If you came here because of my Facebook post about returning to California then yes, it’s an April’s fools joke and I’m not going anywhere except North Laos. What am I crazy? But I’m sure you knew I wasn’t serious all along. The weather is actually perfect so I feel excited to get back in the hiking groove. I arrived today to Vientiane the capital of Laos and tomorrow already taking an early bus South for a small hiking mission in the center of the country. I won’t be going further south than that. When done there I’ll do a U-turn back to Vientiane to sort my Thailand visa and explore this city properly.
It turns out that Laos is a hardcore party country and the age of the average backpacker is significantly lower than Vietnam and even Thailand. I just came from a town called Vang Vieng that is totally taken over by drunk teenagers. I’m not being judgmental, they actually have quite an epic setup and I would totally get into it if I was younger. The way it works is like this: the minute you land in town they give you a map of the bars along the river. As you can see below, these bars are equipped with slides, swings, zip lines, trampolines, and you can guess what the smily faces stand for. The river runs in an amazing canyon of pointy limestone karst mountains and the view is breathtaking. You get a large tire tube and a lift up the river where they drop you off and you float down the stream with your tube, stopping at bars along the way. It’s pretty much a natural outdoor water park with alcohol! Check out the photos. It would have been nice if they kept some quite spots without all that loud music, but for that I rented a bicycle and went exploring in the hills a day before.
I’m looking forward to the rest of my time here. The roads between towns are beautiful and although it takes ages to get from place to place it is worth it.
