Tubing in the Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng has beautiful scenery but is very touristy. The mountains are awe inspiring with limestone cliffs the likes of which we have seen through out south Asia but still incredible. The touristiness comes from the many guesthouses, restaurants and shops. Almost all the restaurants had big LCD TV's playing either Friends or Family Guy. We were hard pressed to find a restaurant where we could enjoy the scenery in relative peace and quiet. All the shops were selling “Tubing in the Vang Vieng” or Beer Laos tank tops along with water proof money cases. Obviously the town is thriving on tourists but there isn't much Laos character to the town. We still really enjoyed our time here though.

Dec 4 – Biking around Vang Vieng

We had a leisurely start to the day today which included some breakfast just down the street from our hotel. The power was out at our hotel and the restaurant but fortunately with open air places there is plenty of natural light. We rented some bicycles and toured around across the river. The pathway took us to a cave and mountain that we could climb. And so we went up, carefully. It wasn't really a proper pathway and had some ladder bridges to take us over some of the more rugged terrain. It was quite the interesting climb but had a lovely view of Vang Vieng and the mountains around. It was an awkward, careful climb down from the top. From here were continued on to another cave but they were charging admission as well and we weren't quite willing to pay it so we headed back to town. It was well after lunch time at this point and we were famished. Once back in town we got some lunch at a restaurant with a lovely view over looking the mountains and the little hill we climbed earlier. We just relaxed here for awhile enjoying the beautiful view. We biked around town afterwards and I was able to buy an inexpensive charm for my charm bracelet, its a little happy Buddha. We went back to our hotel for a shower and then headed out again to find somewhere with wifi and dinner. It is a little bit difficult to find somewhere to eat that isn't playing Friends and Family Guy. It's kind of ridiculous how much these two shows are played at all the restaurants here. We found one that had a back area where we didn't have to listen to the TV. We had dinner and did some research on what to do in New Zealand.

The view from town, we climbed the little one on the right.

In the cave

 

Dec 5 – Tubing on the Nam Song

Today we are doing the infamous “tubing” of the Nam Song. We rented an inner tube from the tube place which also makes you put down a deposit to make sure you bring it back. And hopped a tuk tuk which took us about 3km upriver to the launch point. In theory it should take 3hrs to float down the river, that doesn't include stopping at bars. When we arrived we were blown away, every 100m there was a bar on either side of the river. At each bar there were guys throwing you ropes to pull you ashore so you could buy a beer or a bucket from them. It was crazy! Many places also had rope swings, slides and dive platforms. At one bar we went down a slide but unfortunately I forgot to take off my sunglasses so now I need new ones. We had started our tubing adventure around noon and you have to have the tubes back by 6pm. We were at our last bar and it was getting close to the time so we hurried down to our tubes and forgot our flipflops.... another purchase we need to make now. It was getting quite cool out too. The sun had gone behind the mountain and the water was chilly. We were hailed by a tuk tuk driver from the shore so we pulled over and took a tuk tuk back to town. Just in time too. We walked back to our hotel, barefoot, and I had a nice hot shower. We had some dinner, I had a delicious chicken burger. We then went to another restaurant with internet and Beau proceeded to have second dinner. We drank lots of water to try and recover from our afternoon.

On the Nam Song River

One of the many bars

Beau on the slide I lost my sunglasses to

Just a floating along