Tubing down the River
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2007
1
53
102
Trip End
Dec 2007
Vang Vieng,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Got to Vang Vieng in the evening and just took in as much of the town as we could. It isn't very big but caters to a lot of backpackers. There are lots of different restaurants all along the main strip and all have tvs blaring movies, the Simpsons or Friends, and that's about it. Most choose friends over anything else and play if for about 20 hours a day...you can basically pick which season you want to watch and just go to that restaurant!! Kinda funny...so we got our fix of movies and sitcoms for awhile. We got to watch Shrek 3 which was great!
The next day was a sleep in day and then we rented some bikes and rode out through the town....the people were so friendly everyone shouting a greeting as we rode by...came across lots of children who were very cute and rode a long with us for a bit
anita and breakfast view
. Monica got a bit tricky and started riding on the back seat of her bike...since all bikes are made for 2 people to ride...we never did try it out! The limestone mountains were just amazing, even though the weather wasn't that great it still made for some amazing views. Also saw a lot of amazing butterflies...very colourful -some big and small. After biking around we were back in town where we think there were a couple of weddings going on...lots of singing, and drinking, and eating by some locals! its a very casual event...karoke! Other then the weddings and the roosters that town was very quiet....a nice change!
The second day we decided to take part in what the backpackers come around for...this is tubing down the Nam Son river in tubes....so we were taken 3km out of town and dropped off by the river...we met some people in our tuk tuk up and hung out with them for a bit. Monica wants to bring this activity to Canada cause it was lots of fun - the ultimate LAZY river. We float down the river in tubes, with our stuff in dry bags, and people have set up make shift bars along the way, so you get out when you want and grab a beer ($1) or your poison of choice and meet people or swing off one of the contraptions that they have set up and jump into the river. We stopped a quite a few bars and did some swinging...a major feat for me (anita) as I really don't like heights..but I went off the highest one (after a few beers!!). But I tried to repeat my acrobatic feat at the next place and did a belly/boob flop!! not soo much fun
Anita and view 2
. We met lots of Irish guys on the river and shared some drinks and stories with them...they got us to try some rice whiskey and we may have done some damage to a bamboo patio...it wasn't too sturdy to begin with. (when the manager hears the crack and tells everyone to BACK OFF you know there might be a problem.)That night we met up with some people at the bar after having some "space" pizza and lots of other food.....there was the cutest kid at the bar, probably about 2 or 3 that the parents had dancing on the bar while they made the drinks....kinda sad but pretty cute...and he didn't do it for long, just twice. We went to bed early since we had been drinking a lot of the day and the town basically shuts down at 11:30pm....which was great for us and gave us a chance to sleep before our morning bus....(only went to sleep after eating the town out of its garlic bread, chips, sweets...and any other munchies we could get)
