As a kid, my favorite activity at Greene Family Camp (GFC) was climbing the Alpine Tower. A 50-foot, wooden structure with rocks, ladders and ropes to climb. But after seeing the movie Vertical Limit, I was sure I had been scared out of trying rock climbing on, you know, real rocks. That was until we got to Vang Vieng, Laos!
When researching Laos, Vang Vieng immediately caught our attention. We read about river tubing and beautiful views, and we were not disappointed. As soon as we arrived we knew we would be staying for longer than the 2 days we originally booked.
Our favorite thing we did there was take a climbing course with Central Climbers School. We didn’t just do basic climbs, we were taught how to tie all of the knots, how to use the belay equipment (manual and automatic), and even how to lead the rope (which means carry the rope from the bottom to the top so others can climb). ATTENTION GFC: Finally – after all these years – I think I am ready to be on the ropes course staff. Just look at this figure 8 knot!
Our guide Tang was awesome and continually talked us through how to tackle more difficult parts and shared technique tips. We loved it so much Brandon went back for a second day! (I opted to relax in a hammock by the river with a book. That was a win-win in my book.)
One of the biggest activities there though is to tube the river. In Texas it is very common to do this on the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels. You get a group of friends, a cooler of drinks and snacks, and a bunch of tubes and spend the day floating. This is very “same same, but different.” This river had bar stops along the way. (We have heard that is used to be a much bigger, crazier party. But they have had to reign it in in recent years for safety purposes.) We still had a great time. (EDIT: We were even told we were like “the cool parents” by one of the girls we were tubing with. Seriously. She said that.) Anyway, in case you ever find yourself in Vang Vieng, here are a few tips:
- Pace yourself, it is a long day. (And maybe bring your own drinks.)
- Note that the time between the last official bar and the exit point is looooong. Longer than it should be, so be ready for that.
- And there is NO FOOD at these bars! (I think the first bar had food, but we had just eaten breakfast.) By 3PM I was starting to get hangry. But the time we actually got to dinner, it was rough for everyone!
- Spending a few bucks on a dry bag is worth it to hold money and things – but leave your phone at home.
Some of the other activities in the area included cave tubing, kayaking the river (no booze on this one), and visiting the Blue Lagoon. We opted to book a tour that hit all of these in one day to make it easier. Turns out we should have just rented a scooter and done these things on our own as we usually do, because our day went like this:
We were picked up around 9:00 AM and driven to our first location where we were going to hike to the cave for tubing. The “hike” was a 15-minute flat walk, the highlight of which was when we passed some very cute puppies. Once we got to the cave, we ended up sitting and waiting for half an hour before it was our groups’ turn to go in. Inside was actually very cool! The only lights were headlamps and there was a guide rope to follow. It would have truly been amazing – if it had not been so crowded! The cave was packed with people pushing, shoving and screaming. (Sometimes with joy, sometimes with fear, and sometimes just because?) I managed to get clear of them for a bit of it and relax, but Brandon had a guy continuously pushing him instead of going around him. We still managed to enjoy it of course, but it could have been better. When we were out of the water, we all ran to the sunshine to warm up and watch more screaming tourists on the zipline which was pretty funny. We were ready to get going when it was suddenly lunch time. (Didn’t we just start the day?) We had 30 minutes for lunch which turned in to an hour+ before we actually left.
Our second activity of the day was kayaking down the river. Unlike in Soppong, Thailand, this was a very calm river with no rapids. (It is the same one we tubed on later.) But it was a beautiful day and we were excited to get on the water. Turned out that they did not bring enough kayaks so some of them (including ours) had 3 people instead of two. I might have been annoyed by this if it weren’t for the fact that our 3rd person was a guide. Since only 2 of the 3 people could paddle at a time, I volunteered to relax in the middle spot for most of the trip. (Truthfully it was actually more comfortable for Brandon and the guide, so it was another win-win-win!) Our guide was also pretty entertaining and kept starting splashing wars with other kayaks.
During one of these splash wars, I looked down and saw blue running down my front. It looked like I was bleeding Gatorade and I had no idea where it was coming from. I very quickly realized that the dye from a headband I bought at the market was running, and parts of me were blue for the rest of the day.
The third stop was the Blue Lagoon. I was a bit fed up with some of the wasted time during the day and almost decided not to go, but we are glad we did. We ended up at Blue Lagoon #1. (We later learned that there are multiple “Blue Lagoons” in the area. If you are ever in Vang Vieng, rent a scooter or motorbike and make your own way to Blue Lagoon #3. We’ve heard it is the best.) Blue Lagoon #1 was PACKED, but made for some very interesting people watching. There were a couple of tree limbs to jump off of, as well as a rope swing at the lagoon. But due to poor planning, all of these elements landed in the same spot. Coordinating the high jump, low jump, and rope swing was always interesting to see. Somehow everyone managed it. But it was interesting to see people jumping the top tree who didn’t actually know how to swim. They all jumped with life vests on which was good, but that sudden jolting stop when they hit the water looked painful! We also saw some perfect 10 belly flops which were definitely painful. (I looked away for some of them…) And the rope swing was a whole new world for some of them. Many did not jump or pick up their feet enough (or at all), so they would drag to the edge of the lagoon and flop in.
On our last night, we had the best meal I think we had in all of Laos! It looked like basic BBQ meats, but they were perfect! We were with some friends who ordered the pork, which we don’t usually get. I thought I would just try one piece and ate half the plate! It was incredibly decadent, so we got a second order! All in all though we LOVED Vang Vieng and wish we would have spent more time there. It is definitely a recommended stop for travelers in our book!
Brandon & Devon (BaD) Journey 