Vang Vieng – Tom Vater

Vang Vieng, Laos: From party capital to eco-adventure paradise on CNN Travel

May 22, 2018May 22, 2018tomLeave a Comment

Sitting on the banks of the Song River, the rural town might seem serene now. But Vang Vieng has seen a tumultuous 15 years, evolving from an agricultural community to a hedonistic party capital when it was “discovered” by Western shoestring travelers in the late 1990s. Excessive drinking, drugs, trash, concrete construction and fatal accidents […]

Tourism woes in Laos in The Nikkei Asian Review

February 19, 2018March 2, 2019tomLeave a Comment

VIENTIANE — It is Saturday afternoon in tourist high season, and Vientiane is very quiet. Most shops are closed for the weekend. A couple of Asian tour groups ascend the Patuxai, the Laotian capital’s answer to the Arc de Triomphe. On every floor, stalls are packed with five-year-old photocopies of the Lonely Planet guide to […]

Vang Vieng Boutique Riverside in The Daily Telegraph

February 19, 2018February 19, 2018tomLeave a Comment

Set on the banks of the Song River and facing spectacular limestone mountain ridges, Vang Vieng’s swankiest hotel resort offers a winning combination of Laotian culture and French colonial era ambience, with fantastic service, excellent facilities, great tours and a good restaurant… I am just back from Laos, where I was researching articles for the […]