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Published: July 16th 2008
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Van vien has a beautiful setting on the nam song river, the Town itself has something of a frontier feel about it. its introduction to tourism appears to be relatively recent, and although there are a plethora western comforts from video bars (which predominantly show friends) restaurants and hotels, you can see that this had been developed from peoples homes where they have simply opened up part of there house for business purposes and the whole thing is quite ramshackle. Although Laluang prabang was lovely the hotel we had stayed in for a flee pit so we arrived in vang vien in need of a little luxury, even if it cost a little extra. i sat in a bar with a only the bags and a G&T for company while helen and caleb went in search of a hotel. they came back 3 G&T's later but had found a wonderful hotel that could happily grace any city in europe for 15 quid a night. its difficult to gage if this is expensive of not, on average or hotel cost about 5quid, but the same hotel in europe would be up at around a 100quid.
the first night the three of
us had dinner at the hotel, and regretted ordering a starter each as one would have been enough to share. the hotel restaurant was all dark wood beams, that open up onto the nam song river on the opposite bank were mountains think with foliage that the clouds clung to in the misty mornings. as we were eating two belgain girls who had been on a bus in our convoy to vang vien walked in, they said were spending their evening looking at the other hotels, not that they were going to move from theirs. i took this as belgum oddness and asked them to join us. we had a few bottles of wine and ended headed into town. We sat in a bar, helen had gone to bed early, the belgians were doing their european drinking slowly thing while caleb and i got stuck into the G&T's and the flaming martini's. this was not good preparation for tuning the next day.
Tubing down the nam song is the major reason to visit vang vien. whoever dreamed up this idea is either a complete genius or insane, which just goes to prove the old saying about their being a
thin line between the both. in theory you sit in a large rubber ring and float down river for an hour or so taking in the scenery. in practise you are hurled along the river by an overwhelming current and they have set up several bars along the route the employees of which throw out ropes for you to grab onto and they drag you in. once in the bar they sell buckets for whisky and tizer for 2pound and had entrainment in the event of swings, where you swing out over the river and jump/fall 10m into the river when a friendly man again throws a rope out or you just have to fend for your self in the murky swirling river. Remember all those adverts about not swimming when you drunk, well the hole thing goes on the window, this is party time with people going down the river from bar to bar and drinking potent levels of alcohol. at every bar the party increases a level, with volleyball in the mud where its impossible to stay on your feet with people part playing, part dancing to the pumping music part just trying to get as muddy as
possible. by the time we got tot he second from last bar they had a dance floor everyone was muddy half naked and dancing in the rain.
i have to confess i dont remember the last bar, but buy the time we headed of it was dark. as we set of in our rings helen and caleb held back, but i had already started and you can swing against the tide so i just floated of down stream for a while. it was pitch black and i could not see any other tubers ahead of be or behind me. i became anxious, fully aware that if anything was to happen there would be noone to come to my aid, also i was not sure on what side of the river the exit point was, and by the time i saw it i would almost certainly be unable to change any direction to land. it started to rain. i sat back and left my self to the mercy of the river, there was nothing else to do. suddenly there was a splash to the side of be and a Lao man had thrown out a rope with a small rubber
ring attached to it. i grabbed on and he pulled me in and hauled me on to the bamboo dock to what i realised was not the final point but yet another bar, which was empty. i realised how drunk i was as i could barley stand and as i spoke to the kind gentleman who had helped me out he had no comprehension of what i was saying, this is in no way a slight at his ability to speak english. i i sat on the side for a while with my legs in the water while the water lapped up over my thighs waiting for helen and caleb to to come past but they never appeared. im not sure how long i was sat there for but i became bored and decided that the finish line must be down river and to get back in. i threw my tube back into the river while i stood on the bamboo dock, so i could jump onto it as if i was at a swimming pool. the second the tube hit the water it was sucked away from me by the current, i was about leap in after it when
half in the water half out, the same Lao man grabbed my arm, maybe he could not understand me earlier but i understood him, 'no, stupid'. he led me up towards to building, but but leg fell through a gap in the bamboo dock, my body falling one way jarred against the bamboo dock, the current from the river taking my leg the other. i closed my eyes and waited for the snap of my fema, and pictured trying to haul my self out of the water all the time the current stretching and snapping my muscles and tendons as and my arms dragged buy leg through the gap. luckily there was no snap but i still struggled clamber to my feet, with help for the third time from my friendly Lao man. as i went up to the bar there were two other westerners that he had dragged out and a tuk tuk waiting to take us back to town.
when i got back i found myself a bar showing Friends on the corner of two roads where i could keep an eye out for helen and caleb. they turned up an episode or so later. they had
floated all the way down but had missed the finish point as they had seen it too late, they had managed to grab onto some reeds on the side of the bank about a mile or so down and had waled bare foot the rest of the way in the pitch black. they had hung back because they some people didnt have tubes and they had to give them a lift. on the way they came across a scottish fella who had become de tubed in the water and was stuck in a swirling rapid, if they had not found him there is little doubt he would have drowned.
tubing is great fun, but its dangerous, how people dont die i have no idea.
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