Tubing with Friends
After lugging our bags around the small town we settled in at a nice guest house over looking the river. Had a very long lunch break in the sun and walked down to check out some of the caves Van Vieng is famous for…they were closed. So we just mucked around until dinner time. After dark people come back form their day trips kayaking, caving or tubing (what Vang Vieng is famous for) and the restaurants fill up with tourists watch Friends. Don’t ask me why Friends is so popular but it just seems to be the show of choice and lots of restaurants are set up all facing the TV. We had dinner at a place the advertised no Friends…we watched Kath and Kim instead. Back home to watch another movie on my laptop. ‘Little miss Sunshine’ if you haven’t seen it go see it soon, its hilarious.
Had a nice sleep in in the morning and breakfast at a french cafe with yummy croissants, Laos has a very french influence because of the dirty french who also took over Laos. In fact Laos is supposed to be spelled Lao, but is now Laos because of a french misspelling…just in case you wanted to know.
After breakfast and feeling super energetic we hired bicycles with the great intention of biking the 14km out to some caves to have lunch. After about 6 km we turned back….but we did stop at an organic farm to have a super good mulberry shake. So back in town we returned our bike and signed up for tubing ‘the thing to do’ in Laos. Joining up with a cool swiss chick we were driven down further down the river with massive inner tubes to float down the river with all the other people. This would have been a great idea if it was hot, unfortunately it was a bit overcast after a couple of hours in the water we were very cold and very over it so got a boat the rest of the way!
The first part was fun though, there’s lots of bars set up along the river where you can stop for food and of course beer lao, which is sold by kids in the river, people in boats, people under bridges…there is a lot of beer lao. The bar we stopped at had a massive rope swing into the water, music, vollyball, a fire and general other hip touristy things while we all stood round shivering in wet clothes. Time to move on….
So yes we payed some 10 year old kids to row us to the end but we did it, tubing in Laos for whatever its worth. After a much appreciated shower we sold out and watched Friends for awhile before bed. Back on the bus the next morning for a horribly windy road further north…I never though I go car sick before but this road was not making me feel too good. We luckily survived with only dodgy stomachs after the 9 hour journey which should have taken 6 if we didn’t stop 4 times…but this is Laos!
Tags: Laos, Travel
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