"If you smile at me I will understand, cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language" - Crosby, Stills and Nash

Vang Vieng can't help but make you smile. Aside from the drunken fresh out of high school tourists stumbling around everywhere, the scenery and karst hill landscape surrounding the town might be the most beautiful things I have ever seen. 

Vang Vieng has become a backpacker-oriented town, with the main street featuring guest houses, bars, restaurants, internet cafes, tour agencies and western tourists. One of the main attractions of the town is the  tubing on the Nam Song River, which is lined with bars selling Beer Lao and cheap buckets of cocktails, and most places are equipped with rope swings, zip lines, and huge decks. I must admit that I cut my lip open going down the "slide of death". Pictures will come later when I get the film from my water proof camera developed. Yes, a real film from the most ghetto water proof camera ever created!

The caving opportunities that surround Vang Vieng is in one word, awesome. I love to splunk! We did a bit of jungle trekking to this one cave where we sat in tubes, sifted through water by pulling on ropes attached to the walls and guiding ourselves deeper into complete darkness.

A bit of jungle trekking on our way to splunk!

In total, it took abot 35 minutes to go through the entire cave and back. At some points the water was so shallow we had to get out of our tubes and walk. At one point, because we were the only people in there, our tour guide made Cathy and I turn off our head lamps and sit in the complete darkness, in the middle of the cave, with the bats flying above us and water snakes swimming below us, for one whole minute. It was terrifying to say the least but when you are in that situation you just do it - crazy not to!

Sitting in our tubes, in complete darkness, with our super cool head lamps on*

Sitting at the entrance to the cave trying not to hit our heads on the rocks*

Not being able to pass up the opportunity, we also treated ourselves to an amazing afternoon of kayaking down the Nam Song River. The view was almost surreal.

Vang Vieng is a very interesting place because it has literally been taken over by the youth. Drugs are very accessible and most bars sell happy/magic shakes and joints of all sorts. The restaurants are all equipped with couch-like tables and play "Friends" or "Family Guy" all day long... and I mean all day long! The bars along the river for tubing are fiercely competitive and give you free shots just for walking in, even in the morning! It was a weird environment to be around in one of the most beautiful areas of the world. Maybe just a bit more self control by the younger crowd would be nice :)