Vang Vieng, Laos

Before our time at Saelao we only spent 20 minutes in Vang Vieng, thinking it would be the worst kind of tourist trap based on what we read and people had told us. But the stories we had heard were all based on Vang Vieng pre-September 2012, when binge-drinking and making stupid, dangerous decisions were the two main activities. For a history of the debauchery, see here. Happily, the stunning surroundings and brilliant activities remain, while the bars along the river have been closed, which has correspondingly led to a reduction in the number of idiots present and no more deaths! We went tubing through an underground cave around 20 km north of the town, pulling ourselves along ropes and unsuccessfully trying to keep our bodies out of the frigid water.

It was an amazing experience, with the illumination of headlamps the only visible light in the cylindrical tunnel. At one point, we had to pick up our tubes and walk through shallows to reach deeper water.

While still around 10 km north of town, we started kayaking along the popular tubing route of the Nam Song river, which took us just over an hour compared to an extremely languid three. It was strange to see vast numbers of steps leading to now non-existent bars, and the sites of slides and ziplines that were the cause of so many deaths.

Aside from water-based activities, there are also a number of spectacular loops radiating out from town, going through epic limestone landscapes and poor rural villages. We hired scooters for small change, as competition is extremely strong since tourist numbers have dwindled.

The main sight of our loop was the Yui waterfall, which we inexplicably had to ourselves. It is now the dry season, but the fall was still impressive and very powerful.

In addition to the falls, there were a number of lagoons that were packed with butterflies drinking the water that had lapped onto the rocks. We sat and watched them in between refreshing dips.