Vang Vieng - the town that got stuck in time

From Vientiane we took a mini bus to Vang Vieng - 8 hours or so - where we met another Argentinean girl travelling by herself. She'd been travelling for ten months and had had all her valuables stolen the first month - so she had continued her travels almost penniless and with help of fellow travelers. It was a sad story in a way. She'd put all her saved money (in cash) and both passports, phone, camera in her bag before boarding a train, and suddenly it was gone. Just like that, all her hopes, security, savings, anything important she needed was taken away. Her home away from home. The man who stole all her money ( aprox u$s 6000 in cash) is probably now counting he's good fortune, without knowing the harm he's caused. Yep, we might want to write the script, as we thought it could become a great film.

We invited her to stay on our bungalows for free given that we were 'millionaires' (joke but a bit true considering we earned in English sterling) plus we'd rented already, by coincidence, a three bed bungalow. The Champa Lao bungalows, such a chilled place to stay in such a touristy town. A bit on the far side of town ( 10 mins walk instead of 5mins) but perfect in it's own way, as it was stuck across a bridge of the Mekong in the jungle.

Eating: We tried one of the restaurants showing 'Friends' which we thought was chilling - by that time, as we'd just arrived, we had no realised absolutely every bar has been showing 'Friends' episodes for the last 10 years - and we had the worst experience as a cooked cockroach appeared in Chema's half eaten curry. We had good food in a place called Oh LaLa but nothing special.

Activities

Tubing: If you are under thirty and in the mood for drinking your ass of while you bump over the rocks of the mekong then this is the right activity for you. Always after 3 pm as the uncontrollable drinking begins then. There is a place that rents the tubes. Ask around. And you get the tuk tuk to the drop off place with all the other drinking gringos. However start coming down the river 30 minutes before sunset if not, I've heard terrifying reports of people not realising they would be coming down the river at night with no lights and no one to show them the way back. Beware.

Kayaking: Exciting... Specially as the scenery is quite beautiful.

Blue Lagoon: Overrated. If you are looking for a place to take a dip with no Chinese crowding the waters with life-vests go the the fake blue lagoon on the right turn before. It was empty - no people - so it was just us on our own swimming in it. And it was blue as well....

Zipline: did not go down the line but it seemed pretty exciting as some of them are quite longish.

Caves: We did some tubing inside of a cave. I felt a bit scared as to be honest, the whole ass in the water inside of a cave where you can barely see what's around or beneath you is not very tempting. "Pirañas" my friend kept on joking. I honestly was so afraid something would end up poking up my butt that did not enjoy it. But nothing happened of course.  Cave was huge and interesting to see, but well - it was a cave. I'm loosing interest in those things nowadays. You see one, you've seem them all.

Drugs: Was quite surprised that on bars they would offer you an alternative menu with their drug list. Check below. Insane.