Vang Vieng, Laos was originally a staging post between the two main cities of Luang Probang and Vientaine dating back to the mid 1300's. The town was previously known long ago as Mouang Song named after when villagers saw the king's dead body floating down the river. Later on in the 1890s under French Colonial Rule the town was renamed Vang Vieng. In the 1960s the US government built an air base there during the Vietnam War. This added infrastructure and resulted in a rapid expansion of the town.
It wasn't until the late 1990s when an organic farmer gave his western volunteers tubes to float down the Nam Song River to have fun and relax. Somehow the word spread that Vang Vieng is the place to go tubing and get drunk on a river in South East Asia. Suddenly Vang Vieng was on the backpacker loop.
Things started getting out of control. Business boomed as the streets filled with booze and free love. The backpackers were doing more than polluting, drinking, doing drugs, and changing the overall culture and environment of the town. They were dying! Things got so bad in 2011, twenty-two people died on the river from either getting drunk and drowning or diving head first into shallow water!
Bars would line the river and it would be one endless party. Now there are only a few bars on the river, less backpackers and more tourist from Korea, Japan, and China looking to do outdoor adventure sports. They have dune buggies, paragliding, caving, rock climbing, kayaking, even hot air balloon rides!
Vang Vieng is a little hippy backpacker, a little adventure Korean tourist, and a whole lot of Lao! Here are some photos that were taken around town in the past week. Enjoy!
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