Views of Vang Vieng

February 2^nd, 2025 

Catching the high-speed train from Luang Prabang, I arrived in Vang Vieng around 1 pm.  My ticket included a truck taxi into town which dropped me off at my accommodation, the Win Hotel, a nice place.  After settling in, I went for a walk around the town to get the lay of the land.

Two high speed locomotives joined together in the middle of a long train.

My first class car was 9 train cars away from the terminal...the last car, hardly first class service, although I didn't mind the walk. 

The countryside on the journey.

Vang Vieng had a reputation for being a crazy backpacker party town where you could go “tipsy tubing” down the river, stopping at numerous bars along the way.   And the bars, for some reason, used to play rerun episodes of “Friends” constantly (I really don’t care for that show).  There were a few deaths of tubers over the years, most likely from too much imbibing mixed with flowing water, and the town has tried to change its look.  Even though the tipsy tubing is still an option, it’s supposedly not as crazy as it used to be 10-15 years ago.

This sign was outside a bar in Vang Vieng.  I like the no "Naked Boby" rule.

However, recently Vang Vieng was in the news for the wrong reason again, with 6 backpackers losing their lives from drinking free vodka shots in a hostel that turned out to contain methanol.  Even trace amounts of methanol can be deadly.  This is why I thought it was crazy that on the Mekong River cruise I went on, that we stopped at “Whiskey Village” and tried some of their distilled spirits (I violated the one thing I wasn’t supposed to do in Laos!).

This is the hostel, Nana Backpackers.  The victims were backpackers from England, Australia, the US and Denmark.  Some of them died days later in other locations and other people got sick, were hospitalized but recovered.  The owner and seven other staff members have been detained.

The courtyard of the hostel...the pool sure isn't looking inviting.  I could see how it was a party place though.

Oh, just a random Buddha nearby.

It's a lovely area.

Looking to the south.

This is an almost daily occurrence, actually usually twice a day, at sunrise and sunset.

A bridge near the centre of town that was just for motorbikes, scooters and pedestrians.  Vehicles had to drive a couple of kilometres north to a suitable bridge, although there's a new bridge under construction closer to the center which looked to be almost complete.

Such a cool way to fly.

As the sun started to get lower in the sky, I headed to the tallest building in Vang Vieng, called "The Elephant Hotel" or "Elevate 9".  The rooftop was the best place in town to catch sunset plus the hot air balloons and the paramotor trikes flying around.  I went there on 2 out of 3 of my nights in town.

Because you got views like this!

There were more than a dozen paramotor trikes buzzing around (I’ve never seen so many in the sky at once).  Add to that, there were hot air balloons taking off from the south side of the town and flying to the north, with some of them passing nearby where I was.  There were some other hot air balloons in the distance, to the west, that were higher than any of the ones flying over town.  I clued in that this was the “Above Laos” company that I had booked a flight with, in a few days time…I got excited about this upcoming adventure.

Three formations of paramotor trikes flying around.

Cheers to Vang Vieng!

Looking north...

I love the design of this one.

And looking south.

The rooftop.

Caught that one just in time.

Hot air balloons taking flight over Vang Vieng.

Some paramotor trikes flying around.

A balloon getting low over the city.

Three paramotor trikes flying in formation.

Long tail boats racing upriver.

The "heart" balloon takes flight again.

Sure was fun to watch all of these balloons.

The next day, I rented a scooter and headed to the valley west of town, where the Above Laos balloons were flying.  The main tourist attractions in Vang Vieng (apart from the partying) are viewpoints, caves for spelunking, hot air balloon & paramotor trike rides, and swimming in the five “blue lagoons”, swimming holes with rope swings and/or ziplines.  The majority of these were  located in the valley that I was checking out.

The most famous viewpoint is called Nam Xay, so I decided to start my day with it.  The hike up takes only about 25-30 minutes but it’s steep and ascends about 370 meters.  As it seemed to be the case with all viewpoints, caves and lagoons in the area, the price of admission was 20,000 dong ($1.50).  It was well worth the price of admission.

The steep hike up to the the Nam Xay viewpoint.  Hard to see in this photo but the woman in the green has a baby in a harness on her chest...seems a bit dodgy.

Because it was a pretty steep 370 meter climb to the top...and trickier coming down.

Made it.

It was worth the effort!

Two motorcycles have been hauled the hill for some epic photos.  Unfortunately the bike kinda blended into the rocks on the photos I asked this young Danish woman to take for me.  The hill on the right in the background has a small plane on the top...not sure how they got that up there.  It's on the backside of that hill that I went to check out a "cave" coming up shortly on this blog entry.

Looking back towards Vang Vieng...not that you can see it.

What a gorgeous view!

Looking back up at the viewpoint.

Back on my rented scooter, I headed further west and within a few clicks, I saw a sign for a cave and another viewpoint.  I was only interested in the cave as my legs, specifically my knees, had enough from the Nam Xay viewpoint.  I paid my obligatory 20,000 dong and climbed up about 50 meters to this “cave”.  Really, it turned out to be a hole in the wall.  Well, you win some, you lose some.  Too bad I didn’t have the energy to go up to the top of this viewpoint though, as there is a small plane at the top…even more impressive than two motorcycles for a photograph.

I had to crawl through that tunnel to get to the "cave"...

The cave is the tiny slit to the left of the Buddha statue.  There is a bowl with burnt incense sticks blocking the entrance.  I could have tried to crawl in there, but figured that the bowl was a hint not to go in there.

The "hint" not to go in.

Looking in from the outside, there were a bunch of small Buddha statues. 

Back on the road.  It was a great area to explore on a scooter.

Scooterin' in the valley near Vang Vieng.

My next, and last stop for the afternoon, was “Blue Lagoon 3”.  I had read online that this was one of the best ones of the five lagoons in the area, and it was quite good.  It had a big rectangular, somewhat natural pool, probably 50 meters by 25.  The depth was only about 8-10 feet, and there were even some fish swimming around, although I didn’t see them until after I got out of the water.

 

Blue Lagoon 3.

A seemingly cobbled together platform complete with a short zipline and rope swing provided a lot of entertainment, both for the participants and the spectators.  There were a few impressive somersaults or backflips, but conversely, there were some hilarious shenanigans.  This one Japanese woman, covered from head to toe in black clothing (common for Japanese people when they go swimming) and wearing a lifejacket, flew out on the rope swing.  She didn’t let go while screaming as loud as she could.  As she swung back towards the tower, everyone was yelling, in multiple languages, to let go…but she didn’t.  Thankfully she didn’t hit the tower, but proceeded to swing back and forth 3-4 times, shrieking the whole time…she just didn’t want to let go.  When her pendulum-like swinging finally slowed down, she dropped into the water.  She was definitely a crowd favourite!

A close view of the zipline and rope swing platform.  It looked like a first year engineering project in structural design.  Oh, just add another piece of wood here, another brace there...that should do it!

A zipliner at the lagoon.

Just 120 meters from the lagoon was the Phaboun Cave.  From the signage by the lagoon, it looked intriguing as it was 150 meters deep and had a pool of water that you could swim in near the end of it.  I decided to check it out.

The entrance was the toughest part of the spelunking.  There was a French couple just ahead of me, who were also equipped with headlights, but then a Japanese couple came in after me and only one of them had a phone, which really doesn’t project much light.  However, our impromptu group made our way through the cave and eventually found the pool of water, which was a bit of a let down as there wasn’t much water there.  It definitely wasn’t inviting for a swim which a sign outside claimed it to be. 

 

The entrance to the Phaboun Cave.

Cool stalactites.

Walking into Phaboun Cave.

Lots of stalactites.

Three other guys caught up to us and even though I suggested that we try turning off our lights to experience the darkness, but no one seemed to be game.  So I let them get ahead of me on the way out, and I waited in this big chamber until their lights disappeared and soaked in the utter blackness.  Yet again, I was transported to the thought of the tribulation that the young Thai soccer team endured when they were caught in a cave for over two weeks back in 2018.  These boys ranged in age from 11 to 16 with their coach only 25 years old.  It must have been terrifying!

Turning on my light after a few minutes in the dark.

Interesting crystals shining off of the ceiling.

Back out of the cave and heading towards the lagoon.

Another zipliner...unfortunately I missed videoing the funniest ones.

A beautiful area.

On my ride back to Vang Vieng, I took a different road, on the south side of the valley.  By chance, I passed by a field where four hot air balloons were laid out, about to inflate and take to the sky.  They were from the company Above Laos, and I was going to be flying with them tomorrow morning.

Catching the balloons coming to life.

Three cute girls on an electric bike checking out the action.

This got me excited about my flight tomorrow morning in one of these four balloons.

They are starting to take life.

Liftoff of one of the balloons.

Up she goes.

Flying right over me...I can't wait for tomorrow morning when it's my turn!

Up, up and away!

It was awesome to see these hot air balloons come to life and take to the sky.  Shockingly, I was actually excited to be getting up at 5:30 in the morning…as it will definitely be worth it!