5 Fun Things to Do in Vang Vieng, Laos

Vang Vieng is Laos’ most improbable party town. Located deep in Central Laos about four hours away from its dusty Vientiane capital, this once-tranquil scenic farming village known for its stunning limestone cliffs, caves, and forests, has since turned into somewhat of a seething epicentre of backpackers gone wild. Vang Vieng is where you come to get wasted. This town is a certified rite of passage for travelling youths passing through Laos, and tubing is its ultimate act of initiation. Tubing, which involves floating down the meandering Nam Song River in tractor-tyre tubes, brings you past riverbanks lined with ramshackle wooden bars and throbbing party music.

 

1. Go On That Legendary Tubing Experience

What’s so great about tubing in Vang Vieng? Well, it’s literally the best way to admire the stunning landscapes whilst floating languidly down the river! Besides, it also doubles up as a unique way to bar crawl – you can choose strategic spots to stop at to grab a beer, indulge in a fun game of frisbee, or make new friends while partying. Once synonymous to backpacker debauchery, tubing is now relaxing, peaceful, and provides you with ample time to soak in the ethereal beauty of Laos’ countryside.

 

2. Embark On A Caving Adventure

There are at least a hundred caves in the whole of Vang Vieng and you probably won’t want to visit every single one of them, but their jaw-droppingly beautiful formations make at least a couple of them worth the visit. A notable one is Than Nam, a Water Cave made up of a network of rivers running through the mountainside which, incidentally, allows you to go tubing for up to 500m into the mouth.

 

3. Bliss Out in the Cold Turquoise Waters of the Blue Lagoon.

 

Iceland isn’t the only country with a legit Blue Lagoon – Vang Vieng’s rendition gives it a good run for its money too, at 1/70th of the price. The road to Vang Vieng’s Blue Lagoon is quite an adventure in itself and requires a ‘mini-trek’ through a cave before you can even feast your eyes on its pool of soft delicate pale blue; but no one who has come out of this will ever tell you that the extra effort isn’t worth the while. It’s a great way to while away the afternoon in a surreal, I’m-in-the-seventh-level-of-celestial-heaven sort of way; and can be exceptionally refreshing especially if you’ve just dropped in from dusty ol’ Vientiane.

 

4. Explore the Sweet Calm of Vang Vieng In A Hot Air Balloon Ride

Everyone’s always on a curiously tight budget when cruising through the span of Southeast Asia, but at $50-$80 for a 30-60 minute ride, hot air balloon adventures in Vang Vieng are a freakin’ steal. Vang Vieng is as quaint and romantic a town as riverside towns can generally get, so what better way to explore it than by floating thousands of feet high in the air above? Don’t expect Cappadocia, but Vang Vieng’s blessed with beautiful rural scenery and gorgeous limestone formations that will make for a pretty darn good view all the same.
As with any other activity in Vang Vieng, be sure to check out the credibility of the company before settling on the lowest-priced deal. A quick Google search will provide you with the reviews you need to confirm its legitimacy; believe it or not, there are still companies who don’t adhere to the basic safety standards despite the inherent risk in hot air ballooning.

 

5. Indulge in Friends Reruns and, Make Some New Ones.

There is a weird phenomenon that goes around all of Vang Vieng, in which scores of uncannily similar bars, restaurants, and guesthouses play endless loops of Friends, Family Guy, and South Park on their overhead TV sets, from day all the way into night. It’s a fantastic place to chill out with free Wi-Fi and feel a little more at home; not to mention that all that slapstick comedy going in front of you also provides for great conversation starters with fellow travellers and boarders. If you’re unlucky (or lucky, depending on how you look at it) enough to be stuck in bad rain floods while travelling through this riverside town, be prepared to be lulled into an ultimate couch potato fest, because chances are this is what you are going to spend the bulk of your day doing.