Days 57-58: Vang Vieng

Another grueling bus ride was needed to get to our next destination. This time the minivan was spacious but our bus driver was not wasting any time. He careened through the hillside passes with tires squealing at times. I suffered throughout most of the 6 hour journey as my stomach wasn't completely settled from my previous illness. Turns out, all you need to heal a stomach bug is a little good old fashioned college partying....

If Laos is a backpacker's heaven, then Vang Vieng should be its capital. Nestled along the Nam Song river, the town has become a place where young backpackers (side note, we do not necessarily fit into this category anymore) go basically to party. Cheap guesthouses and hostels abound, and it's easy enough to get to and from the capital of Vientiane. We opted to "splurge" a little bit after having spent the last couple of weeks in fairly cheap accommodations to stay next to the river in a new hotel WITH a pool! It was exactly what both of us were looking for.

Our first full day in Vang Vieng, we lounged about poolside for the better part of the morning. We then headed to town for some of Vang Vieng's famous "tubing" on the river. Tubing has been put in quotes as during monsoon season, the river flows rather fast. You could float this particular section of river in less than an hour. So instead of tubing, most people just a take a tube and stop at raucous riverfront bars every few hundred feet.

We grabbed tubes, hopped on a tuk tuk, and drove along the river upstream, where we were let off and immediately loaded onto a barge that took us across the river to our first bar. We didn't even get wet! The bar at which we arrived was filled with people dancing to thumping dance beats (I loved it), co-eds playing beer pong and people guzzling drinks out of buckets. That's right, buckets. Buckets of varying combos of red bull, alcohol and other mixers. They were delicious.

A bucket with 3 straws just for me

We ran into some people we had met on our two previous bus rides and joined forces for the rest of the night. Our group created quite scene as we headed down the river in one linked mass of bobbing tubes. This was advantageous as we were an easy target whenever we wanted to stop at our next bar. Bar staff on land would hurl long ropes with a half-filled water bottles on the end to rope us in - and with surprising accuracy. Since the current was so swift, it took everyone's combined strength to help pull us in. We ended up having a blast with our new friends, jumping off rope swings, "surfing," and spray painting each other.

Spray painted "love" in Rastafarian colors

"surfing" on a wooden door in the swift current

Rope swing flip

At the end of our bar hopping, we floated down the remainder of the river. The setting was amazing with great rock pillars spiking out of the land adjacent to the river. What a shame that many tubers can't even appreciate the scenery as they're too drunk and/or they've made too many stops to be able to finish the float in time. It's a bit sad to see the Laos essence being lost in a tourist destination like this, though.

To cap off the night, we found the best rated restaurant in town - Whopping Burger, a burger joint owned by a Japanese chef! There's a reason why it's rated so well - the food is really really good, AND it's the perfect meal to have after a day of tubing on the river.