Tubing in Vang Vieng
From Vang Vieng we wandered a short way down the river to some caves, supposedly inhabited by a hermit who in an effort to discourage visitors had built his home at the top of 147 steps*. (* I know there are 147 steps as two of us counted on the way up before turning round and realising the steps had successfully discouraged the rest of the girls). In doing so he’d created quite the tourist attraction so had a steady stream of camera toting guests.
We skipped lunch and headed straight to the river bank for some tubing (paddling down river sat atop a truck inner tube). Tubes in hand we dropped into a bar for a quick mulberry mojhito (all proceeds to charity…) then jumped on the river and paddled at least 50 metres before being thrown a line, pulled ashore and a beer thrust into our hand. An hour later the others climbed into the river whilst I got a round of applause for climbing to the higher part of the bank as I held the tube behind me, jumping and landing cleanly with the tube below me and ready for action. 50m later, another line, another beer and this time a death slide.
Given that we had 4 hours to cover 4km and had so far made about 100m we skirted the next bar and went to one with a huge water slide for some lunch and possibly a beer or two. Now with an hour to cover the next 3800m we thought we’d better crack on so got another beer and played truth or dare. With our 4 hours up we figured we may as well get value for money from our overdue fine and with a sigh left the bar, mounted up and got paddling. A short burst of rapids propelled us a fair distance and we paddled well for a kilometre or so but the river was low so progress was slow and not wanting to be left on the river after dark we stood up and walked to the side (turns out low river is literal, it was about 2 feet deep…could have walked faster). We espied a tuk tuk driver waiting further down the bank who just happened to have a roof rack and ropes as though this was a common occurrence and headed back to the office narrowly avoiding the second 6pm fine.
A quick pancake on the way back to the hotel and a hot shower got us ready for dinner. Satay pizza and 3 episodes of Friends, including the one where Chandler explains the meaning of “I had a great time, I’ll call you”. After dinner we figured we’d done enough for today so headed back to the hotel. As the others returned to the room they were still enthusing about the tubing and asked what I thought. “I had a great time, I’ll call you”.
