Vang Vieng

Was a nice drive from Vientene to Vang Vieng but it was a bit windy and we had a tyre blow out on our bus. Caught up with Gavin and we got some nice $4 US bungalows by the river. Then it was off into the backpacker ghetto. Most of the restaurants around town show movies, Simpson's, friends etc so its easy to spend a few hours there having a few beer Laos. Especially since I haven't watched much TV in the last 4 months.

Met up with Jay and Andy a couple of English dudes from London, Jay had a bung ankle from falling off a gate while on the piss.

Tubing : My new favorite activity, get taken about 3 km upstream above the town and get a tractor inner tube then into the river and first stop Bar 1 which is about 50 metres from the drop off point. If you get on the river early enough you can get a beer Lao down you before your hangover from last night kicks in. There is also a flying fox and a jumping platform. There are usually people waiting at the bars to pull you in with a bamboo pole or rope.

Bars 3 and 4 have wicked rope swings, the bar 4 swing launches you at least 10 metres high if you let go at the right point. Sitting at the bars and watching drunk people do the swings is brilliant, get to see a lot of slaps and belly busters. The 6th bar is also a classic as by then there are a lot of drunk people on the river. The swing is pretty high and you can get two people at once on it, which makes for some good stacks.

In the end I went tubing 4 times was great fun, wish my visa lasted a bit longer, I would have stayed in Vang Vieng for a few more days.

Also spent a day out on motos checking out some of the limestone caves in the area. There was one really cool one I went to by myself that you can swim into, I swam in and up the back about 80m in its pitch black and over head hight deep. Luckily my head torch stayed dry. Andy got a puncture on the way out, but as usual there was a backyard mechanic right next door to wear he stopped.