Vang Vieng + F.R.I.E.N.D.S. = HAPPY

If you have missed some episodes of the famous long-running series on TV - F.R.I.E.N.D.S. - there is just a place for you to catch it --- VANG VIENG! You can watch it while you eat you breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks... or even while you drink your Beer Lao... at almost every bar in town and played all day and night long (I'm exaggerating - bars usually close at 10:30pm, but still).

Vang Vieng is just a small town but is now getting known for its main road that is being compared to the Khao San Road of Bangkok. I've never been to Thailand but picture this: most of the tourists are young people, they wake up late because of the parties last night, they will order their western-style breakfast from their fave bar/restaurant (you can even have Muesli), then they might gather up their friends for a tubing adventure down the Nam Song River where river parties start at around 12nn or 1pm and ends around 5pm or just before dark, then they come back to town drunk and so "happy"* or so confused or angry at someone, you'll see some shouting angrily at their buddies or crying on the side of the road, and they are walking on their bikinis or swimwears and walking around town barefoot.

That doesn't end there, the famous buckets are up for the grabs at the bars... that can be whisky plus rum or plus something that can make you "happy"*. Then the party goes on until the bar closes for there is a curfew. Most of the people will head to the next bar and then the next... so party actually doesn't end at 11pm, it lasts until 3am or 4am or longer.

I'm just saying that Vang Vieng can be small but it is big with parties and it's no wonder some tourists stay there for 2 weeks or more. You can buy herbal drugs there from MJ to magic mushrooms hidden under the names: Mush-Pepsi-Shake, Space Pizza, or Happy Shake which is the most common. And the thing there is that it seems to be tolerated by the locals and by the officials as well. HOWEVER, before you think of going for them, watch your back for the police. They do make money from it according to what I heard from a local there were at least 6 foreigners caught using MJ and the police asked them for some significant amount of money.

I'll write more about Vang Vieng's other side on the next entry.

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* It seems that HAPPY got a special meaning in Laos. When we reached the capital, Vientiane, we saw "HAPPY SUNDAES" on one of the fastfood store and we just looked at each other and started to remember what HAPPY meant in Vang Vieng.