Day 10 - Vang Vieng

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We eschewed the more adventurous pursuits of rock climbing, caving and kayaking for a decidedly novel idea – tubing. The concept is this – you jump into a big inner tube and go floating down the river, which carries you downstream at a nice easy pace, with a few gentle rapids thrown in. Sounds like a simple, relaxing experience, right? But that’s until you spot the various bars dotted along the river. You float down, and they throw ropes out to you and pull you in, and you clamber out and go and sit up on a bamboo balcony and enjoy a beer lao, or if that’s not enough, a whisky bucket – that’s right, 7 nips of whisky and a coke thrown in for good measure.

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The bars also have various activities, which we took advantage of – a flying fox which goes straight down into the water, and a giant swing, in which you drop at least 10 metres into the water if you get off at the highest point. Needless to say, with all of this riverside fun, our actual time spent in the tubes floating down the river was sadly minimal. We got kind of stranded at the second bar along, which other people assured us was the best (many of them were back for a consecutive second day).

You float down, and they throw ropes out to you and pull you in, and you clamber out and go and sit up on a bamboo balcony and enjoy a beer lao

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Although the course was only 6km long, and we should have nailed it in two hours, we started at 11am but somehow didn’t make it back to the guesthouse until 6pm! Absolutely knackered, and feeling a little worse for wear, we crawled into one of those bars where you can recline on cushions, ate some western comfort food and had an early night.