Inter-tubing

We had another windy, 5 hour journey today, southwest to Vang Vieng. It was another beautiful drive through mountains, small villages along the roadside, and huge limestone mountains jutting out of the valleys. It was reminiscent of places in China, as well as Halong Bay in Vietnam (without the ocean). Laos is such a beautiful country. The people are warm and friendly, and the children are incredibly happy.

We got to Vang Vieng, had some lunch and signed up to go innertubing down the river. We drove about 4km upstream. Our tuk tuk dropped us off on the banks of the river near a small village. We threw our innertubes (large tractor tyre size) into the cool, refreshing water and some local kids pushed us off. We jetted off like two sea turtles, or even slower. The water is quite low this time of year, so it's not flowing at its fastest. We floated along, enjoying the stunning beauty of the mountains and stopped at many of the numerous bamboo rafts lining the banks selling Beer Lao. This is really the purpose of the tubing--floating along the river and drinking beer. It was so relaxing, and the water was clear and refreshing. At several of the beer stops they have built bamboo platforms you can climb up and jump off. Some have a flying fox to whizz you to the middle of the river, where you let go with a splash. But our favourite was a place the young guys had built a giant swing. You stand on the swing and they pull you back, high above the banks, then let you go flying over the water. You let go and jump off into the water. They also had good music playing and very cold beer, so we stayed a while. When it was time to move on, Nige tried to convince them to build a giant mudslide, where you sit in your tube and slide down into the water.

As we neared the end of our cruise, it was getting darker, and the river was getting slower. Quite tipsy by this stage, it was a long kick and paddle to the end, but fun nonetheless. We walked back through town carrying our tubes, dropped them off, had a warm shower and then a delicious Lao meal. Of course all of the paddling made us exhausted, so we had to get a massage afterwards. It was a great way to end a fun day.