Day 66

Today we did "tubing". Despite sounding like some sort of deviant sexual practice "tubing" is the sport/past-time/activity of floating down the river in a tractor tire's inner tube.

1 Getting ready to get in the water

It works like this, you rent the tube from an office in town. They charge $3.5 and take you 6km upstream where you get in. You have to sign a numbered disclaimer form and then they write the number of the form on your hand in permanent marker (I think this makes for easier corpse/disclaimer reunions later on). For another dollar you can also rent a waterproof bag for wallets and cameras etc.

It's a bit of a fiddle getting into the floating tube on the water but it's really comfortable once you're in. It was a hot day as normal and at 11.30am the water was nice and warm.

2 Bjorn and Peels help two fishermen

It's not just a relaxing 6km ride back - the river side is punctuated by shack bars selling Lao beer and giving away Lao whiskey! Trees have speakers tied to them and play Bob Marley mostly at a good volume. The bars don't just stop at providing refreshment, they also have rope swings and slides and all sorts for entertainment along the way. I'd been looking forward to "tubing" since I first heard of it about two weeks ago!

Our first stop was at a small bar with a water rope slide. It's where you climb up a ladder, grab the bar, and slide all the way to the end. The end is where the rope intersects with another rope and the slide mechanism stops - with some force! You have to let go (and drop in the water) before the end or you get a bit of whiplash but it's pretty easy because you can see it as you're sliding. I was first up to do the jump and Peels and Bjorn quickly followed so as not to lose face by chickening out. One guy decided to complicate things on his slide by lifting his legs up in the air - he got tangled in the mechanism and got fired into the water after getting a massive whip action behind the knees. It looked painful both when he did it and also when he came back to the bar to show his wounds - two nasty white stripes across each leg - ouch!

3 Me swinging on the rope

Our second stop was at a much more lively bar - it was full of "tubers" already by the time we arrived. Everyone sits in little bays facing the water and a huge rope swing is the focus of attention. Peels ducked out of this one citing fear of heights as the reason! It wasn't that high - you can see for yourself as I've posted a video of me doing it! Samantha was on video duty after doing such a good job the other day at the waterfall. I did it once where I did a few swings first without dropping. The problem with that is that when you drop you don't drop very far and it's a disappointment for all! So on this second go I did just the one swing letting go at the end where it is at its highest. For extra points I grabbed my knees and assumed the dive-bomb position - only problem was I turned a bit in the air and got a bit of a slapping on the side as I hit the water. Top stuff. I clambered back to the bar and had my lunch and beer!

4 A guy jumps in to the water from the swing

We stopped once more as the sun was starting to drop below the mountains and it all got a bit cooler. I managed to get one final beer while I was in the water on the home stretch since a woman was selling it off a low bridge that you float under.

Back in town we had a great meal at a Chinese restaurant - and I said my good byes to the everyone as I was heading to the capital city Vientiane in the morning. As we left Melissa challenged me to one final game of pool at a bar across the road. They were playing "winner stays on" but we quickly got invited to play a crazy drinking game with two Swedish guys and two Danish girls. It's called "ring of fire" and you make a ring of playing cards face down and take turns taking a card. Each card has some meaning usually ending up in taking at least one drink from your bucket. My bucked in this case was full of Laos whiskey, vodka and coke. It was a good day on the alcohol front but I went to bed worrying if I'd be able to get up ok for my morning bus!

5 My video

6 A typical bar on the river side