Even though the recession has hampered exotic travel, there are still those intrepid explorers going all out. All this week, our Cambodian embed Claire will share experiences from her trip to Laos.
Veng Vieng, a backpacker ghetto seven hours south of Luang Prabang by bus, is probably the seediest place along the travelers’ route, yet it can be easily skipped by people who don’t consider drinking whiskey and floating down river on an inner tube fun. Nonetheless, it's much beloved by those who do.
As I'm still in my twenties,I feel quite young, but not in Veng Vieng. The town exists for and because of 19-year-old English kids in body paint, faux-hawks and tank tops, so my similarly aged friends and I, when we left Veng Viang all with various illnesses, learned our bodies no longer have the capacity to handle spring break.
The adventure began when the bus from Luang Prabang dropped us off in the middle of the night on an abandoned road outside town. The noise of our conversation awoke angry dogs in warehouses as we walked past in the direction—we believed—of town. Heat lightning struck, knocking out the lights from occasional streetlamps. An hour or so later, we found the town and a guesthouse with an insomniac owner who could let us in. ]]>