At the end of January, 2012 I had to do a visa run. In Thailand they will give you 60 days to be in the country and then you have to go to another country before getting another visa to stay. I chose to visit Laos. I had been there before and totally love the country. This time around I just wanted a vacation after all the teaching. I was not really looking to experience much of their culture or see anything new, I just wanted to party and relax. It just so happens that the best party town in the world is located in Laos....so I spent the whole time there.
Vang Vieng is a small town that has been taken over by tourists. It is set in a beautiful location with limestone cliffs full of caves and a river running right next to town. The town is full of restaurants all serving the same food while they play episode after episode of Friends. Occasionally their will be a restaurant playing South Park or Family Guy. Four years ago when I rolled through the town it was just about the same. It's a little bigger, more hostels keep popping up, and the resorts are starting to creep in and take over areas.
My favorite place to stay when I was there before was on the outter edge of town. It had very basic bungalows each with a mattress on the floor and a community toilet outdoor. The property was still there, but a new company has moved in and upgraded the whole area by putting in a pool, restaurant, bed frames, bug nets, and they have remodeled and cleaned up the toilets/showers. They did a great job and it looks nice, but I miss the old very basic and simple place. They said next time I come back they will have more upgrades and will probably tear down the few remaining bamboo bungalows to put up cement ones with aircon. Sad.
I didn't let it get me down. I booked a room and went off to go explore the town. After a night or two I switch to a different hostel that was cheap, simple and full of great people.
One of the best parts of Vang Vieng is the river. You can rent tubes for the day and float from one bar to the next. There are lots of buckets of booze, shots on arrival, mushie shakes and rope swings. The river is terribly dirty and I get sick every time I visit this town, but it is totally worth it. Def the best party town in the world and after a full day of drinking the party continues till the sun comes up. Lots of dancing, hammocks, beer pong, shots, swinging, siwmming, and more. It was the perfect break from teaching! I even learned how to do a backflip off the rope swing one day!
On one of the days I did take a break from the river and went rock climbing. It was a good time and I climbed a lot of different routes. I'm not sure what the ratings were, but it was fun. I started easy and was able to do more than I expected.
After my day hike in the park, I booked a tour to go to Cheow Larn Lake in the national park for three days and two nights. There were nine of us on the boat as we cruised from one end of the lake to the other. The ride was beautiful! The lake is actually a reservoir filled with clear greenish-blue water and there are limestone mountains and jungles surrounding it all. 
Not only did I see my first wild elephant, but wild boars, horn bills (like toucans), buffalo and heard wild gibbons the entire time, esp around dawn and dusk. There were a few other animals too, but those were the highlights. The national park also claims to have some tigers, but the population is thought to only be in the teens. 
