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06/22/2009: "Vang Vieng"

I'm enjoying a few days in Vang Vieng, a lovely, but usually tourist-packed town north of Vientiane. Being that it's low season now, the number of visitors here is quite a few less than in December, the last time I was here. There hasn't been any rain, but it's been mostly cloudy and humid. Nai and I might go tubing on the Nam Song tomorrow or perhaps take a hike up to the Buddha cave.

There's not really too much happening here, and I was planning on going to Bangkok near the end of the week. However, I read today that the trains have all been stopped due to a nationwide strike of railway workers, and it seems like it's another nail in the coffin of the Thailand tourism sector. Visitor numbers are down drastically and the industry is begging the government to do something. Chief causes for the huge dropoff are the takeover of the airport last year by protestors and continuing political turmoil, high prices, bad economy, and the perception that tourists are being treated less than cordially by many Thais working in the service sector. So it goes. More later.