vang vieng

Vang Vieng is a cool little town, quite strange, but lots of fun. The main street is lined with restaurants all playing back-to-back episodes of 'Friends' and you can usually hear about 3 different episodes all going at the same time. I spent about 6 days here, biking around little villages, exploring caves, swimming in waterholes, and of course I had to go tubing. You pay your money, they put a number on your hand, cram you into a tuktuk, drive you 4km up the river and give you a tractor tyre to float down the river in. As you float along bar-owners fish you in with bamboo sticks, give you as much free lao lao whiskey as you want and try to convince you that it's a good idea to jump off their bamboo tower ropeswings before heading down the river to the next bar. Now, this all seems like a good idea at the beginning, but when you're blind-drunk and still have to float 2 more kilometers down the river in a tyre to get home, you start to wonder what you were thinking. But yeah, lots of fun and lots of good people.