Driving to Vang Vieng the first thing you notice is the amazing mountains they seem to come out of the middle of no where and shoot up straight into the sky. Vang Vieng is a small town which basically only exists because of the tubing. Everything there is super cheap, Paid 20000 kip ($2.57) for a room with a bathroom and free wifi. Super good for most Laos standards.
Walking around we noticed that every single restaurant (there is a lot) are constantly playing friends on tv's set up on the walls. i think that during the 3 days that i spent there i saw every single episode of friends just watching while i was eating meals.
After being on the bus that day we decided to just chill out that night.
The next day at about noon we decided to go get our tubes. There are only 2 places in town that are allowed to sell tubes. You have to pay to rent a tube and then a deposit the same price as as renting a tube which you get back if you make it back before 6. After that about 8 of us piled into the back of tuk-tuk with a huge pile of tubes on top. As we drove out the city up to where we get dropped off a the river the tuk-tuk stopped and the driver came back and said everyone get out. He proceeded to fix out flat tire with help of one of the guys who was going tubing. After about 5 min we hopped back on and continued on our way. 10 min later we were dropped off beside the river ready to go.
The way that tubing works in Vang Vieng is that it takes about 2 1/2 hours to tube down the whole river back to town and along the way there are a whole bunch of bars lining the waterfront. As you float down Laos guys throw old pop bottles tied to ropes at you in attempts to pull you in. Once they get you there they try to pour lao-lao (whiskey) down your throat and give you a bracelet. Once there some bars have a volley ball net, mud put, rope swing, zip-line or tug-o-war. We skipped the first bar because you can get to that one by bridge so everyone goes there first and all the prices are super high. a little ways down we found one that had a volley ball court which we played for a while then it started to rain. We sat on the deck in front of the place and watched some middle aged Asian tourist kayak in to the bar. The guys decided that they were going to jump off one of the towers that lined the river. Most of them are very sketchy and poorly build. Also they were build over water that you couldnt really see where the rocks were. But there were rocks for sure.
All around Vang Vieng you can see toursits walking around with limps and bandages. All of them tried the slides, zip-lines, and platforms and successfully landed on rocks.
We decided to go down the river more as the rain seemed to let up. Once in our tubes again we realized that we were wrong. A monsoon came upon is and we could barely see around us. Either way we loved it. Floating down the river laughing and trying to stay together we had a blast. after a couple more bars we found one that had a blob. A big blown up thing where one person sits on one end and another person jumped on the other end and it shoots them into the air. We figured it was safe enough because the bar was run by two Australian guys and we looked through the water for some rocks and found none. We were sadly disappointed when we discovered that the blob didnt have enough air in it to work and moved on our way.
We spent another 45 min floating down the river making our way back to town. along the way we saw very few people and guessed that they must have stayed at the first bar. just outside the last bar there is a group of tuk-tuk drivers waiting to give you a ride back to town promising that you "wont make it back in time" and that "big anaconda's in the water". We continued on our way knowing that we had lots of time to get back to the town. We went through periods of rapids and shallow waters having lots more good times just chatting and floating around.
Once we got back to town there were kids standing at the waterfront offering to help you out. Once out they ask for a tip. We figured this out before hand and avoided them. Short walk back to the tubing place and we got our deposit back. The first people to get back that day and they didnt seem used to having people come back that early (5:00pm) and were running around trying to get organized. We got our deposit back and spend it on dinner. Over all a good day.
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| Forget to take my camera with me tubing so there wont be any pictures. |
After being on the bus that day we decided to just chill out that night.
The next day at about noon we decided to go get our tubes. There are only 2 places in town that are allowed to sell tubes. You have to pay to rent a tube and then a deposit the same price as as renting a tube which you get back if you make it back before 6. After that about 8 of us piled into the back of tuk-tuk with a huge pile of tubes on top. As we drove out the city up to where we get dropped off a the river the tuk-tuk stopped and the driver came back and said everyone get out. He proceeded to fix out flat tire with help of one of the guys who was going tubing. After about 5 min we hopped back on and continued on our way. 10 min later we were dropped off beside the river ready to go.
The way that tubing works in Vang Vieng is that it takes about 2 1/2 hours to tube down the whole river back to town and along the way there are a whole bunch of bars lining the waterfront. As you float down Laos guys throw old pop bottles tied to ropes at you in attempts to pull you in. Once they get you there they try to pour lao-lao (whiskey) down your throat and give you a bracelet. Once there some bars have a volley ball net, mud put, rope swing, zip-line or tug-o-war. We skipped the first bar because you can get to that one by bridge so everyone goes there first and all the prices are super high. a little ways down we found one that had a volley ball court which we played for a while then it started to rain. We sat on the deck in front of the place and watched some middle aged Asian tourist kayak in to the bar. The guys decided that they were going to jump off one of the towers that lined the river. Most of them are very sketchy and poorly build. Also they were build over water that you couldnt really see where the rocks were. But there were rocks for sure.
All around Vang Vieng you can see toursits walking around with limps and bandages. All of them tried the slides, zip-lines, and platforms and successfully landed on rocks.
We decided to go down the river more as the rain seemed to let up. Once in our tubes again we realized that we were wrong. A monsoon came upon is and we could barely see around us. Either way we loved it. Floating down the river laughing and trying to stay together we had a blast. after a couple more bars we found one that had a blob. A big blown up thing where one person sits on one end and another person jumped on the other end and it shoots them into the air. We figured it was safe enough because the bar was run by two Australian guys and we looked through the water for some rocks and found none. We were sadly disappointed when we discovered that the blob didnt have enough air in it to work and moved on our way.
We spent another 45 min floating down the river making our way back to town. along the way we saw very few people and guessed that they must have stayed at the first bar. just outside the last bar there is a group of tuk-tuk drivers waiting to give you a ride back to town promising that you "wont make it back in time" and that "big anaconda's in the water". We continued on our way knowing that we had lots of time to get back to the town. We went through periods of rapids and shallow waters having lots more good times just chatting and floating around.
Once we got back to town there were kids standing at the waterfront offering to help you out. Once out they ask for a tip. We figured this out before hand and avoided them. Short walk back to the tubing place and we got our deposit back. The first people to get back that day and they didnt seem used to having people come back that early (5:00pm) and were running around trying to get organized. We got our deposit back and spend it on dinner. Over all a good day.
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