Entertainment
The rise and fall of Vang Vieng, Laos’ notorious party town
Once notorious as a debauched riverside party town, Vang Vieng had cleaned up its act in recent years, but is now in the headlines for all the wrong reasons once again.
“Just make sure you push yourself off the end when you reach the bottom of the slide. We had someone die on those rocks down there last week.”
It was 2010, and for the young me – teenaged, inebriated and on my first ever backpacking trip through Southeast Asia – health and safety were far from the top of the agenda.
Nevertheless, I heeded the advice offered by the dreadlocked Australian bartender, and, as I reached the end of the tiled slide, gave myself an almighty push into the air above the Nam Song River, throwing out a warning yell to alert the revellers in the water below of my clumsily impending cannonball.
Vang Vieng, a town of around 25,000 people on the banks of the Nam Song River in central Laos, has for decades been a firm fixture on the so-called “Banana Pancake Trail” – the backpacker path through Southeast Asia named for the go-to breakfast at so many guesthouses and cafes along the route. Once notoriously known as a debauched riverside party town, Vang Vieng had cleaned up its act in recent years, but it is now in the headlines for all the wrong reasons once again, with a number of foreign tourists having died after ingesting drinks laced with methanol.
Vang Vieng became famous as a party destination in the late 1990s for its plentiful backpacker hostels and wooden riverside bars stocked with cheap Beerlao and lao-lao, the local rice whisky often sold with a whole snake or scorpion infusing in the bottle – the intermingling of the venom and the alcohol believed to bestow medicinal benefits to the drinker.
Back then, the iconic mode of tourist transport in Vang Vieng, known simply as “tubing”, involved travellers floating downriver on the inflated inner tube of a tractor tyre, disembarking at the riverside bars to play drinking games – beer pong was a particular favourite – and throwing themselves off ramshackle rope swings and slides overhanging the river. The tubing practice supposedly originated in 1999 with a local farmer, Thanongsi Sorangkoun, who lent the inner tubes to his workers to allow them to unwind on the river. It quickly developed into just as big a fixture on the itinerary of many backpackers as the notorious Full Moon parties of Thailand’s Koh Pha Ngan.
By the time of my visit in the early 2010s, Vang Vieng was a place of loose morals, light policing and Wild West tourism. Besides the riverine activities, the town was famous for its “happy bars” where blissed-out, red-eyed Westerners would sit before untouched plates of food, gazing up at televisions playing endless re-runs of Friends and Family Guy. Sit down in one of these establishments and open the menu, and, alongside the usual backpacker fare of pizzas, noodles, burgers and fried rice, you would find a veritable pharmacopeia: pre-rolled spliffs, mushroom pizzas, mushroom shakes – mushroom everything.
Needless to say, the combination of a shallow river, sharp rocks and unregulated rope swings, combined with the cheap availability of alcohol and psychedelic drugs, proved dangerous. In 2011, the town’s hospital recorded 27 deaths due to drowning or suffering serious trauma against the river’s rocks; that figure did not include patients taken directly to Vientiane, Laos’ capital, which is two hours away by road. The same evening as my adventures on the “death slide”, as it was known locally, I had to help take a fellow tourist to the hospital after she shattered her ankle falling into the river. As a group of us helped her up the riverbank towards the nearest road, an ambulance could reach, we passed through a forest ablaze with fireflies – a reminder that, for all the madness, natural beauty cannot help but intrude in Vang Vieng.
Some American holidays are intrinsically tied to certain traditions. Fourth of July and fireworks shows. Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping. And then there’s Christmas and the movie theater.
Moviegoing may not be the first thing you think of when considering the Christmas season. There are the trees, sure, then the carols, even the cut-out cookies. But going to the movie theater either on Christmas, or in the days surrounding it, has become a cherished holiday tradition for many families.
“On that day, it’s like the movie theater becomes a midnight mass,” said Matthew Germenis, 33, who’s been going to the movies on Christmas since he was a teen. “It’s just something really, really special.”
Germenis isn’t alone. The holiday season has become a massive time for movie theaters and studios. In years past, film franchises like “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings” became holiday classics thanks purely to holiday release dates — in 2001, the first Harry Potter film, released just before Thanksgiving, topped the holiday season box office, while “The Fellowship of the Ring” came in at No. 3. The former went on to become the highest grossing movie of the entire year.
In other words: The holiday season, especially the week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, pulls thousands of people to cinemas, many in the name of tradition. But exactly how the holiday and moviegoing became so intertwined is, well, a bit of a Christmas miracle.
Entertainment
Looking back at Celine Dion’s triumphant year, the inspirational pop culture story we needed in 2024
Perched atop of a platform on the Eiffel Tower at the start of the Paris Olympics in July, Celine Dion, gone for years amid a bitter health battle, marked her return in grand fashion with a rendition of Edith Piaf classic “Hymne À L’Amour.” It was, you could say, her own hymne à la résilience.
Dion announced in 2022 that she had been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS), a rare neurological disorder. At the time, she said the condition did not allow her “to sing the way I’m used to.”
When she took the Olympic stage, seemingly closer to the heavens than the ground, she hadn’t performed live since 2020.
Just one month prior, the world was invited into her battle like never before via “I Am: Celine Dion,” which offered an intimate look at Dion’s return to performing live amid her battle with the disease.
“I think the performance really gave her confidence and also just really allowed her to show how far she’s come this last year,” Irene Taylor, who directed the documentary, told CNN in a recent interview.
As one of the most revered vocal talents of our time, Dion’s voice has been used to amplify some of the greatest stories ever told both in song and on the big screen. This year, she told her own story as she reemerged into public view, finding and sharing the power of her voice like never before.
Entertainment
Arnold Schwarzenegger is shooting a movie as Santa, and it will put you in the jolliest holiday mood
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a man of many talents, as he holds titles including body builder, politician and movie star.
With his latest movie role, however, the former governor of California can now add becoming Santa Claus to his list, as he embodies the Christmas gift-giver in an upcoming holiday movie titled “The Man with the Bag.”
“Santa Claus is coming to town!” Schwarzenegger wrote on his Instagram page on Tuesday, later adding, “I can’t wait to share all of this Christmas cheer with each and every one of you.”
Schwarzenegger shared a photo of himself posing with his costar, actor Alan Ritchson, with whom he’s currently filming in New York City.
The “Terminator” star appears in a shaggy white beard and hairdo, and a red wool coat over a festive Christmas sweater in the photo.
“The Man With the Bag” follows Santa, who turns to his naughty list to find a former thief to help him get his stolen magic bag back, according to a summary of the Adam Shankman-directed film.
Schwarzenegger is no stranger to spreading holiday cheer through his movies.
In 1996, he starred in the holiday family comedy “Jingle All the Way” as a father who goes to great and hilarious lengths to get his hands on a popular toy to give to his son for Christmas.
“The Man With the Bag” will be Schwarzenegger’s first major feature film role since 2019’s “Terminator: Dark Fate.”
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