We were relaxing by the river in Vang Viang watching the sun set over the mountains. Espe is currently battling her way through Orwell’s Burmese Days (which is full of words that I’ve never seen before). She stopped to look up the word “shabby” in her Spanish – English dictionary.

“Shabby – Desaliñado / Zarrapastroso” she read out loud.
“Zarrapa que?” I responded.
“Zarrapastroso”
“Quien usa esta palabra”
“Pues yo no”
“Yo tampoco” came a response from the guy sitting on the riverside bamboo platform next to ours. And that was how we met Nuria and Jordi, a Spanish couple from Catalunya. We spent the afternoon chatting with them and met for dinner later. Another fascinating couple, also on a round the world ticket like us. Check out there blog at rodaworld.blogspot.com.

Vang Viang is a place for relaxing. The only reason it is on the tourist map is due to it’s location between two major cities and the wonderful activity of Tubing. You hire a tractor inner tube, take a tuk tuk 4km upstream and then float down the river in your tube. On the way down there are countless river side bars that hook you in on large bamboo sticks offering free Lao Lao whisky with every purchase. Additionally there are large rope swings and aerial runways. Great fun for swinging into the river from a height, albeit a little scary.

Just before starting tubing one day I spotted a very impressive Land Rover. Fully equipped for a hardcore overland trip. After talking with the occupants I discovered that this French family of five were on a three year road trip around the world. They are educating their children as they go following a syllabus and exam timetable from home, yet the kids are getting the benefits of seeing the world at such a young age. A fascinating adventure, but that is someone else’s story. Check it out in French or in English.

We spent four days in Vang Viang either relaxing by the river or floating down it. The majority of that time was spent with Mike and Claire, a British couple we met in Luang Phrabang while searching for people to accompany us on our cave tour. Another cool couple with whom it was a pleasure to spend time with especially considering Mike also shares my obsession with the Simpsons. Something I discovered in the Simpsons bar (at least that’s what we called it).

Vang Viang is a real backpacker hang out. Loads of bars serving Italian, Israeli, British and Thai food of varying standards and offering a choice of films (all pirated with terrible attempts at subtitles. For example Take “when I went to Hollywood there were no block busters” subtitled as “when I went to Hollywood there were no black bastards”. Several bars went further by only showing one series all the time. i.e. Friends or Simpsons.

A nice place to relax for a few days, but there are just too many young drunk westerners there (am I getting old?). The place is too western. If it wasn’t for the tubing there would be nothing there. I’m not complaining as I slept well ($3 a night for a nice room) and ate well (despite suffering some nasty heart burn like side affects of the Malaria pills I’m taking), but I’m grateful that everywhere in Laos isn’t like this.

One final note, do not buy local brand sun block. Soy una gamba.