VangVieng has a lot of bars and nightclubs. But they don’t have the indoor ones like in Bangkok. It’s just simple bar and nightclub with the wood stages for people to sit and dance. Again, VangVieng is the city for foreigners, by the time I was there I hardly find any local also with the clubs, they were full with foreigners everywhere. The bartenders were Farangs, the DJs were Farangs and the club attendants were 90% Farangs too.

Party in VangVieng was crazy because the clubs were full with drunk farangs and they can let loose here with no tops (for guys) dance or do whatever they want) Fortunately, even with this many drunk people, I didn’t see any fight of drunk people at all. The night here was fun but sometimes I felt minority because there were too many farangs here. But with the fact that VangVieng is the small city, do not have many places to go and being the tourist destination, many farangs was not really a surprise thing at all. We stayed out til late then decided to walk back to the room but before that, we stopped for something to eat. Laos had street food like in Thailand but not in many choices, every street shop sell same thing with sandwiches by using French bread with ham, cheese, sausage or up to what customers want and Thai pancake or we call it as “Rotee”. The price of the sandwich was around 15,000 kip or 60 baht.

I forget to mention about the food here, it was very nice and the price of the food was from 10,000 to 30,000 kip. Papaya salad or Somtum coasted 10,000 kip or 40 baht. The thing in Laos, which is different from Thailand, is that no matter how the restaurants look like, the price of each dish is same no matter in nice restaurant or street shops.

In addition, if you are snack lover, bring a lot of snack with you to Laos otherwise, you will regret it. The snack here is so expensive and it is all imported from Thailand. I had a pack of kitkat and it coasted me for 40-baht L

Moreover, if you are addicted to Internet, don’t worry because Laos has internet shops everywhere especially VangVieng. The price for internet service was around 200 – 300 kip per minute or .75 – 1.25 baht per minute. It was a bit more expensive than in Thailand as well. Overall, the activities we did in VangVieng was the repeat: Tubing, jumping, kayaking, drinking, partying and eating. But they were all fun and very enjoyable. After 3 nights in VangVieng, we headed back to Bangkok and spent the last day of Songkran (15th April) in Khaosan. Songkran in Thai and Laos is different because we play harder and we also have more people than Laos.

We took the tour package back to Thailand; it cost 950 baht for each. There was the bus to Vientiane, then change to another bus direct to Khaosan, Bangkok. We left VanVieng around 2pm and got to Bangkok at 6 in the morning. The trip was fast because no traffic like the day we went to Laos because the same day when all people seemed to leave Bangkok back to their hometown.

Laos VangVieng

Laos trip Part II

Continue from the Part I, we arrive to VangVieng around 1pm, at first we had no idea where we should stay, we walked down to the tubing and didn’t see like what we saw in the photos before, it was supposed to have the swing, people jumping and the bars along the river. But what we saw at that time was just shallow cold tubing with no tourists. We walked up the street a little bit more, then we found the tuk tuk and asked him about the tubing with jumping, swing and bars. The tuk tuk driver said we had to go further more because the tube was long. So we hired him to take us to the tube with the price of 50,000 kip or 200 baht. But during the way to the tubing where people do jumpings, he stopped to pick up other passenger as well!!!!! Didn’t 50,000 kip is for whole tuk tuk service? He picked up the Brazilian guy then we chatted with him a bit and got some information, he said he stayed in this part of the city where there were bars, clubs and tons of accommodation and took tuk tuk each day to go to tubing. We didn’t understand it clearly, so we wanted to check the tubing first. Once we saw the tube, now we know that Laos didn’t manage people to live that near to the tubing. They set the bar, clubs and accommodations a little bit away from the tube and if people wanted to go to the tube, they had to take tuk tuk or rent motorbike to get there themselves. I think it’s clever in a way that Laotians can find more money on transportation and it’s better to keep people stay away from the tubing because they will cause less dirt. We decided to take Tuk Tuk back to the city part and started to find accommodation. We finally got a room for 70,000 kip per night or 280 baht. The room was good and clean too. So three people split, we paid 90 baht per night per person. Once we hit to the room, we got so tired then we took shower. It had no water heater in the room but let me tell you that the water was so fresh and I feel like I took shower from waterfall. No doubt, they got water from tubing, it made me feel so fresh and relax after finish taking shower.

We decided to have the night out right in the first night and we finally found cheap drink here, the bucket of vodka Redbull was only 120 baht and the bartender was Farang as well. Most of the clubs here in VangVieng had Farang bartenders; I cannot find any Laotians working in the club at all. By the end of the night before we went back to sleep, I asked some information from Danish guy about tubing, he suggested me to take the tour service which they will take us to cave and then kayaking down the tubing to the bars where there were jumping swings. We found it interesting and booked the tour service for tomorrow right away. The woman asked us to come meet her at the shop at 9:20. We arrived by 9:30 but leave the shop at 10 with tuk tuk. They took us about 10km further away from where we stayed and we had to walk for about 10 minutes more then we found a cave. I found it not so fun when we got into the cave for 10 minutes because got tired paddling myself inside. After an hour with the cave trip, we walked back to the car again and then we took us to the place to start kayaking and that’s where was the fun began.

Laos Vang Vieng

Laos trip Part I

During this Songkran from 10th April until 16th April I had some clients coming from the USA. I decide to do something cool with friends and clients because of the situation in Bangkok at the time with red shirts, it made us to make decision easier that it could be the best time for us now to leave Bangkok and Thailand for a while. We decided to travel to Laos and were keen for Laung Prabang (I am the Boss) but one of my Clients went there already so we changed our trip to Vientiane and then VangVieng. I heard a lot of cool thing about VangVieng and this long holiday was my chance to explore it. We left Bangkok on 9th April right after my clients arrived at Bangkok Airport, we caught the taxi and headed to Mochit station right away to get the bus to Nongkhai border. We decided to catch the bus at night so we could arrive to Nongkhai border in the early morning. We go the bus at 9:30, the chaos begins here because we had to walk for like 2 kilometers to catch the bus and we had to wait until 10:30 for the bus to leave. During the way, the traffic was so horrible and that caused us to end up at NongKhai border almost midday of the next day.

The Border to Laos

Once we got to Nongkhai border, we caught the bus to across the border right away. The fee was 55 Baht. The bus was so packed; they sold tons of tickets to the customers. Once we get to Thai border, they asked all passengers to leave the bus to fill in the form and everything. When we finished we got on the bus again and had to get off the bus one more time for Lao immigration to get the stamp then we got into Laos officially. It took us about 1 hour to get into the city of Vientiane. We got the room costing us around 600 Baht for 3 people. We arrived to Vientiane around 3pm and spent the rest of the day after checking in the hotel to Buddha Park. It was the coolest thing in Vientiane to see so far. The thing that surprised me in Laos is food. The food in Laos is more expensive than in Thailand. I had noodle in the first day I arrived there and it cost me about 120,000 kib or 48 Baht. Nevertheless, it worth the price because they served in big bowl and it is was very yummy.

Night out in Vientiane

We got back to the hotel, rested a bit and decide have night out in Vientiane. Vientiane doesn’t have many clubs or bars like in Bangkok even they have bars but those bars close early like 11pm or so. We got suggested by Tuk Tuk driver to go to the club in the hotel which I can’t remember the name of both hotel and club now. He told us it is the most popular club in Vientiane and opens until 3 – 4am every night. We got there, saw some Laotians and farangs. Also the drink is not cheap either but around same price as in the clubs in Thailand. I had tequila shot and it costs me around 150 baht and a glass of vodka red bull with the price of 250 baht. Everything was cool with me so far but the price of food and drinks were not the thing I expect from Laos, at first, I expected it to be cheaper but unfortunately, it was not. I suggest for ones who want to go to Laos and especially ones who enjoy eating so much, you had better bring many snacks with you from Thailand because all snacks they have in Laos is imported from Thailand anyway and they sold in double price, so buying food from Thailand will save u much more.
However, the accommodation in Laos is cheaper; our 600 baht room was quite good and seem nice, everything looked fine.
We slept the night away and woke up at 9 in order to catch the bus at 9:30 to go to VangVieng, we bought the ticket before we went to sleep. The price of the ticket was 50,000 per person or 200 baht. It took us for 3 hours to get to VangVieng, The bus was ok and air con was working fine so the trip was not bad at all. Continue with Laos Part II, the fun part was about to begin once we arrived to VangVieng, the city of tubing.

Bus in Laos

Laos buddha park

Buddha park in Laos