Disenchanted in Paradise

Vang Vieng, Laos - March 20

Let me preface this by saying that we HAVE been on the road for 15 months, so maybe I'm a bit jaded at this point...

Once the haven of adventure seekers for it's access to natural beauty and opium dens, some now say that Vang Vieng has lost it's soul. It certainly does appear to have SOLD it's soul at the very least. Never before have I seen culture clash as on the streets of this 20-something thousand inhabitant village overrun by 20-something kids in search of the endless "Spring Break". The biggest attractions of today are the booze cruise river tubing trip and "TV Bars" that line the main road offering your choice of non-stop "Friends" (sitcom), "Simpson's" and a variety of movies. The clash unfortunately doesn't stop there but extends to the irreverence in which many of these kids dress, specifically the girls, as they hang about town. Despite notices both in town + guide books to respect this conservative culture in the way you behave + dress, ample flesh is revealed and we even witnessed one irate village woman yelling at a young brit's buxom cleavage while gesticulating for her to GO HOME. Yikes!

More generally, one of our biggest disap- pointments with the country so far has been the air quality. Not only is it getting very hot, but slash and burn agriculture is alive and well here (extending into Burma + Northern Thailand as well). The weather is really only UNBEARABLY hot here from April through June, but beginning in March farmers set fire to the fields creating a smoky haze that smothers the sun, obscuring the views and making photography basically pointless. This shot was taken at a particularly bleak point during our first day hike in an otherwise lovely valley surrounded by limestone karsts. The next couple days we toured more of the valley and spent time exploring caves with only our headlamps to light the way. Some demanded that we climb or descend ladders to maneuver through while others were viewed while reclining in an inner tube, propelling ourselves through water. A very good time!

Check the "link" for more photos from Laos. You'll see it's really not ALL bad.