Laos does not have an ocean but some genius managed to market  Vang Vieng and the river that flows through it as a must go place for “tubing” and parties. Read on for my experience…

How exciting… Not! Well the view is nice

I don’t know if they had a really weak winter or if this is the norm but the tubing was so boring and slow. I was cooking in the sun trying to paddle to get it over with. Along the river there are bars that will try to fish you towards them and offer free welcome shots. Rumor has it that some of them have closed because of people drowning. To drown in this river you would definitely have to be very very drunk!

“With gods help, the food was a son of a bitch” is by far the best hebrew saying on this wall!

The parties were just as disappointing. I really am too old to suffer through dozens of young drunken teens trying too hard to have a good time.

Obviously it wasn’t the tubing or parties that brought me to the town, it was the climbing. I was warned ahead of time that some of the places have really bad anchors and it’s dangerous to climb so I went to an area called the “sleeping wall” were I was told it was safe. The anchors have definitely seen better days but they were acceptable. The climbing itself was so so. No nice views at sleeping wall, and slightly dirty and sharp.

What wasn’t acceptable was the way to the sleeping wall. Instead of simply taking a small boat we were directed by the locals to pass a tiny makeshift bridge for which the locals asked 5000 kip (less than a dollar and the same price for a boat). We than got completely lost in agricultural fields and had to climb over fences and escape cows? locals pointing to this way or that or just completely ignoring us.

Playing catch the hot air balloon?

I can only say two good things about Vang Vien, the accommodation was super cheap 4 euro for a clean private room with a fan and hot water! And the French baguette! After 4 months in Asia with noodles and rice some high quality bread was great.

Strangely enough, even though we only met 2 other Israeli’s the whole place is covered with Hebrew signs and almost every restaurant serves Israeli food. I had one of the best Shakshuka’s at a place called Victor’s. Another strange experience was watching a hot air balloon land almost on top of a local farm house. It was obvious the ten or so people driving like crazy in the truck and then running into the field had little control over where the balloon would land.  Talk about globalization 🙂