In the past our Vang Vieng Travel Guide might have read simply “Don’t go!”. During the 1990s, the small riverside town of Vang Vieng in Laos was a mecca for tourists hell-bent on partying and excess. What started with a few travellers letting off steam by ‘tubing’ down the Nam Song River (floating downstream in the inner tube of a tractor tyre) snowballed into drunken and drugged-up tourists behaving rather badly and lewdly, and even a series of deaths on the river. Happily, in 2012, the government forced the town’s wayward riverside bars to close and led a general clean up of the situation.

Now Vang Vieng seems to be at a strange crossroads. It still attracts a decidedly younger and wantonly carefree crowd as a party town for Westerners with cheap booze deals, but it also looks set to be a major player in adventure sport tourism, especially for the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, for whom there are several flights to nearby Vientiane and Luang Prabang.

With such a sensational and salacious past you could be forgiven for wondering why we wanted to visit Vang Vieng!  The fact of the matter is that the area around the rather ugly town contains some incredibly stunning landscapes. Across the river, emerald-green karst mountains riddled with caves and fresh water pools tower over the Nam Song River, and higher end eco-tourism seems to be creeping in.

Getting there.

Vang Vieng is roughly midway between the jewel of Luang Prabang and the busy capital of Vientiane. Depending on the season and the route taken, it is about a 5-8 hour cheap mini-van or bus drive from each. From Luang Prabang you pass through some beautiful mountain and rural scenery with dazzling green rice paddies, but the road is extremely bendy and you will often feel a little too close for comfort to plunging ravines. Mini-vans are now able to take a quicker ‘new route’, but as the roads are not quite finished yet, you have to be prepared for a bumpy ride. Getting to Vientiane is more straightforward in terms of the roads, but the traffic slows you down much more.

Tip – transport in Laos is a pain in the ass! When you are sold a ticket with a pick up time from your accommodation, it will invariably be a broad estimate. As buses and min-vans depart from bus terminals on the periphery of towns, you will be first squidged into a Tuk Tuk first picking up passengers from all around the town. Once you do eventually get to the bus station, min-vans and buses tend to depart when full, meaning that you will have to wait until the vehicle is ram-packed to set off. Worth noting if you have any important onward travel to consider! Drop offs work in a similar way, you’ll have to get a Tuk Tuk to take you to your final destination.

Getting Around.

We rented a scooter, but you can also choose bicycles, off-road motorcycles and quad bikes. Note that some of the equipment is not very new, and a lot of young tourists are not very experienced, so caution should be exercised.

Vang Vieng Town.

Vang Vieng does have some historic temples, but the town is otherwise fairly and uninspiring, having been heavily developed to service backpackers’ needs for bars, cheap food and guesthouses. When we were there, it looked like a certain amount of construction was underway, particularly along the riverside, of more corporate looking large hotels – probably as a result of the Asian tourism demanding facilities of a higher standard.

It is hard to miss the huge dusty airstrip running through and dominating the town. It was constructed and used during the Vietnam War (1964-1973) by Air America which was covertly owned and operated by the US government. It was from bases like this, under the guise of a civilian airline, that the US government was able to launch ‘Secret War’ operations in areas the US military was forbidden to go. In this way, the US was able to support their preferred side in the Lao Civil War against communist elements and sustain heavy bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail which snakes through parts of Laos.

At an excellent charity rehabilitation centre named COPE (Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise) in Vientiane, we learnt that Laos has the unenviable record as the most bombed country per capita in history. COPE website states: From 1964 to 1973, the U.S. dropped more than two million tons of ordnance on Laos during 580,000 bombing missions—equal to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years.

Seeing as Laos was officially neutral and not at war during the Vietnam War, the above statistics should be all the more shocking. One of the disgraces of history is that Laos had to suffer tonnes of ordnance being dumped on it after US operations in Vietnam, as it was too dangerous for planes to land with a payload on board.

More than a third of the ordnance dropped on Laos did not explode, leading to the huge hazard of unexploded ordnance (UXO). An incredibly small percentage of UXO has been cleared and, although the number is dropping, there are still many fatalities and maimings every year, particularly of children. The US has contributed nowhere near as much money to the clear up operation as it spent in actually dropping the bombs.

Vang Vieng’s airstrip is still in use today, but as a launch pad for noisy little microlites, hot air balloons, and as a pick up point for roaring quad bikes.

Activities.

In Vang Vieng town we saw all number of adventure sports advertised such as quad biking, rock climbing, zip-lining, abseiling, trekking, canoeing, kayaking and tubing. We only saw a couple of people tubing on the river, but every day there were truck-loads of tourists being transported up river to do this and other activities.

If, like us, you prefer a more DIY approach, across the river there are numerous natural sights and some small craft villages which are easy to reach by bicycle or motorcycle. It seems that most landowners have some sort of viewpoint, cave, waterfall or freshwater pool on their land which can be visited for a small fee. The signposting can be a little confusing and conflicting, so it’s worth researching before you set off on your own.

We visited Pha Kham cave which involved a walk through dry rice paddies where cattle were grazing in the shadow of the mighty karsts, a steep scrambling climb up the mountainside and a small cave with stalactites and stalagmites. What was most wonderful was the view from the climb which had a spectacular unspoilt lost world quality which was both humbling and cinematic.  Best of all, we only saw a couple of other people along the way.

We also chose to take a motorised canoe ride along the river in order to better appreciate the looming karst mountain range. It was only about half an hour up and down, but it was a pleasant way to spend the late afternoon before heading for some sunset aperitifs. Don’t go too late though otherwise you’ll be joined by a thousand Chinese people all with the same idea!

The town has numerous are cheap riverside eateries for sunset watching, although they charge slightly more that those restaurants in the town. We caught one of the most beautiful sunsets we have ever seen one evening, it’s fiery colours blossoming and morphing with every second that went by as the sun set behind the karsts and their shadows crept in over the river.

As Vang Vieng continues to transition from a party town to an adventure sport mecca, we hope it manages to find a balance between preserving the natural environment and welcoming the burgeoning tourist trade. Hopefully, as the more discerning traveller with a higher disposable income arrives, the quality and eco credentials of experiences will go up.