Tubing Tubing TUBING!

Days 58 - 64 (27/05/08 - 02/06/08): Vang Vieng, Laos

I ended up spending a lot more time in Vang Vieng than I originally had planned for, a total of 13 nights in the end. It is the kind of place that can do that to you. I met quite a few other travellers who were also staying for a lot longer than they originally thought. The simple truth of the matter is that Vang Vieng is just a very fun place. I have been to lots of places that I have really enjoyed for one reason or another; I loved the history at Kanchanburi, the relaxed vibe of the Perhentians, and of course the unforgettable adventure of the Gibbon Experience. But Vang Vieng is just pure unadulterated good old fashioned fun.

Most of the time in Vang Vieng was spent tubing, with the odd day of rest and relaxation thrown into the mix. In the end I went tubing a total of seven times, and each time was a blast! I realise you must think that it would get boring after a while, but each day was always as fun, if not more fun, than the last. Part of the reason is that there always new people doing it, each day new people arrive and bring their energy and enthusiasm to the party. And of course there are the giant rope swings, which never get old. To show just how high the big one really is, I have attached a video of myself doing it. You will notice there is quite a drop after letting go before you hit the water! Another reason that I really enjoyed Vang Vieng and the tubing was the great company. When we first arrived in VV, there were 9 of us from the Gibbon Crew together, which made for a lot of fun. Joe and Justin left after a day, and a few days later Gemma and Johnny left, to much sadness. The rest of us stuck together, and were later joined by Simone. Louise had 2 of her friends come out on holiday from the UK, and so we were one big happy family, having meals together, tubing together during the day and dancing away the night. We still met a lot of other people, particularly when you run into the same old people each day out on the river.

There isn't really much more to say about what happens during a day tubing that I didn't mention in my last post, although each day always has its own little unique moments. One of the days it rained a fair bit, and the resulting mudfight at one of the river bars drew in everyone, willingly or not! Unfortunately a lot of the funny stories are only funny if you were there, and so repeating them here would be pointless. Each morning we would gather for breakfast and recollect the stories of the night before, giggling and laughing about what had happened.

On one of the relax days, I got on the back of Charlie's scooter and we drove out of town to a collection of caves and a small swimming hole. The journey involved driving through some old muddy rice paddies, some of the time I would have to get off and push the scooter as it got stuck in the mud. It was a lot of fun. The caves were not particularly impressive, mostly pretty small. One cave was very long and thin, I had to breath in to fit through. At the end was a deep swimming hole. One of us held the torch, while the other gingerly floated in it. It was actually quite scary going for a swim in almost complete darkness, with unknown things lurking in the water below you...

On another relax day the others rented scooters, while I rented a mountain bike and we went 7km out of town to another series of caves and a small swimming hole. The road was pretty mud and quite rough in places, which can be very hard on a scooter. However, it posed no problems for a mountain bike, and as such I rolled in before any of the scooters did. The swimming hole was quite nice and relaxed, with a small rope swing and jumping platform. There were also some caves around, but it started raining pretty heavily, and we decided to not bother with the caves. The ride back was great fun, and I got very muddy indeed.