"Friends" in Laos

Aw, how nice, you must have said when you read the title. Neil must have made some wonderful new friends in Laos..... well, not quite....

Hum, where to start? I am in the very scenic little town of Vang Vieng, Laos. It sits on a lovely river in a valley surrounded by spectacular jagged mountains - breathtaking. The town itself has kind of a seedy "wild west" feel to it. It is very much a travellers town, with thousands of 20 something backpackers hanging out for weeks on end.

And there is lots to do here - biking, rock climbing, caving, kayaking, but the most popular activity is floating down the river in inner tubes. Everyone does it to keep cool in the 35 degree (95 F) heat, but mostly they do it to travel to the six different bars catering to the tubers on the riverbanks. Once you get very drunk, you may want to try the ziplines or other dangerous activities set up for you. The town has a very busy hospital, several people have died recently, and many people in town are walking around with casts, bandages, or other injuries!

By evening, everyone in town is walking around in board shorts and bikinis blitzed out of their minds, if they have managed to survive the day.

And if that was not enough, the most popular drink in town is a "happy shake" which might go quite nicely with a "happy pizza". Our guide warned us, so we are all being careful. So, now you are drunk and stoned, what to do next?

Well, some time ago, one of the bar owners discovered that drunk and stoned Westerners really like to watch reruns of the show "Friends". His bar soon became the most popular in town, so now EVERY other bar has copied him.

There are dozens (no I am not exaggerating) of bars all playing Friends reruns in this town. If not Friends, a few have branched out into the Simpsons and one even shows Family Guy. It is almost impossible to go to a bar or restaurant and avoid it (we tried).

They also play the Friends DVD's on a three episode loop, so even when you are really stoned, you at some point realize that you have already seen this Friends, and get up and finally leave.

The bars are packed, the patrons all look like vegetables, and it is just so weird... you know I could not make stuff like this up!

That being said, Ollie and I are going tubing this afternoon, with instructions to behave ourselves... should be fun. And with GAP's stringent no drugs policy, we will not be consuming "happy" anything.

More soon from Vietnam, my "friends".