With the rainy season seeming to be coming to a close, or at least a whole week without it, we decided to head to Vang Vieng so Mike and one of the English Teaching Assistants could do some rock climbing and I could sit by a pool :) We only spent a night there even though it was a long weekend. Laos doesn't recognize Labor Day, so Finn had his first day of school Monday and would've flipped had he missed it.
I wouldn't say Vang Vieng isn't worth the trip, but it's definitely not my favorite place so far. Now if I didn't have 3-kids under the age of 5, I would probably like it more. There's lots of adventurous stuff to be done there: rock climbing, tubing, hiking waterfalls; all very fun stuff, but not so easy with the kids.
While Mike got his first experience in lead climbing (climbing to an anchor to clip on to, then continuing on to the next anchor), I was hanging at the pool with the kids and walking around the little town. I have kind given up on walking with purpose since getting here. Either the kids are fascinated by something they see or we're stopped every 4-feet to be talked at (still learning the language), touched or sniffed; it was more just to have an idea where places were so we could go eat when Mike and the ETA got back. In the end the walk was pointless except the kids found a puppy to gawk at while every person along a 30 meter stretch held and sniffed the baby.
We went back to the hotel to let the kids swim again with Mike and the ETA then wandered back into town for the most awful food EVER! Seriously, I didn't think it could be hard to muck up some papaya salad, but this place did. Also, for anyone interested in what Vang Vieng has to offer other than adventure stuff, just do a little search and you'll find that every "restaurant" has short tables with cushions and TV's playing, of all things, Friends. That's right, the TV show Friends was playing in almost every place we passed. We thought the random blogs had to be outdated and that this couldn't possibly be true, but it was. If it wasn't Friends it was Family Guy. Sadly, Vang Vieng is known to most backpackers as the party spot in Laos, with "Happy Shakes" and peaceful places to hang out after a day of drinking on the river. Although, while we were there Happy shakes were not advertised on menus, most places did advertise cheap buckets of whiskey cokes.
Even if it's not exactly a kid friendly place, I'm not opposed to going back. Just give me a pool and a hike and I'm happy. The kids weren't too thrilled about the waterfall, maybe because they are used to the slow moving, short waterfalls close to Vientiane, after we got home Finn told me he thought it was "pretty cool".
