Travellers' Checks | Laos’ cleaned-up party capital gets first international-class hotel, and turns another corner
Serene Amari property in one-time backpacker haunt Vang Vieng, overlooking picturesque Nam Song river, offers marked-down rates and room upgrades to celebrate its recent opening
When the Lao People’s Democratic Republic first opened to independent travellers in the late 1980s, the village of Vang Vieng was just an overnight stop on the slow and officially prohibited overland journey from the capital, Vientiane, up to Luang Prabang.
Getting there involved a bus, taxi, boat and truck, fair weather and clear roads. A guided walk to its caves and waterfalls – and a visit to the local opium den – were the main attractions.
By the mid-2000s, Vang Vieng was one of the booze and drug capitals of Southeast Asia, peaking in debauchery in about 2011, when backpacker deaths from drunken and drug-addled antics on the Nam Song River reached a reported 27.
The government then stepped in, closing most bars, and things quietened down, but it’s still a party town.
This month, a planned change of direction for Vang Vieng begins with the opening of its first international hotel, the 160-room Amari Vang Vieng. Travel time from Vientiane has been cut from three days to four hours since the late ’80s, and while Amari’s invitation to “discover the undiscovered, experience the untouched, explore the unknown” comes about 30 years too late, it might be worth taking up.
