Vang Vieng

We arrived in Vang Vieng after a loooonnng bus journey. We got picked up by a pickup truck, then changed to a minibus then to the big bus, which all happened in the space of 1 mile!! The bus was late to leave so got in when it was dark. Everyone was pretty happy to get off the bus as a local kid was sick everywhere and it was running down the aisle of the bus!! We heard Vang Vieng was a party town but it looked empty apart from people sat watching re-runs of friends which was on in a lot of the bars! We later realised everyone was tubing!

Found a ridiculously cheap double room which was really nice for about 3 gbp! Bargain.

The next day we headed to the 'tubing' centre. They give you a tractor tyre inner tube and a tuk tuk ride to the start point which is about 3km away, all for about £4 (if you didn't lose tour tube). Our tuk tuk had a guy in it who went to Vang Vieng for a week but a year later he is still there having tubed nearly everyday!

We arrived at the start point ready to go tubing but the first bar was packed so we stayed there for about an hour or 2. They had a massive swing which went into the river which we both went on (before we got too drunk!). As you looked down the river it looked like a huge playground for adults with bars, swings, slides and zip wires dotted around!

We eventually made it to the mud pit bar and you can guess what followed. Needless to say we didn't take our digital camera but instead bought a classic waterproof wind me along type camera.

The sun was setting and we thought we needed to hurry up and get to the end. We stopped off in one more bar which had a ginormous slide which through you into the river! It was ace especially as it was going dark!!

We went to carry on but there were no tubes left. We pretty angry we had to cross the river and pay for a tuk tuk which also meant we lost our deposit for the tubes! What (we think) happened was either the bar hid them as they made some money from the tuk tuk or people that didn't get tubes nicked them!!
A fun day though and probably a good thing that we couldn't continue in the dark!! But at the time.....!

The next day we went tubing again! We left earlier with the view to making it all the way to the bottom. We went to the first bar to go on the swing again which was just as scary and fun the second time! We worked our way down until we made it to the last bar which was in an amazing setting. Underneath a cliff face and in the trees. They had a fire going at the bottom so we drank our 'Beer Lao' while we warmed up.... before getting back in the cold water. We got back to the centre for 5.55 just in time to get our deposit back.

That evening we headed out to a bar and played killer pool. Having failed miserably the night before I came 3rd and was given a bucket of whiskey and coke! Yuk! But free drink is free drink so we drank that for a while whilst chatting to some people. The night got later and later and went to bed realising the bus journey to Luang Prabang in a few hours time was not going to be a good one!! We always seem to do this to ourselves!

p.s. no pictures as they're on the wind up camera! I don't fancy scanning them in just so you can see them!

EDIT! The pictures are now below. They were taken with an underwater throw away film camera! Some pictures may not appear to have anything in, but if you look closer we are usually mid-air!