Hello readers! Our travels have been going so insanely fast, and now I find myself a few weeks behind on blogging. However, now that Christmas is over, I can hopefully find some time to catch up. After leaving Luang Prabang, Danne and I travelled to Vang Vieng. I was a bit hesitant to visit Vang Vieng since it used to be a giant drunk party back in the days and I really had no idea what to expect. I was actually ready to hop over visiting Vang Vieng, but Daniel insisted he wanted to see what it was all about. So, here is the grand question of this blog post:
Am I too old to visit Vang Vieng?
What is Vang Vieng Actually Like?
As I said, I was a tad nervous to visit. I was imagining a big party on the river and travellers that I would not identify with. We did some research before arriving. However, the information we found was a bit mixed. Some blogs wrote about how in 2012, the government in Laos shut down most of the bars along the river. The government ripped out all of the dangerous activities along the Nam Song River (which is famous for tubing down) in an effort to clean up the city.
I also read that the Vang Vieng was still very much a party scene and that the government was unsuccessful in cleaning up the city. These blogs stated that the party scene was very much still alive in Vang Vieng. I was expecting young tourists acting inappropriately while abroad.
Right when we arrived, it was pretty obvious what the truth actually was. All of the hostels were quite quiet. It appears that the Lao government have done well with their initiative. Gone are the days of all-day partying and (thankfully) accidental deaths. I can’t imagine how it was in the “glory days”, when there was zip lining along the river and over 20 bars. Now, there is just a handful of bars left along the river, and they are all at the beginning. I expected a somewhat party atmosphere. However, this is not what we got. Vang Vieng felt more like a place to relax or have some sightseeing adventures. I was totally surprised by the calmness of the city. I have to admit that I found Vang Vieng a bit boring.