Tubing

Day 19 - Friday 19 October

After getting up early, we made the 6 hour trip to Viang Vien. My pictures will never do it justice, but driving through the mountains the scenery was breathtaking. Speaking to a group of Irish people who'd stayed here before, we checked into a guest house by the river with yet another great view of the mountains.

For some reason most of the bars here continuously show episodes of friends all day long. Great if you like friends but I don't. Luckily some of them show the Simpsons instead. Another difference is that the bars have set up these booths full of pillows which you lie on whilst watching the tv. They are really comfy so as you can imagine the evening was spent taking it easy over a few drinks.

Day 20 - Saturday 20 October

I'd decided to spend the day caving so we hired a couple of mountain bikes so we could travel to the various caves in the area. Having not ridden a bike for 10 years I set of wobbling precariously down the road. But the saying is right you never forget how to ride a bike and after 10 mins I was racing around.

We'd initially intended to visit Them Phu Kham cave first as apparently it's a good cave to explore and has a lagoon outside that you can swim in. Great as it's very hot today. However somehow we took a wrong turn and ended up at a cave called Khan cave that wasn't even on our map.

It would have been a shame not to have explored it as we were there so whilst Russ waited outside as he's claustrophobic, I hired a couple of local kids as guides to show me round. Even though they were only about 6 years old, I was grateful I'd hired them as there was no way I'd have found my way back out again. They even had to pull me through a particular narrow section when I got stuck. I was relieved to see sunlight and the exit 20 mins later and emerged covered in mud.

After all that adventure we finally found the lagoon and jumped straight in. The cave here is a bit easier to explore once you have made the very steep climb up the rock face to the entrance. Once inside the floor was too slippy to wear flip flops so I had to go barefoot and emerged 2 hours later with yet more cuts to my feet. At this rate they are going to be in a right state when I eventually return home.

Another dip in the lagoon and it was time to head back to town so we could watch the merseyside derby. As the bars aren't allowed to open past 11:30 am we were worried that we might miss the rugby world cup final. However by good fortune, the bar we'd gone to watch the football in was also advertising a lock in later for the rugby so we prepared ourselves for a 10 hour drinking session. As this was the only bar staying open by midnight it was packed with Brits, Irish and South Africans.

A lao lock in is not like one back home and just consists of drawing a curtain across the open front bar and hoping the police don't notice. Obviously as this is a very small town they did and at about 1 am 20 of them lined up at the front of the bar. After about a half an hour standoff where no doubt bribes were paid, the police left, the tv was back on and the beer was flowing again.

Its a shame we lost the rugby.

Day 21 - Sunday 21 October

Last night during the rugby we'd met a few fellow Brits and arranged to spend the day tubing with them.

Tubing basically consists of being given a big inflatable ring that you sit in and let the current float you down river. We did a 10k run which gives you about an hour and a half to drift down river before you hit the bars.

Some enterprising Lao people have set up bars at the riverside and with cheap drink and music pumping out there is a great party atmosphere in them. They have even built rope swings over the river which range from the height of a double decker bus to 10m high. Great fun.

After a late night I'd intended to take it easy but you just cant help get caught up in the atmosphere. If you ask at the bars you also get a free shot of whisky which is too good an offer to turn down.

There are 9 bars in total and about halfway down the strip is the biggest bar called Lao Lao which complete with beach volleyball courts is where most people spend the majority of the afternoon. By the time we arrived at about 3 pm the party had well and truly started thanks to the buckets of whisky and redbull everybody was drinking.

Had such a good time that we stayed until it was dark which meant that we had to drift the last half an hour into town in total darkness. The lonely planet tells you not to drink or tube at night but we never had any problems. And although we didn't have any idea where the end was the local kids drag you out of the water when you get to town.

After meeting up with people we'd met that day we were so tired we spent the evening relaxing over a few fruit shakes.

Not only the best day of the trip so far but the most fun I've had in about 5 years. If you are in Laos you definitely have to do the tubing in Viang Vien.

Day 22 - Monday 22 October

We were due to leave Viang Vien today but had such a great time yesterday that we decided to stay another day and due the tubing again.

This time we teamed up with a couple of Americans Jonathan and Rebbecca (they weren't annoying either), and two Danish girls Sophie and Cecilie. Another day of great fun, lots of drinking and I even discovered I have a natural ability at beach volleyball.

That evening we all met up for more drinks at Oh Lao Lao the main bar in town that most people go to after a day of tubing.

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