To tube:
Step 1, acquire rubber ring. Step 2, find a river with grade I-II rapids, and plenty of bars hauling people in off the water. Step 3, sit in tube, getting off at aforementioned bars and drinking. Lots.
Vang Vieng is in no way as finished as Luang Prabang, but has its own very definite charm. Apart from your normal Aussie or Irish Bar etc, there are places here called 'Friends' and 'Family Guy' bar. This is because there are places that pretty much from 8am to 12pm play Simpsons, Family Guy and Friends. Non-stop. A few days ago I spent 4 hours in the Family Guy bar - good times.
But there are much better times to be had! People come to Vang Vieng for one thing and one thing only - Tubing. As per the above, you rent a tube and get in a tuk-tuk which takes you up-river. You then spend the rest of the day lying in a tube, getting drunk and going down zipwires, occasionally doing 40ft high trapeze swings into the river. There is also one huge slide, which literally throws you into the air. Depending on how fast you've been brave enough to go down it, you can land anywhere up to 30ft away.
On our second day, we didn't bother with the tubes, deciding instead just to swim it. We saw some people we met the first time who were also swimming, and a group of 15 of us made our way from bar to bar, buying a bucket of lao whiskey and redbull/coke/sprite (in some cases a few mushroom shakes were bought...go figure) and generally getting progressively more drunk and scratched/bruised from the shallow rapid water. Those who attempted the swings and ziplines were applauded wildly, and those who wiped out, landing on their backs or belly flopping were greeted with condolences after the initial wincing 'oooh' from the crowd.
The biggest downside to tubing is not having a waterproof camera, and unfortunately I have no pictures whatsoever of our days on the river. What I have done however is made the title of this particular post link to a youtube video. You can watch the whole thing, or for probs the best idea of it, skip to 1:34 or thereabouts. It's actually a lot more touristy than that now, so I'm guessing that was a year or so ago. For some variety, another pretty decent one to watch is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JJZwPLWWIY.
Nightlife in Vang Vieng is more organised than other Laos places we've visited. A number of bars along the mainstreet are great warm ups, but for the most part, people take the rickety wooden bridges across to the two small islands on the river, each of which is set up with its own few bars. Of these, Bucket Bar (so named for the fact you can get a bucket of lao whiskey and mixer for 10k kip, which is around 90p) is the most popular, at least from 10pm till it closes. Completely outdoors, imagine 4 stages around 1.5ft high, 8ftx8ft in size, in the centre of a clearing. Put two small bonfires amongst them to keep the mossies away, add disco balls/lights and surround them by 20 or so raised and covered arab-style seating areas. Add hammocks to that plus a river setting, and you're there. Naturally there are people who continue straight after the tubing, however even if you've not turned up till 11pm, you will find yourself getting plastered pretty damn quickly!
Tomorrow we're going to try and leave Vang Vieng, and kayak to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. There are three of us, and it depends on if more people have signed up. If not, then we're here for another day or two. Tubing anyone...?
Step 1, acquire rubber ring. Step 2, find a river with grade I-II rapids, and plenty of bars hauling people in off the water. Step 3, sit in tube, getting off at aforementioned bars and drinking. Lots.
Vang Vieng is in no way as finished as Luang Prabang, but has its own very definite charm. Apart from your normal Aussie or Irish Bar etc, there are places here called 'Friends' and 'Family Guy' bar. This is because there are places that pretty much from 8am to 12pm play Simpsons, Family Guy and Friends. Non-stop. A few days ago I spent 4 hours in the Family Guy bar - good times.
But there are much better times to be had! People come to Vang Vieng for one thing and one thing only - Tubing. As per the above, you rent a tube and get in a tuk-tuk which takes you up-river. You then spend the rest of the day lying in a tube, getting drunk and going down zipwires, occasionally doing 40ft high trapeze swings into the river. There is also one huge slide, which literally throws you into the air. Depending on how fast you've been brave enough to go down it, you can land anywhere up to 30ft away.
On our second day, we didn't bother with the tubes, deciding instead just to swim it. We saw some people we met the first time who were also swimming, and a group of 15 of us made our way from bar to bar, buying a bucket of lao whiskey and redbull/coke/sprite (in some cases a few mushroom shakes were bought...go figure) and generally getting progressively more drunk and scratched/bruised from the shallow rapid water. Those who attempted the swings and ziplines were applauded wildly, and those who wiped out, landing on their backs or belly flopping were greeted with condolences after the initial wincing 'oooh' from the crowd.
The biggest downside to tubing is not having a waterproof camera, and unfortunately I have no pictures whatsoever of our days on the river. What I have done however is made the title of this particular post link to a youtube video. You can watch the whole thing, or for probs the best idea of it, skip to 1:34 or thereabouts. It's actually a lot more touristy than that now, so I'm guessing that was a year or so ago. For some variety, another pretty decent one to watch is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JJZwPLWWIY.
Nightlife in Vang Vieng is more organised than other Laos places we've visited. A number of bars along the mainstreet are great warm ups, but for the most part, people take the rickety wooden bridges across to the two small islands on the river, each of which is set up with its own few bars. Of these, Bucket Bar (so named for the fact you can get a bucket of lao whiskey and mixer for 10k kip, which is around 90p) is the most popular, at least from 10pm till it closes. Completely outdoors, imagine 4 stages around 1.5ft high, 8ftx8ft in size, in the centre of a clearing. Put two small bonfires amongst them to keep the mossies away, add disco balls/lights and surround them by 20 or so raised and covered arab-style seating areas. Add hammocks to that plus a river setting, and you're there. Naturally there are people who continue straight after the tubing, however even if you've not turned up till 11pm, you will find yourself getting plastered pretty damn quickly!
Tomorrow we're going to try and leave Vang Vieng, and kayak to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. There are three of us, and it depends on if more people have signed up. If not, then we're here for another day or two. Tubing anyone...?
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