Vang Vien

My usual reaction when I hear of a ''backpackers' paradise''?  Really?  I'll believe it when I'm there to see it with my own eyes.

 

With Vang Vien, I cannot not believe it, now that I've seen and experienced it myself.

 

 

As with most touristy places, the river banks are often occupied by hotels selling expensive rooms to paying tourists, and local People usually cannot afford the real estate on the banks of their own rivers.

 

Vang Vien, perhaps not so flushed with rich tourists yet, still have cheap guest houses lining the Nam Song river.  So yes, I saw quite a few unshaved backpackers, brown from perhaps months of sunning themselves in Vang Vien, emerging from the various guesthouses .

 

However, the beauty along the banks of the Nam Song river are just simply awesome!  Karst formations in the background, farmers leading their troops of cattle along the river bank opposite all sought to negate the noisy blasting technomusic from the Drinks vendor at the opposite bank.

 

The view from my fifth-floor balcony was simply awesome.  And for the first time, I could understand what it meant to just look at the scenery, and wave at the tourists on the hot air balloons drifting past my balcony....