so i dont know what to think. I had a blast but one day was more than enough.
I will let some pictures and youtube videos do it justice becuase my words can not.
i only have 5 minutes left online. this might not be the best video but its got some great background music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7RvYCRJmAQ&feature=related
After tubing, I took a bus to the capitol of Laos, Vientienne. I will post about my time there later on tonight if i get a chance.
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