Vang Vien. Former tourist trap, with one main draw: tubing down the river while completing its pub crawl of 30 plus bars. Now only five bars -- due to the Aussies all getting too excited and all killing selves -- the town is struggling to reinvent itself to make more use of its picturesque setting and appeal to a higher class of tourist. Its all a little bit confused at moment, to be honest. But still, it's a bit of a laugh if you're up for a ride along the river -- while small children drive bomb you off bridges and the local bar owners go westerner-fishing* -- or cycling/biking it out to the blue lagoons for a more leisurely dip.

Aussie, love you as I do, please don't come back and ruin it further.
 
Thinking about it, one of the biggest draws of the place is actually the bus journey here. If you can hold onto your stomach, it's stunning. You wind your way down the mountainside -- extremely fast if you happen to have a bus driver like ours -- with exceptional views of the surrounding mountains.
 
*Westerner-Fishing: throwing out lines, weighted with plastic bottles, to catch yourself a passing westerner in a rubber tire ("they will come and drink at my bar, whether they want to or not. No, I don't care that they have been in the river for less than 10 meters! I shall give them free whiskey and bracelets and they shall stay")