In The (Tubing) Vang Vieng

I know most people would be hard pressed to remember what it was I did around this time last year, but it just so happens that about 13 months ago I visited the small Laos town, Vang Vieng. If the name Vang Vieng doesn't ring a bell then you most likely haven't been in South East Asia. It's a bit of a phenomenon on the SE Asia tourist circuit and most people that visit Thailand take the grueling bus journey over the border just for Vang Vieng. It is a beautiful place surrounded by incredible limestone cliffs dotted with caves and rice paddies. However, no one is there to see that... it's really just for the craze of Tubing.

Tubing is basically another excuse for an enormous piss up, but this time it's on a river. Most people hire out a large rubber tube and get a tuk-tuk up the river to the first bar. These bars are built hanging over the river and most have massive swings, zip-wires and slides, and all have a LOT of alcohol. Tiger whiskey (the local brand) is free and they don't mind just handing out bottles of the stuff. Or you could opt for the greatly popular Lao Lao bucket. That's right - a BUCKET of alcohol. Or of course you can stick to beer. Not drinking isn't really an option.

When you get bored of the first bar or notice that the number of tubes are starting to decrease, you hop on your tube to go down to the next. Some handy Lao kids don't mind hauling you in with ropes, and they have an expert aim. Basically the process repeats until you get too drunk and get a tuk-tuk back, or if your still a bit sober you can attempt to tube back to town. Suffice to say they whole thing is really, really dangerous and it's no surprise to see the majority of Vang Vieng's visitors with a bandage on somewhere. On our first day we had glorious weather, didn't drink too much, had an excellent time, and tubed down the river until the rain started getting so heavy that we couldn't hear each other shouting across the tubes - so we got the tuk-tuk back.

The second time I went we met a group of people who were celebrating their friends birthday. This meant that around every 10 minutes it was time for a birthday shot. It was really funny and we somehow got a lot of very strange things spray painted on ourselves. That night, Dom - whose birthday it was - passed out in the bar and subsequently had the majority of his head shaved and the majority of his body covered in permanent marker... I think he may have even had his ear coloured in. Somehow, someone managed to convince him to keep his hair as it was until he left Vang Vieng!


The third day turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Primarily because of the free whiskey. I foolishly got involved in a game of beer pong, except we didn't use beer, we used whiskey. I got hideously drunk and somehow ended up getting lost in a rice paddy because I refused to go near the water. Eventually I got a tuk-tuk home and had some sleep. When I woke up I found that I had broken my toe and vomitted on the floor. That was my last day tubing.

So don't worry about me or anything. I am completely fine. Except for the toe thing, that hurts. The whole thing is very stupid and dangerous but the times that I wasn't 100 times over the limit was really good. The swings are excellent and the tug-of-war over the mud pit and the mud pit volley ball is very funny. We stayed there for about a week and the last three days I was there I was quite keen to leave. I was, as they say, tubed out. Also I found it really interesting that I felt so much older than everyone there. It was strange being the older one, that never happens!

I am now back in Bangkok after a very unorganised bus journey back into Thailand. I have some very exciting news... ... ... ... ...






... more to come.