Wikepedia's bit about Vang Vieng:
"Vang Vieng today is mainly a backpacker town. The main street is littered with guest houses, bars, restaurants, internet cafes and tour agencies. One of the main attractions of the town is tubing on the river. Whilst free floating downriver in a rubber ring, there are several places to stop, mostly small family-owned bars or just simply an enterprising local with a bucket filled with ice cold bottles of Beerlao, and also several good spots for jumping into the river from the bank or a specially-constructed bridge. Careful on the 10 meter high swing - it's common to perforate your eardrum and do permanent damage to your hearing if you land the wrong way. During the wet season, the river can be a series of ragingrapids, but during the dry season, some of it is little more than a trickle."
How can you not go to Vang Vieng after a description like that!! Yes it was built mainly for the tourists in that all the bars and places to eat had FRIENDS or family guy playing over and over all day long. But the day we went tubing was so much fun. We decided to go on a tour as we wanted to do a bit of exploring in the mountains as well. So we set off early in the morning and were driven about 15KM up in to the mountains. The views were beautiful. The cloud was quite low so as we drove up the mountain paths you could just see the peaks peeking through the cloud. It's so green, and the majority of people still live in little tribes up in the hills. Once we got dropped off half the group went to do kayaking and our lot went up to do some caving. I don't think either of us were prepared for the next couple of hours. Luckily we wore our trainers or we would have had it. One poor bloke had flip flops on and he was slipping about everywhere. It's wet season so it's pretty slippy everywhere.
So we were given flash torches and then went on ahead to start climbing up in to this cave. It took a good 10 minutes for everyone to get in as it was so slippy. Which, by the way, the guide kept telling us. Bearing in mind they don't pronounce their 'r's'. So all we were being told every couple of minutes was 'It's swippy. It's swippy' as he chuckled and lead the way. The cave was pitch black so it took a good 10-15 minutes to really adjust to it, even with our torches. "Swippy". But he took us round, telling us to mind the deep holes that drop miles below. "Swippy". It was quite an assort course in there as well so was quite a challenge I think. The funniest bit (funny to look back on, maybe not so 'ha ha' at the time) was when we came to a 3 metre wall and he asked if anyone had done any rock climbing before. Noone really responded as they were focussed on the 20 metre drop which sat under the wall. "Swippy". There was nothing else to do but just leg it up there! But it was actually fun in a weird sort of 'aaggghhhhhhh' way. We did a couple of other caves, and also walked through rice fields and past the stunning mountains. It was such a gorgeous day as well. Then we went to do another cave but with a twist - in a rubber ring. Another hilarious 30 minutes of not really knowing where you're heading. "Mind your head. Careful. Swippy". At first we had rope to pull ourselves along with inside the cave. Then the rope stopped and our laid back Laos tour guide shouted "rope stop, let go but make sure you get over to the right side of the cave. Mind your head"... that would have been fine if you could SEE the right side of the cave. Once you let go of the rope you were just left drifting to wherever the current fancied taking you! So lots of splashing around by the group and some team effort we all made it. "SWIPPY!"
And now for the best bit - LUNCH! Ha, no not really. But lunch was good. After that we were taken to a part of the river (Nam Song River), given our rubber ring and away we went! Floating along and over some rapids and then stopping at a bar on the bank. There was a big swing there but me and Jan were too chicken. People were walking about with big bruises as well which we didn't fancy too much. So we had a drink there and then left with the others for some more tubing down the river, still taking in the stunning surroundings. And then stopped at another bar. We saw a gay couple from Germany who we'd chatted to on the bus there, and they had been doing the swing. Did we get talked in to doing it?! YEHHHH. We both wanted to, just needed a nudge. So we walked up all the steps, got to the top and looked down. It's quite a big drop. Jan stepped back and wasn't so sure anymore but I just thought if I stood there any longer then i'd lose my nerve as well so I just grabbed the swing, held tight and jumped off to my first ever trapeze act, haha. It was so funny. You're not quite sure when to actually let go. You just do it after you've been swinging too and frow a couple of times, then plop in to the river you go. And maybe your bikini top comes off a bit too (luckily I realised this before coming up to the surface). I was careful not to perforate my eardrum as well...
Then some more tubing down the river and then out before it got dark!
That evening we had dinner with a bunch of people we met that day and ended up at the only bar to stay open late - The Bucket Bar! Oh and me and Ru (a scottish guy with a strange array of accents, none of which sound that scottish) waited quite a while for a mojito. That put so much effort in to it and was quite a build up. But it tasted more like the river water we'd been tubing in. We figured there was a gap in the market for training SE Asia on how to make cocktails.
The next day we just chilled out, found a hammock to lay in for a bit, found a place that did the best roast I've had in 3 months (the only roast i've had in 3 months). Here we sat shovelling it all in and then a storm hit. It was actually right above us. You know when the sound and the light comes at exactly the same time. Right over the restaurant. It was pretty intense. Didn't spoil the food though! And of course we got sucked in to the FRIENDS bars. It's a nice thing to do though. You don't watch any TV when travelling really so to just kick back with a cuppa tea and maybe a honey and banana pancake and a few episodes of FRIENDS is a treat :)
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