Tubing for those who do not know is an activity which involves floating down a fast flowing river in the inner tube of a tractor tyre. During this journey you are pulled into riverside bars to get very drunk. Its a well known sport amongst most backpackers on a SE Asia circuit.
Vang Vieng is the place to do it.
We were hoping to leave the rain in Vientiane but unfortunately it followed us to Vang Vieng. We are travelling during wet season so didn't really expect much else. We did go through a few giant puddles though. We found our accommodation and after i fell over (Dave didn't see me) decided not to stay in the place that we booked as it was rather rancid. We found a cheap and cheerful place just next door which we were happy about.
Most of the bars in the town are western orientated and are constantly showing Friends and Family Guy. It was quite nice sitting on the low tables on giant cushions and chilling out. There was not much more we could do in the rain anyway.
The following day we decided to go tubing as the rain had eased slightly. We were going to get wet anyway so thought what the hell! We rocked up to this little shack and rented a couple of 'tubes' had to leave a large deposit just in case we lost them! We had to be back before 6 so thought we should get on it. We hopped in a tuk tuk with a few others and headed about 6 km out of town to the start of the tubing rally.
We crossed the river on a barge which was being driven by one guy and the other guy on board was bucketing out water that was swiftly flowing into a giant hole. I wonder how long it will continue to be above water.
We started at the first bar which was packed. A lot of people were already quite wasted. It was only 2pm so they must have been on it quite early in the morning. We got 2 beers and had a little dance. At this point we were still dry. We decided to then take the plunge. We had opted to be fully clothed as it was not overly warm and with the rain it was making the air a lot cooler.
The water was cold! We were moving so fast! I was desperately trying to hold onto Daves foot to save me from flying down the river (i'm not the greatest of swimmers). We could see the next bar approaching and all of a sudden i saw a filled water bottle hurtling towards me with a string attached to the end. I randomly caught it with my feet! The bar tried so hard to pull us in but due to all the rain the river was flowing so fast and there was no saving us!We finally got pulled into another bar and had another beer. Unfortunately we were the only people in this particular bar so we got to dance like idiots for a while.
Dave tried to help the tiny Laos guys pull in some customers. Some of the people in the water were really drunk. Most of them had no Tubes to even float them and the river was dangerously high and fast moving. At one point we saw this little blonde haired girl (she must have only been about 17) she was shouting HELP and then disappeared under the water....for over 30 seconds. We then spotted her and she was pulled in coughing and spluttering. I swear my heart stopped for that time she was under the water. When she was pulled out she was so drunk she could hardly even walk. soon a friend collected her and they went off to the next bar and carried on partying!
We didn't get overly drunk. I stupidly dropped our waterproof camera in the murky waters and it was gone just like that. I was thoroughly annoyed. Not just because of the camera but because a lot of photos were on the memory card! Including the one's of us tubing!! Hense why there are no photos attached to this post.
We got to the final bar at around 5.30 and it was starting to get dark so we had our final drink and headed back in our tubes down the river. It took around 20 minutes to get back to the town. The river did split into two and we did struggle to get over to the left hand split as it creeped up on us quickly. Apparently going right would take you back to Vientiane.
We soon warmed up when we got back to our hotel. Had a shower and went for a curry. We were starving! It was yummy.
We just hope all the others got back before dark! Dangerous enough being in that river but drunk and in the dark is just stupid!
Anyway the old folk are off to Luang Prabang next... see you there
To see our pictures from Vang Vieng click on the link below;
https://picasaweb.google.com/112941139607408893724/VangViengLaos20thTo22ndAugust2011#
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