Vang Vieng - Adventures and Fun for the Fake


Truly, the Vang Vieng area is amazingly beautiful... yet, I've left it with mixed feelings. The town is famous for its adventure and fun activities, but it is a tourist trap. What is adventure, and what is fun? There are literally thousands of noisy buggies, stirring up dust in and around town, several "blue lagoons" with hordes of picnicing tourists, water "sports" such as kayaking in big groups for a few hundred metres or tubing (floating on inflated truck inner tubes) half drunk. Called ziplining, metal cables cross the area, so visitors can slide between trees and metal poles like Tarzan. And in the evening, there are restaurants, noisy bars and discos, beer and overpriced shitty weed. There is also an element of Pattaya, although it's not there yet, but you do see whores and ladyboys along the main road. However, the mountains around Vang Vieng are really stunning. You can climb a few, there are good paths (and an admission fee to each, as to virtually every site), but you cannot go on a proper hike - alone it is too dangerous, and it seems no locals work as guides any more. In the past, I was told, you could organise multiple-day hikes, but the times have changed and these days everything is for the fake.








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