Once notorious as a debauched riverside party town, Vang Vieng had cleaned up its act in recent years, but is now in the headlines for all the wrong reasons once again. "Just make sure you push yourself off the end when you reach the bottom of the slide. We had someone die on those rocks down there last week.
" It was 2010, and for the young me – teenaged, inebriated and on my first ever backpacking trip through Southeast Asia – health and safety were far from the top of the agenda. Nevertheless, I heeded the advice offered by the dreadlocked Australian bartender, and, as I reached the end of the tiled slide, gave myself an almighty push into the air above the Nam Song River, throwing out a warning yell to alert the revellers in the water below of my clumsily impending cannonball. Vang Vieng, a town of around 25,000 people on the banks of the Nam Song River in central Laos, has for decades been a firm fixture on the so-called "Banana Pancake Trail" – the backpacker path through Southeast Asia named for the go-to breakfast at so many guesthouses and cafes along the route.
Once notoriously known as a debauched riverside party town, Vang Vieng had cleaned up its act in recent years, but it is now in the headlines for all the wrong reasons once again, with a number of foreign tourists having died after ingesting drinks laced with methanol . Vang Vieng became famous as a party destination in the late 1990s for its plentiful backpacker hostels and wooden riverside bars stocked.
