Vang Vieng, the traveller heaven/hell

Arriving to Vang Vieng after Phonsavan was a huge contrast. After the sleepy, dusty, quiet little town where the scars of war are still visible it was a shock arrive to the loud music and thousands of revelling travellers/backpackers/gap year kids/tourrorists. This town seems solely to exist to please the young traveller who has a need to party, and simultaneously it makes me happy and sad. At least all of them are in one location and not all over Lao; but I think that the masses generate madness and people forget how to behave in another country than their own.

The river and its views are beautiful, and the fun idea of tubing (going down the river in a huge inner tube) has been converted to a huge business with dozens of bars on the way playing loud music and offering anything from mojito buckets to happy shakes and special brownies. As I am a traveller too, I had to try out tubing and I have to say it was wonderful to be in the slow stream of water as the days get here rather hot. Travellers here are really happy and friendly (until they get drunk and ridiculous), which made tubing a lot more fun. And yesterday I had a break from doing anything at all, as I have had too many days of minivan, tours and activities, and I camped at a restaurant for long breakfast turned into lunch watching eight episodes of Friends.

The electricity supply here has been slightly unreliable. It's being switched off everyday between either nine or noon until five pm. Of course this means that internet is available only at the dinner time, and hot showers have to wait until the sun has set. The restaurants try to manage without electricity, and I've been favouring the one with a generator in case their food was kept cold better... not to mention the episodes of Friends! First time I heard of Vang Vieng someone said that it would be so easy to get stuck there for ages, and I can see what he meant. I've been meaning to book my bus ticket to Vientiane for a couple of days now, but the ease of dealing with effectively Western environment has started appealing to me - I guess I'm feeling slightly homesick, and slightly worn out dealing with continuous stream of new places.