Had the BEST couple of days... Vang Vieng is a small town next to the Mekong River and is best known for tubing - floating down the river on rubber tubes.
On our first night in Vang Vieng Laura, Hannah and I went out for dinner and then to a couple of bars. We had another of the infamous buckets made with whiskey, red bull and coke. It was not surprising that after that we ended up in another bar rather than the "quiet night" we'd originally planned for!
So feeling a bit tired and worse for wear the next morning, 5 of us set off for tubing. We'd been told that you could get tubes down by the river, so all piled into a tuk tuk and set off. This turned out to be a lie... we looked a bit silly at the first bar at 10.30am all tubeless! So Laura and I drew the short straw and decided to venture back to get a couple of tubes (you don't really need one each, and a lot of people just swim down anyway).
Unfortunately our tuk tuk was long gone, so we ended up walking for about 10 minutes in the sun and eventually managed to thumb down a guy in a truck that let us sit in the back and took us back to Vang Vieng. He wouldn't even accept any money when we got there - it was our first (and probably only) hitchiking experience!
So an hour and a half later we returned with the tubes to find James, Becky and Hannah already drinking whiskey and Beer Lao at the first bar. And off we went on our day of tubing...
There are bars along the river, and people throw out ropes so you can pull yourself in. So we spent the day going from bar to bar (didn't manage to have a drink in every place you'll be pleased to know)! Some places had swings or tug of war over mud pools... one place had a huge water slide and pretty much everyone that went down it came off with some sort of injury. One guy even managed to chip his tooth and came back with a mouth full of blood. And James hasn't been able to hear anything out of his right ear since!
Little did we know that after the last bar, there is still about an hour cruise down the river. And since it isn't the rainy season the river was quite shallow at some points, Hannah and I ended up sharing one tube and paddling like mad. We had to get them back by 6pm and only had about an hour to spare!!! It was such a good day, we all spent the whole day laughing. Although I am feeling a bit bruised and aching today!
We're now in Vientiane, got a bus over this morning. We're only spending one night here before flying to Vietnam tomorrow. I'm going to miss Laos, it is such a beautiful country and very laid back and friendly.
On our first night in Vang Vieng Laura, Hannah and I went out for dinner and then to a couple of bars. We had another of the infamous buckets made with whiskey, red bull and coke. It was not surprising that after that we ended up in another bar rather than the "quiet night" we'd originally planned for!
So feeling a bit tired and worse for wear the next morning, 5 of us set off for tubing. We'd been told that you could get tubes down by the river, so all piled into a tuk tuk and set off. This turned out to be a lie... we looked a bit silly at the first bar at 10.30am all tubeless! So Laura and I drew the short straw and decided to venture back to get a couple of tubes (you don't really need one each, and a lot of people just swim down anyway).
Unfortunately our tuk tuk was long gone, so we ended up walking for about 10 minutes in the sun and eventually managed to thumb down a guy in a truck that let us sit in the back and took us back to Vang Vieng. He wouldn't even accept any money when we got there - it was our first (and probably only) hitchiking experience!
So an hour and a half later we returned with the tubes to find James, Becky and Hannah already drinking whiskey and Beer Lao at the first bar. And off we went on our day of tubing...
There are bars along the river, and people throw out ropes so you can pull yourself in. So we spent the day going from bar to bar (didn't manage to have a drink in every place you'll be pleased to know)! Some places had swings or tug of war over mud pools... one place had a huge water slide and pretty much everyone that went down it came off with some sort of injury. One guy even managed to chip his tooth and came back with a mouth full of blood. And James hasn't been able to hear anything out of his right ear since!
Little did we know that after the last bar, there is still about an hour cruise down the river. And since it isn't the rainy season the river was quite shallow at some points, Hannah and I ended up sharing one tube and paddling like mad. We had to get them back by 6pm and only had about an hour to spare!!! It was such a good day, we all spent the whole day laughing. Although I am feeling a bit bruised and aching today!
We're now in Vientiane, got a bus over this morning. We're only spending one night here before flying to Vietnam tomorrow. I'm going to miss Laos, it is such a beautiful country and very laid back and friendly.
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ReplyDeletesounds like a lot of fun honey - much more than painting our bedroom on a gloomy day. Did you scream a lot? Send more photos!
ReplyDeleteGlad you are enjoying yourself .it looks to hectic for us . Nanny says have a good time . Do it now while you are young.
ReplyDelete