Holly, Hannah, Jack and cheap booze

They were kissing and some drunk people were taking photos.

Brian and I were in Bucket Bar - the only bar with more than 10 people at it. I'd guess there may have even been 100 people here.

If you hadn't already guessed from the name of the place - drinks were served in buckets. Perhaps a good indication of the attitude towards drinking here... the more the better. The bar offered free whiskey shots on arrival and then 20,000KIP for a bucket of whiskey and coke. 20,000 KIP is like... a dollar.

We didn't need whiskey, but figured in the spirit of things.. why not?

Brian carried our bucket through the crowds of messy, drunken tourists - each of them so inebriated that they are completely unaware of (or just don't care) how messy and drunken they look. I followed and we settled down on one of the less-busy 'platforms' that were scattered around this open-air bar. You're meant to take your shoes off and sit down, so we did.

We watched people dancing and commentated on how amusing they look. It's pretty funny really. It made me wonder how peculiar I must look when I'm dancing. I like dancing though... I don't want to think about how weird I must look.

Oh, yes those two kissers. So they're sitting on the platform next to us. Two girls - one of them super skinny and one of them rather stocky. The skinny one is mega boozed and notices us sitting alone. 'Oh god... don't come over' I pray.

"Hi what's your name?" She asks in an English accent, putting out her hand.

Shaking it, I say "Pamela".

I introduce Brian too and she seems thrilled to meet us.

Her name is Holly "like holiday but without the day". Ah... I wasn't sure.

We chatted for a while until a song she liked came on. She squealed and jumped up and said she'd be back soon.

I turned back to Brian who was just being approached by bar staff guy offering another free shot. Seriously? They were giving this stuff away like water...it must have been pretty damn awful. We declined his kind offer (with nasty hangover in mind) but he poured some into our half-full bucket anyway.

He can't have been any older than 20. He was skinny, strikingly blonde and very tall with a piercing on his lip about 1/3 of the way along it.

"How long you worked here?" I asked.
"As long as I lived here." He said.

Ohhhhhh kay. Obvious next question...

"How long you lived here?" I asked.
"Bout 2 months. And then before that I was in Vientiene for 10 months." He said.
"Doing what?"
"Living. And I plan to stay here for 10 years."

Cool. I tried to get a bit more out of him but other than his name (Jack), he turned out to be completely boring. He had no intention of doing anything here other than live and drink and work in a bar. Each to their own... but trust me... Vang Vieng would not be my living place of choice for TEN years with an ambition like that.

I must apologise because I have a poor recollection of the order of events that followed, eventually leading to the four of us (Holly, Hannah, Brian and myself) hanging out in Han and Holly's bungalow til 2 in the morning and then having them walk Brian and I to our respective accommodations after ordering tuna baguettes from a sidewalk vendor (not the safest food choice at that hour). I wish the story got more exciting here... but it doesn't. There was no overly exciting drug abuse or authoritative intervention or drunken debauchery... sadly.

I nodded 'hey' to the two cockroaches I shared a house with, curled up on my bed and dozed off to the increasingly loudening choir of crickets and roosters.

Playing by the river

This pretty much sums up my time in Vang Vieng.

We read books. We slept. We swam.

Oh and we hired bikes and visited a lagoon. There was no-one else there except these two young boys. One of them had a mask on and would stick his head underwater and walk/swim around until he found something. When he found something, he would jump up and down and yell and make a big noise. He would then emerge with a small fish in hand and throw it up the cliff to his friend/brother waiting on the grass. The fish was always thrown too far and would land with a 'THUD'. The other boy would run to it, pick it up and add it to their stringed collection.

Brian and I were fascinated.

Hunting for fish.

Showing us their kill

Vang Vieng is...

• Pancake and fruit-shake stalls
• Restaurants playing reruns of Friends, The Simpsons and Family Guy
• Opium, mushrooms and marijuana
• 'Tubing'
• Internet Cafes
  
• Travel and tourism companies
• Construction
  

5 and a half hours

So 5 and a half hours in a small mini-van along treacherous windy roads lined with steep cliffs is not my idea of an enjoyable way to spend the day. Nevertheless it had to be done I suppose and I have my iPod to thank for 3 things:

1. Keeping me entertained for 5 and a half hours
2. Keeping my mind off throwing up for 5 and a half hours
and 3. Drowning out the sound of the driver's wife throwing up 5 and a half times along the way.

The only good thing to come of the trip is meeting Brian, this pretty low-key guy from Modesto (North of San Francisco) who is on a 3-week holiday from teaching English in Bangkok. When he first got in the van (in Luang Prabang) I pretty much attacked him with questions. And so he's 27 (although I didn't find this out til later) and he lives in a small apartment in Bangkok with no kitchen! He hasn't seen his family in 2 and a half years and clearly misses his 8 year old niece.

Anyhow, he was feeling pretty awful from the drive so after he had sufficiently answered my 40 questions, he curled himself up on the seat and I plugged in my headphones.

***

Arriving in Vang Vieng was not what I expected. Although I couldn't describe what I was expecting.

It's much smaller than Luang Prabang. The streets aren't as well kept, the roads not as wide.

first impressions of Vang Vieng