Paradise on Earth

Vang Vieng is everything I’ve ever dreamed of... There’s no question it’s a small town that’s thriving from the influx of backpackers that migrate here and seem to find it hard to leave and that means it’s not such a local experience. But, it’s paradise nonetheless and there are plenty of locals that have adapted to catering to this backpacker haven. It’s actually a bit ridiculous. The bus arrives in this huge, open gravel lot that used to be an old airstrip. Across the lot is the small town of Vang Vieng, over-shadowed by it’s breathtaking backdrop of the same limestone crags jutting high into the sky that I found outside Dong Hoi in Vietnam. As you stroll into town, you smell banana pancakes frying on mobile, open-air grills and you hear… the sound of laugh tracks from television sets. What? Lined-up all along the one main drag of he town are all these open-air cafes filled with wooden chairs and benches that are covered in cushions. People are lounging, sipping their fruit shakes (some spiked with marijuana, mushrooms or even opium), cocktails or beer, munching on lao lao minced meat, noodle soup or pizza (again some spiked with marijuana, mushrooms or even opium) and watching re-runs of Friends or Family Guy… all… day… long.

Now, don’t think for one second that marijuana, mushrooms, opium or watching Friends re-runs constitutes paradise for me. Not even close. I don’t understand all these people who sit on their bums all day, getting blitzed by whatever drug… when there is so much to do! I arrived in the evening, so my first night Richard, one of the Irish lads, and I just sought out a cheap place to stay. Another room split for $2 a night per person. Nice! The down-side: ever-sunny Laos seemed to have caught a bit of the same storm that was chilling northern Vietnam. More gray skies with drizzly rain. At least, it was a warmer rain in Laos though. And the limestone crags really look stunning when they’re shrouded in mist.

The next day my version of getting blitzed for days on end began…

Day 1: Although it was drizzly and rainy and a touch chilly to be out on water all day… Richard and I, and a group of other travelers we had met, decided to go tubing down the river. Vang Vieng is infamous for it’s tubing experience and we were ready to get it started, despite the drizzly weather (I seemed to have forgotten about being sick from spending my days outside in chilly, drizzly weather, getting soaked to the bone). For $5 you get a tube and a tuk-tuk ride 4 km up the river. From there, you toss your tube in the river, jump on top and begin the slow and lazy trek downstream. You float… maybe 200 feet… before you reach the first bar. Cheap beer, free shots… okay, that’s all fine and dandy. But, it wasn’t the beer and shots that set me off. I got excited as soon as I saw someone come flying in the air overhead and then suddenly flip and drop into the water. There was a zipcord!! Mwahahahaha. I was so excited! By my third go, I was clinging to the zipcord backwards. Oh man, it was a rush. Little did I know that was nothing. The first zipcord started from maybe a 12-foot high bamboo tower. The next bar had a swing… that started from a 15-ft tower. The bar after that had a GIANT swing. It’s tower platform reached somewhere around 20-ft. Some people were pansies and would swing back and forth on the big one several times, letting it slow down, before they dropped into the water. But, the best rush was riding out just the first drop from the platform, letting go of the bar at the first peak, floating in mid-air just long enough for you to realize you’re really flipping high and you’re about to free-fall and plunge into the river below. Mwahahahahaha. I couldn’t get enough. The only thing I was sour about was my own fear of trying to flip off. I tried to flip off from the smaller swing, but messed up and landed flat on the side of my ribcage. That knocked the wind out of me hard-core and stunned me a bit. Not to mention the massive red blotch zigzagged with purple and blue bruising that quickly formed on the side of my thigh from that poor landing. Ugghhh. That fall didn’t scare me off the swings, but it did scare me away from trying to flip again. I wanted to flip soooo bad, though. I was just too big of a pansy. The bar with the big swing also had a sand volleyball court. Sweet! Five others (2 english girls, 2 english guys and 2 aussie guys) I randomly met while floating on the tubes and flipping off the swings joined me for some sandy v-ball in the soggy, puddly sand court. Yeah, the v-ball game lasted about 10 mins before it turned into first a sand fight, then an all-out wrestling match. The next thing we knew, our group of six had turned into a group of 40. I’m not exaggerating. There were 40 of us random tubers all clobbering each other with sand and taking each out rugby-style. It was absolutely crazy! The locals had never seen anything like it. They all got out their mobile phones and starting taking pictures and video. We asked if any other groups had gotten this wild. They assured us that we were the first. Total blast. It was hours, near dusk, before our smaller group left that bar and got back on the river. We didn’t make it much further before it got too dark and the locals called us out of the river. We had to tuk-tuk it back to town, having only made it just about halfway.

Day 2: More drizzly, soggy rain. More mud. Heh! The English guys, the Aussie guys and I decided to rent some mountain bikes and explore the caves near town. A loop around Vang Vieng takes you along the stunning limestone crags and leads you to at least a half dozen caves. The muddy dirt roads/trails definitely made for some interesting mountain-biking. It was a great work-out peddling uphill in mud. Lots of skidding and back-spinning, which meant lots of spraying each other with mud. Mwahahahaha. The caves couldn’t quite compare to those I saw in Dong Hoi, Vietnam. But, I enjoyed them just as much, though in a different way. I worked harder to get to these caves, pedaling through the mud, and I had friends to goof off with and share the fun with. The first cave we had to get on our bellies and crawl commando-style to get through most of it. Another cave had a dark, milky turquoise/cyan blue lagoon outside of it and was impressively huge. We managed to get lost in that one for a while. But, hey, we were wandering around naturally formed Guadi-esque art and lunar landscapes. We eventually found our way out again. In all, we managed to tackle three caves and get covered in head to toe in ruddy-red/brown mud. I think the swamp-thing look suits me though… ; )

Day 3: A day of rock climbing and chilling out while hanging from the spiky limestone crags taking in the breathtaking scenery below. Not much to be said here other than a great day of getting back to clinging to the sides of rocks. Not many places in the world that are better to find yourself climbing I imagine. The day was bright and sunny with blue skies and puffy white clouds floating over the crags. The guided climbs were easy, but I hadn’t climbed in a while so I didn’t mind. Just made me look like I was a pro…hehe. By evening, my body was really starting to feel the effects of slamming into water, cycling, crawling and climbing… and I was loving that! I love the achy feel from loads of exercise (way different than the achy feel of being ill)!! I also love the way all this exercise is leaving me more and more toned! Finally starting to feel like my old self again… pre-office slave!! Lets me eat more junk without worrying about it too… like pancakes filled with bananas, egg, chocolate, milo chocolate powder, coconut powder and sweet milk! MMmmmm!!

Day 4: More friends met on travels just arriving in Vang Vieng, so back on the river for more tubing action. Massimo (the Italian I traveled with for a bit in southern Vietnam) had arrived. Some more of the Irish lads had arrived. Of course, we had to inaugurate each of them with the official tubing trip. This time it was sunny and warm. Better day for being soaked. More zipcords and more swings. I ate less and drank more than my one beer from last time and that got a bit iffy. When you start feeling the buzz, you lose your grip. It’s not fun when your hands slip off the bar too soon on a swing. Trust me and plenty of others, when you slip from the swing on its first downward run before it starts to arch back up, it rocks you hard. The momentum means you hit the water faster and it feels more like a wall than water. Knocks the wind out of you hard core. I did that once and that was enough of the booze for me. I wasn’t about to quit swinging! In fact, I was brave enough to have a go at the big, huge swing backwards. That was an awesome rush! More sand v-ball. No massive wrestling matches in the sand pit this time, which made me believe that the last one was a first. There were 5 times as many people out on the river tubing this time. Four-hundred as compared to 80.

Day 5: Today… a day of rest. I didn’t handle the resting thing too well. My energy levels were reaching new highs with each passing day of adventure… and I experienced adrenaline withdrawals today. I wanted to bounce off walls, but I couldn’t. My brain did the bouncing around instead. I had to do something about those withdrawals, so I randomly bought a cheap-ish plane ticket to Australia. The random purchase definitely got my blood pumping again. ; ) The Kiwis I was traveling with earlier and who I saw again in Hanoi (and one of which I bump into frequently here in Vang Vieng) have convinced me that there’s no better time to travel in New Zealand than in March and that I should be there this March. They have some trips they’re planning in NZ in March and told me I’m more than welcome to tag along. I began pondering the idea of heading down under back when I met the Kiwis in Mui Ne. Shortly after I began considering it, I got an email from a college friend who saw I was traveling in SE Asia. She just started living in Sydney and asked when I was skipping down for a visit, since, I was so close and all. Well, that’s all it took to tip the bucket for me. I was sold. I’ll zip to Australia and then New Zealand. That probably means it will be well into April before I even head back to Europe to pick up stuff I left there. That is, if I don’t run out of money. Funds are starting to go dry-ish. Trekking in Nepal and on Mt. Everest is now on hold. The start of the Himalaya trekking season is March, but it’s better to trek in September or November.

I have to admit my problem. I am overwhelmingly addicted to travel. The more I continue my vagabond life on the road, the less I can imagine ever stopping. And why should I? I should milk this opportunity for as long as I can. And that’s what I’m going to do. If anyone has any ideas on how to make extra cash here and there, please let me know.

My flight for Australia departs from Puhket in southern Thailand on March 5th. That’s perfect because I didn’t get a chance to check out any of the islands of southern Thailand before. This also means I can slow down my blitz-like travel habits. That is, if I can stand to slow down. I’m spinning like a top and I don’t want to stop! No, but I need to. I need to sort out some bills (eck) that refuse to leave me alone from the real world. I also need to find some new outlets for selling my photos and travel stories so I can make more moola and keep traveling!! I want to get ALL my photos online. There are thousands and thousands. I want to redesign my blog.

So, the plan is to jog up to Luang Prabang for two or three days and check it out. Then, I’ll head back down, working my way south in Laos. I’ll be passing back through here, Vang Vieng to take a kayaking trip from here back to the capital, Vientiane. From Vientiane, I’ll slow boat it or something down to the 4,000 islands on the Mekong. Supposed to be beautiful down there. After that, I’ll jog over to southern Thailand for a couple weeks and chill out on one of the many islands. Before I met up with Ben, he was at a rock climbing hang out on the islands. I’m planning to go there and work on my skills on the rock more while I just hang out and sort things out with bills and work. Ben gave me some ideas of good places to stay, so I’m sure I’ll find a nice place to camp out before I head to the Land of Oz!

I randomly just met an American guy who I talked to for no more than an hour, but who gave me the name, number and email of a photog living in Puhket today too. That was after I booked my flight out of Puhket to the land of Oz. I took that as a great sign! Maybe some work will come out of this contact that seemed to materialize out of nowhere! Keep your fingers crossed!!! (Fam, I know what you’re thinking. The photog has a website displaying his work. It’s legit.)

I’m not really sure where things are going. All I’m sure of is I’m living out my dreams and I want to keep doing that for as long as I can. So, I’m going to do everything in my power to make that happen. Of course, I will be counting on a lot of help from the big guy upstairs too. Hey, we’ll see what happens! I’m so giddy with excitement!!

I really miss the lot of you though. Thinking about taking a holiday? Anyone and everyone is welcome to come join me in my travels! Even if it’s just for a couple weeks!