The town was overrun with guesthouses and restaurants and there was a nice place on the outskirts of the small town along an old military runway. It had a large bed with a private bath with warm shower and nicely tiled floors and walls and all this for $1.25/night. It was the nicest room I’ve ever had traveling. It was good to have a room to myself and get out the hostel scene and have some space away from too many travelers.

I spent a few days in V.V. and ended up spending a little more time than expected. My stomach was acting up just a little and a long bus ride and a potentially upset stomach don’t mix well. The town isn’t that nice, wall-to-wall tourist shop fronts and for the most part, I didn’t meet a lot of people that were that interesting. I think the nicest I met was an English guy in his late sixties with a Thai wife about thirty years old. There were a few caves around but nothing too spectacular but the limestone spires around the area were wonderful. I had been looking around for the last days and while Laos is a poor country, it’s definitely more affluent than Papua-New Guinea. While it’s not a rich country, most families could at least purchase a scooter and no one was wearing rags as clothing.

The best part of V.V. is renting a bike, getting out of town, and riding around the countryside. One km. outside town and the tourism is left behind and several days were spent in the country side. One rental bike had a very uncomfortable metal seat and I tooled around with a sore posterior all day. It does reinforce the notion that on a bicycle, never, ever skimp on the saddle, it’s not worth it. I did appreciate the nice bikes I have at home but these bikes were still fun to ride. It matters that you ride and where rather than what you are riding. I met an English guy living in Thailand who was also riding. The villagers wanted to charge us a bridge toll. They wanted to quadruple the toll because of the bikes and this guy spoke in Lao, “The river isn’t deep and if you raise the toll, we’ll just wade across the river.” They didn’t budge and only when he picked up his bike and started going to the river, telling me to follow, said, “Now you’ll get nothing”, only then did they relent and charge the base toll. Ah yes, walking away, a useful talent anywhere you go.

VV is forgettable but the countryside is really something to see but my stomach was feeling good again so it was time to head to Luang Prubang, a city of ancient Buddhist temples. The ride there was something to behold. Steep drops on one side of the road and on the other side were towering limestone spires that disappeared into the clouds. The hills of Laos were much nicer than I had been expecting.

Epilogue:

The people attracted to VV were typically younger and there to party. Myself, the opposite. I actually disliked being in the town and thought it represented the worst of what travelers can bring to a place. Some years later, I would read about the town and it had gotten much, much worse.

In 2011, there were 27 deaths, mostly due to drug usage and related injuries and an average of 5-10 travelers were hospitalized daily due to excess. It got so bad, that government came in and basically shut the town down as the town had become unmanageable and basically destructive to the local area. I read that Lao towns were using it as an example of exactly what not to do. In the following years it became, thankfully, a shadow of what it was and they were trying to experiment with resurrecting tourism of a different sort but wow, it must have pretty bad. Hopefully VV will recover and find a sustainable solution as it really is a pretty area and the locals were, and still are, very kind.