Laos: Christmas in Vang Vieng
- Will Boddington
- Jan 5, 2018
- 3 min read
After a long, bumpy journey to Vang Vieng, we were relieved that our hostel was only a short walk from the bus station. We were welcomed in to the hostel by a very enthusiastic man (Tranh), but was told there had been a problem with our booking... Instead of the private double we had booked, we were upgraded to a huge family room for free! There was also free whiskey served at the hostel between 7-10pm every night, which we definitely took advantage of that first night...
We had initially booked three nights at Chillao so we could spend Christmas Day tubing down the river. This used to be quite dangerous as there were numerous bars, zip lines and rope swings, but due to a series of deaths (about 25 in 2011), the government put new regulations in place which has made this a much safer activity. We stopped at three bars by catching the rope thrown out to us and had a drink at each before heading onwards down the river and drying off for a Christmas Dinner in Oh La La Restaurant. Unfortunately this was all cold and the veg was barely cooked, so half an hour later we found ourselves having a quick plate of pasta to fill up - not quite the traditional Christmas meal we'd been expecting!
We were enjoying Vang Vieng so decided to extend our stay two more nights, which later extended to five more nights so we could also spend New Years there. We thought we'd struggle to entertain ourselves for the week between Christmas and New Year, but we had a lot of rainy days which we spent relaxing in local cafes and reading, and headed out the local lagoons and caves on the rare sunny days.
One day we even managed to go tubing through a cave for free! We had hired a moped so we got the cave by ourselves, then realised that everyone else seemed to be in tour groups, so we tagged onto the back of a German-speaking group and followed them through the cave.
One of the best things about Vang Vieng was the mix of Thai, Laos and Western foods. We got into a routine of eating local food for lunch, then something more Western in the evening - this ranged from spaghetti to burgers to pizza to Indian! Most restaurants also served Somersby cider which was a delicious change to local beers.
Accommodation in Vang Vieng:
Chillao Hostel, 150,000LKR per night for a private double room.
The rooms were as you would expect for a hostel - slightly grubby walls and a hard, spring-filled bed, with a dodgy shower. However, the communal showers downstairs seemed a lot nicer, but even ours wasn't so bad either of us ever used the showers downstairs. We were in a room right at the top far end of the building which meant we could still get an early night if we wanted, or we could stay downstairs and make the most of the free whiskey given out every night - all you had to pay for was the mixer. This usually worked out as about £1 for enough coke to make 6 or 8 drinks! This was by far our favourite hostel so far as it was the perfect mix of social and relaxing, and was a perfect location. Tranh also made our stay memorable with his humour and helpfulness and we would definitely stay here again, 9/10.
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