I appear to have lost all contact with my firstborn child who I think is now trekking in Chiang Mai although by now he was meant to be in Laos. I have received a few one line emails and as I said before thank goodness he didn’t agree to commit to a regular, in depth travel-weblog update (trog?) because he would have been rubbish.
He has clearly turned into the consummate backpacker. Using vague and hippy-like language – here is a message he sent to my brother:-
“we were supposed to go to laos about a week ago but stayed in pai and now we’re back in chiang mai for songkran which is going to be huge. off to laos after that on the 16th ish but things can change quite rapidly out here. hope all is well at home! send my love to all xx”
“THINGS CAN CHANGE QUITE RAPIDLY OUT HERE???” What IS he talking about? More like they have all slowed down to a snail’s pace and decisions like whether to go to the beach or the bar are taking anything up to two days,
So. Vang Vieng next. The party venue of the moment. Written about in The Observer magazine this weekend and everything Abigail Haworth reports has successfully filled me with even more horror than I’d already had. She confirmed my worst fears about it being a place with “no rules”. A hedonistic paradise. This is where my son and his mates are going “tubing” and drinking in bars along the way – floating down river…it sounds idyllic but it all appears to have gone a bit wrong….
I had no idea that there were 27 recorded deaths last year due to drowning or diving head first into rocks. – TWENTY SEVEN!!! and that is apparently a low estimate because it does not include many fatalities who are taken straight to the larger town nearby. Apparently 5 to 10 backpackers a day arrive at the local hospital with broken bones, infected wounds or drink/drug related illness.
This is totally unacceptable. Surely. There are no safety measures. Helmets. Guidelines. The cheap alcohol consumed is 45% proof. This is a theme park gone wrong – as far as parents are concerned – “WHERE ARE THE ARMBANDS” I want to shout….We spend all this time protecting our children, just for them all to end up here? Where next? Leaping off Vic Falls? Black Mamba hunting with foam? I know that perhaps I’m sounding like my mother did when I went to Thailand at 17 (YES I DID!!) – but I ate banana pancakes for two weeks and put on a stone – rather than got stoned. I lay on the beach, swam, drank a bit, laughed a lot, talked to locals and respected their culture. Dressed accordingly. Is that really boring?
This place sounds like it’s gone way beyond that – or is it not that bad?? Please somebody tell me that most of the time everyone gets out alive….would love to hear from you if you’ve been…
