Vang Vieng

We took the ‘V.I.P.’ minibus from Vientiane to Vang Vieng, and it was anything but V.I.P.! The one saving grace was that the views along the way were stunning; lush green jungle and jagged limestone cliffs lined the meandering road as we made our way north.

Once in Vang Vieng we booked into our hostel and went out to explore. It was clear that you only come to Vang Vieng for one thing and one thing only – to party! The next day we got our first taste of the phenomenon that is tubing on the Nam Song! Basically, this is a pub crawl on a river with tractor tyre inner tubes for transport and Tarzan swings for entertainment!

Overall, we spent two days tubing and managed to get to most of the bars, swings, slides, and mud-baths along the way. The first bar was the pick of the bunch as it had the best entertainment, the best Tarzan swing, and it seemed to be the best place to get drunk before jumping in the river! Once in the river, if you wanted to go to another bar you had to signal for one of the kids to throw in a ring and hook you out! As you can imagine, this became a serious struggle after a few beers and with a raging current!

On the second day of tubing we experienced the great atmosphere of Bar 3 in the pouring rain. There was plenty of beer and free tequila shots, which led to a lot of singing and dancing! We then missed out the mud bath tug-o-war at Smile Bar (which we experienced on the first day), and moved onto the last bar for mud wrestling and more Tarzan swings!

At the end of each day we were very drunk, very muddy, and very tired by the time we made our way along the last 3km stretch of the river before arriving back in Vang Vieng. It was one of the most random experiences on our trip to date, and although not in-keeping with real Laos culture, it was great fun and had to be done!

Next stop...detox in Luang Prabang and a two day jungle trek!