Vang Vieng, Laos / Photo by Laura Brander

I visited Vang Vieng back in 2000 and remember it as a small, quiet, laid back town of two streets with a sprinkling of guesthouses. The Nam Song river borders the town, separating it from small rice fields backed by towering limestone karsts on the otherside.

For a few dollars you can hire an inflatable tube and float down river through the countryside surrounded by tranquility and nature. Across the river from the town a small tractor and trailer carries groups of backpackers along a dusty dirt road to the fabled turquoise stream, and the entrance to some of the many cave systems that extend beneath the karstic landscape are guarded by locals, requesting money for a guided tour through the limestone labyrinths. Provison of a leaking wet cell battery powered headlamp was indicative of the amateur nature of business and the embryonic stage of tourism development. Places and activities not yet scarred by disaster or subject to external scrutiny have no reason to implement health and safety measures. This apparent lawlessness is perhaps the greatest attraction of places like Vang Vieng for western backpackers who are stiffled back home by endless restrictions and legislation.

I was surprised to discover recently that Rough Guides directly refer to Vang Vieng, Laos as a centre for narco-tourism in their “First Time Around the World” book. A comment that seems grossly irresponsible for such a mainstream publisher.

“This hangout, a modern-day Manali, is one of the budding centres of narco-tourism. Discount opium and weed beckon travellers (over 35 guesthouses full of them) to this otherwise easily missed hideaway. Muang Sing, another Laotian centre for delirium, gets plenty of narco-traffic as well.”

Although this may be true, is it helpful in anyway to the development of tourism in Laos to refer to it in this way?

Inevitably perhaps, with all its charms Vang Vieng may have spiralled into another ‘backpacker utopia’, much like many other destinations that have come before it. Impressively enterprising residents eager to profit from a growing market open cafes that screen back-to-back Friends episodes, serve refreshments laced with narcotics and fill the air with Bob Marley tunes, creating a liberal travellers’ nirvana. A nirvana with no sense of place. Unfortunately such unmanaged, consumer driven development often dominates any commitment to conservation, and the eradication of another once sleepy backwater ensues. The darker side of tourism also always manages to find its way in, be it sex-tourism, human trafficking, environmental exploitation, or in the case of Vang Vieng narco-tourism. Opium production and distribution in Laos has a long history. It is part of the Golden Triangle, and is the world’s third largest producer of opium - the parent product of the heroin sold on streets worldwide.

The ethnic Hmong people are the largest producers of opium in Laos. They became an integral part of the CIA-trained militia during the Vietnam War in the fight against communism, helping rescue downed US pilots and disrupting North Vietnamese use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The huge importance of opium trade to the Hmong economy was recognised by the US and they took advantage of this by paying them for their work as mercenaries by purchasing opium. Air America aircraft would set-down on local landing sites, buy the opium for cash and fly off to distribute it.

The Americans weren’t the first though to exploit the opium economy of the Hmong. In the last few years of the First Indochina War (1946-1954) the French were desperate for a way to finance their clandestine operations and decided to use military aircraft to link Laotian poppy fields with opium dens in Saigon, Vietnam. The mountainous landscape makes the transport of opium through the country extremely difficult, and once the war ended in 1954 the French withdrew, the aircraft stopped flying and Lao’s opium trade fell away.

There is a strong drive by the Laotian and U.S. government to eradicate opium production. The Lao Government often accuses the Hmong of being the cause of the country’s problems, with the high levels of deforestation their slash and burn lifestyle causes, and the widespread cultivation of opium. Narco-tourism contributes to an already complex problem, encourages the spread of opium addiction amongst villagers, and a whole range of social problems.

Since the end of the Vietnam War the Hmong have been subjected to a campaign of genocide by communist Laos and Vietnam. The Hmong general (Vang Pao), who led the secret army in 1961 against the communists fled to the US at the end of the war and now resides in California where he leads the United Lao Liberation Front (ULLF), demanding democracy and a reinstatement of the monarchy in Laos. Plans for a coup in Laos organised by the ULLF were recently uncovered by the US Government. The charge being brought against them is laudable - conspiracy to violate the federal Neutrality Act by planning a military invasion of Laos, a nation at peace with the United States. They’re also charged with conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim and injure people in a foreign country.

http://www.maketravelfair.co.uk/2008/08/03/narco-tourism-in-laos/


Foreign tourists show interesting menu in Vang Vieng, Laos