Last stop in Laos (Vang Vieng)

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After Luang Prabang, I headed (by bus) to a town called Vang Vieng...which as far as I am concerned is know for its RIVER TUBING...and to all my loyal readers at home...you fool's know how I love to go TUBING. I am telling you, the tubing here is at another level. We need to up our game up at home. So I have been traveling with these two German guys all though Laos, and they where with me on the rafting trip. So this is the way it works. You get a tube...get a ride up river and then just sit back and chill....or so you think. After about 5 MINUTES on the river you pass the first BEER LAO station. Now there are stations about every 5 minutes down there river....and each one out does the prior one. The locals are really getting clever down here and have come up with some great ways to attract business. So the first "bar" on the side of the river is just a guy selling beer from a cooler...but he has also build a high platform from with you can jump. But in order to jump you have to buy at least a beer. So we do...and we jump...then we head down the river...and come across the next station. A higher platform...but this one has some bounce too it (bamboo...kind of like a ghetto diving board)...so we buy beer, and we jump. Then the next station has a guy that tosses you a rope and pulls you in...and they have a ZIP LINE into the middle of the river...so we buy more beer....and go down the zip line a few times....and then the next station a guy gives free happy tours of some caves....if you buy beer...so we check out the caves (pretty neat actually)...and then the next station has a huge rope swing...and this goes on and on and one...for about 6 hours. It was actually really similar to the old tubing trips we had down the the river at marks old piece of land (we need to do that again).

So I hung out for a few days in this little town....and it was really nice. They have all this little docks along the river that have couchins and candles and what not...so you can sit and chill (with a beer Lao of course) and listen to music...or look at the stars or what ever...i was with the germans and they were a couple of romantic so we ended up there every night (haha...joking). But the town was cool and they had some serious badminton going on there. Now I dont know if most of you all know this or not but I was on the badminton team (with my boy Matt Malone...whoo whoo) for a year while I was at William and Mary. Matt and I always lost to the girls...but I could still whoop up on your average picnic player..so I was really eager to get in a game. Not to mention that I am totally on a withdrawal from competition....I miss my sports at home. Anyways, they had a some sweet games at a local gym, but I never managed to finagggle my way into one (thats ok though, cause these guys would have punished me!).

So the next day (my last day in Laos) instead of taking the bus to the border I signed up for a kayaking trip from the town I was in to the boarder...definitely an interesting way to get to Thailand. Lots of fun...well kind of...not to many rapids, actually, there wasnt too much of anything...i think the tubing river was faster. But it still beats riding a bus (unless it is a VIP bus with a movie).

Ok, so that is it for now...I am back in Bangkok (I love it here...but damn, enough is enough...i need to get out of here). But tomorrow I will be (I really cant believe I am saying this...) IN NEPAL!!!!!!!!! Holy COW...NEPAL. MT. EVEREST HERE I COME BABY!!!!!

lets just hope I dont get shot my the Maoists (knock on wood)!!

South East Asia.....another one bits the dust....INDIA AND NEPAL...HERE I COME.

ps. I am definitely way over my head with nepal....i dont even know if it is cold there....but hopefully my AMEX card can get me what I need!

I miss you all...but I have to admit....I'M STOKED ABOUT NEPAL.

-Chris

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Photos

Me and my crew
local children

THE GERMANS
finally someone could pronounce my last name (in fact...even better then I could..haha)

The River
End of the tubing trip...notice the little docks along the river

The country side
pic

the kids again
fooling around with the dig camera...they loved this thing

The country side
the mts. here where really impressive

Fishing net
Fishing net

Crazy Eye
watch out for the evil eye

Comments

[Bob Hogan]

Pictures of Vang Vieng
Nice pictures. I was in Vang Vieng in Feb 1967 when AID was building the road through there. Beautiful scenery then, as well as now. The little spring fed stream just north of town was crystal clear and cold as ice. Tiger tracks could be found in the sand at the stream. Your photos brought back some rather nice memories

[kara]

awesome
i did the vang vieng tubing last summer, and loved it! in case you're interested, i wrote a story about it today, absolutely ridiculously hilarious, i feel like only people that have been there recently know the craziness that is the mekong river in vang vieng. but anyway, if you feel like reading a story, it's on shotjot.com