After coming back to Luang Prabang, due to the lack of direct bus we were once again facing a 7 hour epic to Vang Vieng. We decided to go with the mini bus, although faster by 2 hours, the small vehicle meant a stomach churning ride through the windy mountainous countryside. We arrived to the south bus station, annoyingly whizzing past town and stopping an empty office with no TukTuk’s. After a 2km walk into town along the highway, we found our guesthouse. In classic fashion, the place was half finished, bright yellow paint adorning half a wall, plastic wrapped mattress and headboard, and the neon sign tied on with a spare rock climbing rope (I decided at that point not to got rock combing with the associated tour company). With 6 months of hostels and guesthouses under our belt, these places are pretty hilarious.

That afternoon we headed to one of the many restaurants which hung over the river. Initially we were perplexed as to why every backpacker restaurant had the sitcom ‘Friends’ playing. According to our guide the next day, (and wikitravel,) it seems to be ingrained into the Vang Veing culture to have the sitcom box set running continuously – shame there was no ‘gossip girls’ (just kidding). With cheap food, beer and whiskey buckets, it seemed the place to come and get lost for a few days.

The following day we headed out with a guide to a cave complex north of the town. As within any tour is Asia, you inevitably spent some time picking up other sunburnt Westerners from other similar tour operators who have all sold the same tour for varying amounts. It was interesting in the back of the TukTuk to compare prices, as well as promises of ‘buffet lunches’ or exclusive kayaking trips – travel tip 101 – come with an open mind, especially in Laos.
We managed to end up on a pickup truck with some South African/German travellers who we had bonded with on the stomach churning bus ride from Luang Prabang. They were off to do some kayaking so we quickly arrange to meet for a few drinks and dinner later on.
The first cave we went to a huge, a massive complex of rooms with massive stellectites/stellectites and crystal/mineral deposits covering the wall. With wet muddy floor and big holes everywhere we were glad to have a guide and not get lost. The second cave nearby was a large tunnel stretching 2km into the mountain range – all the way to a secret village. These caves had been extensively used for shelters during the Vietnam war and communist invasion in Lao.

The last cave was the ‘water cave’; a significant river following out its mouth fed by a deep spring and rainfall. We grabbed some tubes and using some ropes attached to the roof, pulled ourselves a few hundred meters up river into the cave, before free flowing out. The water was freezing, but a welcome relief from the heat.

We enjoyed our tasty Buffet lunch; essentially a chicken skewer and fried rice, before heading back into town to enjoy a few beers and a few ‘Friends’ episodes ! We caught up with our new friends which was a nice change of atmosphere.

There has been a lot written about ‘tubing’ in Vang Vieng ; every second traveller we met asked if were we going to do it. It essentially involved hiring an inflated tube, being driven upriver and then bar- hopping down the 4km route into town. Since August, the Lao government had essentially closed down all the bars (except 3 closely controlled ones) that line the river following a large number of deaths (27 in 2012 alone). The combination of water, drinking, zip-wires and magic mushrooms is never a good combination. Now empty bars line the river front, and the drunken backpacker crowds have evaporated. The pristine limestone mountains and caves still exist, meaning Vang Vieng is really at a cross roads as to which direction to develop in.

After our caving we had a good opportunity to reflect on our time in Laos over a 90cent beer Lao. The country appears to be a lost, slightly ‘ambiguous’ (like its capitals name) in the image it wishes to portray. It has its roots in Buddhism, however it seems to have embraced backpacker/budget tourism with a vengeance. A ‘half finished’ culture exists in many places. The wonderful service culture, like amongst Khmer people in Cambodia seems non existent. This attitude is summarised beautifully in a quote on wiki travel about Vang Vieng by Brett Dakin, the author of Another Quiet American – “Each time a young Australian woman strolls down the street in a bikini, a bearded American smokes a joint on a . guesthouse terrace, or a group of Koreans tumbles drunkenly out of a restaurant, it saps a little more of the essence of a town like Vang Vieng.”

It could be that the country has been controlled to varying degrees by so many surrounding cultures, and invaded so many times it is yet to present a unique image. It’s a real shame, given that the country is so beautiful and has an abundance of natural ecological resources on which to rebuilds its identity.

It will be interesting to see how it develops in the coming years, and which foreign country (like Japan, Korea or China) will ‘adopt’ it, donate millions of dollars and steer its development like neighbouring countries