Vang Vieng Travel Guide

Home > Destination > Laos > Vang Vieng

DESTINATION DETAIL

Vang Vieng

Nestled beside the Nam Song (Song River) amid stunningly beautiful limestone karst terrain, Vang Vieng provokes a mix of responses. The area's main attraction has always been the dramatic landscape surrounding Vang Vieng, including a mostly unused, airfield runway parallel to the road. This Laos tours must be extraly worthful for those adventurers--honeycombed with unexplored tunnels and caverns, the limestone cliffs are a spelunker's heaven. Several caves are named and play minor roles in local mythology--all are said to be inhabited by spirits. These caves and cliffs have also earned a reputation for some of the best rock-climbing in the region.

Today, Vang Vieng today is mainly a backpacker town. The main street is full of guest houses, bars, restaurants, internet cafes, tour agencies, and western tourists.The Nam Song, meanwhile, plays host to kayakers and travellers floating along on tractor inner tubes--a pastime so thoroughly enjoyable and popular that it has become one of rites of passage of Indochina backpacking circuit. Other activities include rafting, trekking and bicycle and motorbike trips. These activities tend to be more popular than the sights, which are mainly monarsteries dating from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Feel attracted? Pack up your things, pick up your camera and come here, it will be part of your Laos tours.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

1.Getting there & away

Buses, pick-ups and sǎwngthǎew continue to depart from a simple bus terminal (511341; Rte 13) on the eastern side of the airstrip, a few minutes’ walk from town. This is mildly surprising given a new bus station has been built 2km north of town, opposite the New Market. No-one we met seemed to know if or when transport would move to the new station, but wherever you end up jumbo drivers will be there trying to talk you into taking a ride into town.

Minibuses and air-con buses catering especially to falang often leave from one of the guesthouses in town, but don’t expect any extra leg room. Tickets are available almost everywhere, though buses do fill fast in peak season. Anyone who suffers motion sickness should take necessary precautions before the trip to Luang Prabang.

2.Getting around

Vang Vieng is easily negotiated on foot. Renting a bicycle (about US$1 a day) is also popular; they’re available almost everywhere. For cave sites out of town you can charter sǎwngthǎew near the old market site – expect to pay around US$10 per trip up to 20km north or south of town.

3.3. Health & safety

Dangers & annoyances
Most visitors leave Vang Vieng with nothing more serious than a hangover, but this tranquil setting is also the most dangerous place in Laos for travellers. At least five people have died around here in recent years from river accidents, drug misadventures and while caving. Theft can also be a problem, with fellow travellers often the culprits. Take the usual precautions and don’t leave valuables outside caves.

Drugs
With so many drugs washing around Vang Vieng it’s no surprise that the local police are particularly adept at sniffing out spliffs, especially late at night, and if you’re caught with a stash of marijuana (or anything else) it can be expensive. The normal practice is for police to take your passport and fine you US$500. If you don’t have much cash on you, you might be able to negotiate the fine downwards. But ultimately you have broken the law and will have to pay something. Don’t expect a receipt, and don’t bother calling your embassy.
If you must use opium, don’t mix it with too much else and certainly not with lime juice. We haven’t tested this theory (our dedication to research doesn’t go quite that far), but several Vang Vieng residents told us that at least one traveller has died after using opium and having an innocuous-sounding glass of lime juice! Sounds unlikely, but apparently/allegedly this mix has long been used by hill-tribe women who suicide as an ultimate act of protest against a bad husband.