Tubing in Vang Vieng

Written 7th December 2012

The next day we decided to go tubing, the number one attraction in Vang Vieng. In the morning we had breakfast by the river and watched some local boys trying to fish.

They went in the river a bit deep and we weren't sure if they would make it back out but they did, not sure they got any fish though!

We went tubing in the afternoon. In the tuk-tuk to the river we met a couple called Bron (who is Australian) and Ryan (who is from London). They were really friendly and we ended up floating down the river with them which made it a lot more fun. Bron had been several years ago and said it had changed a lot. The river banks used to be covered in bars and water slides and swings and stuff but too many people got too wasted and drowned in the river and so they shut down all the bars and took down the other things too. So it was a nice peaceful drift. The others had a few relaxing drinks as they were floating (Bron and Ryan had brought some with them and gave Steve a beer and then later Steve bought some from a guy at a cave and then both the boys bought some from a guy on the riverbank! 

 

As I mentioned there was a cave involved. We stopped part way down the river where we saw a sign saying "cave". And went to investigate. 

Here is Ryan holding a leaf with a giant grasshopper on it that some other people were looking at when we came along the path to the cave.

We had to pay a bit and got a torch and then we had to climb up some sort of bamboo ladders. 

At the top was another huge cave. It was very muddy when we went down into it. Ryan dropped his sunnies down a crack so while Steve and I went to investigate further they tried to retrieve them. It turned out there saw a small lake in there!

We hopped back in our tubs and continued our leisurely float.

You can see the remains of the "death slide" next to the river. It looks like it has been abandoned for years, not shut down 6 months ago!

It was lovely floating down enjoying the beautiful scenery and good conversation.

We saw a hot air balloon come in to land too.

There were some shallow bumpy bits where you had to lift your bum up so you didn't hit your bottom on rocks!

When we came to the end kids came running out to pull us in wanting money of course. We didn't pay them. You get sick of people giving you something you don't want and wanting money for it!

After our tubing we all booked bus tickets for the following day to Vientiane (luckily only 4-5 hours!)

We had dinner at the river again and on the way back saw this sign "Free FIWI" which made me laugh.

Later that night we met up with with Bron and Ryan again for a drink and met some of their friends they had met in Luang Prabang (who came a bit after this photo was taken).

There was a cute puppy there too.

The next morning we admired the river one last time over breakfast and collected some sandwhiches and supplies for the trip a before setting off for Vientiane.

The bus journey to Vientiane was uneventful which for bus journeys in Laos is a good thing. We arrived in the evening at a hostel that had free whiskey! We all went for a walk and got some tea. Steve tried a local dish called laap, which is minced meat with mint, coriander, lime and usually chili. That night the others had a few drinks on the hostel and I had a few cokes which made me sleep badly as I seldom drink it. I also discovered that coke is much nicer than pepsi.