Once we had our Vietnam visas we were able to continue moving towards the north of Laos; we arrived by bus in Vang Vieng which is renowned for being a party town and infamous worldwide for its tubing antics! The small town is flanked by mountains that jut out of the banks of the Mekong river which snakes between them. As soon as we arrived we were told by the people running our hostel where to go for free drinks. I'm sorry, did I hear that right...free drinks?! Yes - no catch, no entry fee, simply free drinks for a hour at Sakura bar and then on to Kangaroo bar for another hour of the same. The next five days continued in this fashion interspersed with days lounging around in one of the many restaurants that constantly played Friends back to back (I can't explain how nice it is to watch familiar TV after travelling for six months). Evie had her birthday whilst we were in Vang Vieng so we went zip lining between giant trees in the jungle.
We couldn't come to Vang Vieng without going tubing. All throughout S.E. Asia we'd been hearing crazy stories about tubing from other travellers and it'd started to seem like merely an urban legend. It has changed a lot over the past few years as many people have died, including eight Australians in a short space of time, and the Australian government put pressure on the Laos government to calm it down so what used to be thirty bars down the sides of the river is now reduced to under ten and they are forced to open on alternate days. Nonetheless tubing was mental. I can definitely see how people have died doing it! You start by coasting down the Mekong in a giant rubber inner tube from a tire until you reach the bars on the riverbank where you then get pulled in by a string that's thrown out to you and dragged up the bank to the various bars. Everyone had their cash stuffed into little waterproof wallets and some, like us, had bottles of their own pre-mixed whiskey and Sprite for the 'journey' in between bars despite cheap-ish drinks being readily available at every stop. I wrestled my friends above a pit of water, had a carrot grated on my head by an Australian dressed as a rabbit, lifted a Korean clown, danced on a speaker, got lost down the river after dark, got stranded on a riverbank and almost capsized in the boat back to the town...
Many people that had been in the tubing capital of the world longer than us kept telling us that the £1 a litre Lao whiskey was poisoning them and we laughed it off thinking they'd just partied too hard for too long - after five consecutive nights we started to know what they meant and we were definitely worn out and ready to leave Vang Vieng to do some 'real travelling' again!
Beer pong.
Zip lining.
Who said boys were messier? Our room got so disgusting we affectionately called it 'The Crack Den'.
We had a Birthday cake made!
We made a tree into a necklace/limbo stick.
We couldn't come to Vang Vieng without going tubing. All throughout S.E. Asia we'd been hearing crazy stories about tubing from other travellers and it'd started to seem like merely an urban legend. It has changed a lot over the past few years as many people have died, including eight Australians in a short space of time, and the Australian government put pressure on the Laos government to calm it down so what used to be thirty bars down the sides of the river is now reduced to under ten and they are forced to open on alternate days. Nonetheless tubing was mental. I can definitely see how people have died doing it! You start by coasting down the Mekong in a giant rubber inner tube from a tire until you reach the bars on the riverbank where you then get pulled in by a string that's thrown out to you and dragged up the bank to the various bars. Everyone had their cash stuffed into little waterproof wallets and some, like us, had bottles of their own pre-mixed whiskey and Sprite for the 'journey' in between bars despite cheap-ish drinks being readily available at every stop. I wrestled my friends above a pit of water, had a carrot grated on my head by an Australian dressed as a rabbit, lifted a Korean clown, danced on a speaker, got lost down the river after dark, got stranded on a riverbank and almost capsized in the boat back to the town...
Our group got bigger as we collected some girls during our time in Vang Vieng.
Cruising down the river between the mountains.
Self explanatory?
There's a rush to grab the tubes when you leave because you lose your deposit if you don't return with a tube and people tend to steal them if they've lost theirs.
Amazing day!!
Many people that had been in the tubing capital of the world longer than us kept telling us that the £1 a litre Lao whiskey was poisoning them and we laughed it off thinking they'd just partied too hard for too long - after five consecutive nights we started to know what they meant and we were definitely worn out and ready to leave Vang Vieng to do some 'real travelling' again!
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