Tubing in the Vang Vieng

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I got some really nice responses from several of you after my last blog post. I always feel so connected to you when I get feedback on my entries. The blog that follows switches gears a little bit. It has everything to do with the place I went to. Vang Vieng and Luang Nam Tha have very little in common. They are both in Laos, thats about it. So here goes....

Vang Vieng..... Completely unique.... one of a kind..... actually it is just like this place I went to in Thailand called Ko Phangan, and this other place I went to called Krabi. Although this description doesn't actually work perfectly I'm going to call Vang Vieng a hybrid of Ko Phangan and Krabi. It has amazing limestone cliffs that surround the landscape. There are endless options when it comes to outdoor activites and tours you can book. The party scene is constant and you can dance the night away every night just like Ko Phangan. The buckets are flowing, Friends is playing all day long, and the food is pretty westernized. If you make an effort you can get great tasting local food, if you stay clear of the main roads and get out of town a bit there is plenty of local culture. What sets VV apart, however, is the tubing, hence the title of this blog. Tubing in the Vang Vieng.... there are T-shirts all over town with this printed on them. Tubing is a glorious day long event. It only works here in VV. It could not survive any other place. I've thought about the evolution of this wonderful activity, how it must have started many years ago, who was the brains behind its current state, and what transpired along the way. But before I get in to all that..... lets start from the begining.

Want to test your guts? ------

I've been on rough bus rides. I've had intestinal complications before. I can usually handle a winding road pretty well. But you want to try doing all three together. It goes a little something like this..... Your intestines are not cooperating with you. The past several days have been unkind to your bowels. I don't blame my exotic eating. But it probably got me where I am today... wanting to be near a toilet every moment. But I'm on a bus that won't necessarily be stopping for the next 7 hours... Great! I'm on a really crappy bus as well. The bumps and stop and go traffic, doesn't help a damn thing. This drive is the same distance as the one I'll take next week. The difference is that this one takes twice as long. Why you might ask? Road conditions and the curvature of the road. The most crooked street in the world is not Lombard my friends, it might be this road from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. It is seriously twisted. Drive in a bus on the coastal road to Stinson beach and you may feel queezy or at least a bit unsafe. Well multiply that by a factor of 10, make the ride 6 hour long instead of 30 minutes, and add in about 10 times the elevation change and you are getting a picture of this drive. I apologize for this image I'm about to give you, but I was faced with the dual task of keeping both sphincters at either end of that long tube we call the digestive track from involuntarily opening up during this journey. I succeeded and was even able to appreciate the beauty of the drive. It is probably in the top 3 drives of my life, right up there with the one I took with Ben from Zion to Bryce Canyon, and one of the bus journeys in Costa Rica with the Cal soccer team.

On the way down I got to chat with Shane and Siobhan. These two Canadians who had recently met were now my new buddies and I would go on to spend the next couple days either with them or bumping in to them around town. Shane approached me to chat at our first stop. He asked me how I felt about the guy with the gun.... "What?" He pointed and I turned and there was an AK-47 (that is a Russian model gun that is automatic and possibly the most widely used gun in the whole history of guns). That AK-47 was not on display in a shop, it wasn't be held by a military man, a police man, or any type of official of any kind. Nope, that gun was slung over the shoulder of a plane clothes passenger of the bus. Why does he need a gun? Speculation.... to stop drug trafficking, to deter people from trying to rob the tourist bus, to scare the shit out of tourists... any or all could be true. But like most crazy things you see on the travel circuit, this didn't cause even the slightest bit of elevation in my heart rate. "Whoa.... thats serious." That was all I said. Shane and I chatted some more and got back on the bus. Dude with the gun was sitting behind me. Was he there the whole time? Must have been trying not to throw up or shit myself.... too focused to notice an automatic weapon behind me.

It was over with and we had arrived in the Vang Vieng. Time to find accommodation. There is an art to this my friends. The art of finding accommodation is learned through practice. The success and failure of many attempts helps you hone your skills, establish priorities, and become a true expert. For every good bit of advice I have to give on finding a great place to stay there is an uncomfortable night sleep, or a smelly dirty bedroom behind it. It may seem simple... just look in the Lonely Planet and find the first one or two on the list. You can play that game if you want and sometimes it works out. But many times it will not. You end up paying too much for a place too noisy and filled with all the wrong people for you. Lonely Planet has done some good things for the tourism industry, but has also ruined the charm and delights of many places while doing it. Actually finding accommodation requires that you consider the following things, in no particular order. You establish the priorities. What time are you arriving? This might dictate availability, how hot it is and how much walking you will be willing to do, what kind of bargaining power you have... etc. Where do you want to be? Location in a city is key. Put yourself in the right area and you may see the city in a whole new light. How much do you want to pay? What sort of comfort do you need for this stay? Will a bed and shared toilet do or are you needing that AC, private bathroom, and balcony? Do you like your guesthouse to serve food and drink or do you plan on getting out to find all your food needs? The list does go on.... I'll spare you the rest. In fact I don't even know the rest. But I have experience and I take it with me in to town to find my Guesthouse.

Amphone Guest House was a bargaining dream. The women who owned the place showed me a reasonable room. Not the best but certainly not the worst. Mind you I had seen a pretty nice place about 5 minutes before that had a price I was willing to pay. It had some comforts that Amphone did not. She was not giving me much of a discount, maybe a dollars worth. So I started debating in my head if I wanted to apy more for some comfort. As I processed this in my head my face was revealing some distaste. This woman took this as her cue to lower the price. What began as 40000 kip was now at 30000 kip. Still, I didn't know if I wanted the comfort. Then it was 25000. I was winning a battle that I wasn't even participating in. I never asked for a lower price, my face did all the negotiating. But now I put on my game face and tried 20000. I laid it on her thick, the face... then she refused. It was in that moment that I decided that the comfort was worth the money and began to walk out. "Ok I give you 20000 kip, but SHHHHHHH!" So I got my room. When you say a price and they give it to you, you must accept. All she cared about was that I didn't tell other backpackers that i was paying 2 dollars for my room when they were paying as much as 4 times that much. No problem for me. Her original price was fair enough, I just did the expert bargaining and they didn't. Who's fault is that?

"But Marcus.... you said you were going to talk all about Tubing.... telling us the wonders of this uniquely VV experience." I'll get to it in due time. But for now.... I have some more ground to cover. I'm still setting you up. I have to paint the picture of VV, how I got there, where I'm staying, and then we'll get down to business.....

So I arrived, found a guest house, showered 7 hours of bus ride filth off me, and now I wandered the town a bit. The center of town is much like how I described Had Rin beach in my Koh Phangan blog. Restaurant after restaurant, all with the exact same menu, all playing re-runs of Friends, or Family Guy. Backpackers lounging around, sipping on fruit shakes, using internet, watching episode after episode of Friends. It all felt so familiar and I was happy. It didn't put me off at all. I was in Vang Vieng. I knew I was coming to this and it was almost a relief to see it just as I had imagined it would be. Of course I hadn't even ventured anywhere outside of this fantasy land. I had yet to see the magnificence that surrounds this place. But I knew my way around and at any time could go hear Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Ross, Joey, and Chandler yuk it up.

On my first evening in Vang Vieng I took advantage of the movie selection at the restaurant next door to my Guest House. Sao (meaning Saturday, the day he was born) is the owner of the River Sunset Restaurant next to Amphone Guest House. He is 27 years old, is married and has two beautiful children. I decided to have dinner there because I he let me pick any movie I wanted from a selection of hundreds. I was the only customer at the time, and over the next several days I was often the only one in the restaurant. This turned out to be one of my favorite places to go in all of Vang Vieng. Sao's English was quite good. His wife and children were so beautiful. Perhaps his mother or his wifes mother, some other relatives, and friends of his were always around. On that evening I watched Charlie Wilson's War, had a dish of Chicken Larp (a Lao specialty of vegetables and minced meat, mint is a dominant herb) and a papaya salad. The papaya salad came from across the street and the Larp out of the kitchen. Sao ran to a woman making papaya salad in her street stall. This was the best papaya salad I have had since Thailand. Everywhere in Laos that I have ordered it they have managed to screw it up horribly. But more important than the meal or the movie was the connection I made with the owner and his family. Over the next couples days I would get to know him better, have long talks with him, and be trusted to sit as an observer of the families life.



AND NOW.... Ladies and Gentleman.... I introduce "Tubing in the Vang Vieng"

My first full day in Vang Vieng was always going to be spent on the river. I have been hearing about tubing since two years ago when I was in Vietnam. I heard about it when I was home in California. I heard about it all the way through Thailand. In fact, I heard about it so much that I was starting to get tired of it. I have a tendency to avoid things that everyone is doing just for the sake of doing.... it doesn't agree with me. Speak about something too much and I may just turn and walk the other way. If it sounds too trendy and I don't see the purpose or peace about the activity or thing I don't want to be a part of it. Tubing is what brings people to Vang Vieng. It almost was the reason I skipped the place all together. "Plan on spending at least 3 more days there than you think you will," said one backpacker to me in Thailand. He explained that you tube every day. I couldn't fathom this, float down a river and party all day and night, and do it multiple times. Having been down the river and had the experience, I cannot say that I would do it for many days in a row, but it was well worth the trip and maybe a second day would have been just as fun. But based on Vang Vieng's location, my time frame, and the other options at hand, I did come here and.... "When in Rome...do as the Romans" or "When in Rome... When in Rome". I was here and I had to tube. There was sufficient build up, the day had been planned, I would have a normal morning for me (coffee, breakfast, exercise..... maybe an episode of Friends) then I would get a tube and do this thing.

Logistics.... you stop at the main tubing office and pay about 4 dollars to rent an inner tube. These are large truck tire tubes that are black, painted with white spray paint. You sign a contract saying you will have the tube back before 6:00pm otherwise you will be subject to a fine. You read the signs that say to please be respectful of the locals and when you walk back through town to return you tube you will wear a shirt and girls with put clothes on. Fine.... I'll be respectful. You can rent a dry bag or in my case I own one so I brought it with. Inside I put my camera, a shirt, sarong, and my wallet. All packed and ready to roll. With my new friends Shane and Siobhan, plus Angelique who I met in Chiang Mai we all pile on to a tuk tuk. They fit about 11 of us on one tuk tuk. That is eleven people plus eleven tubes. We ride 4km up river to where they drop off everyone. This is right where the famous Vang Vieng Organic Farm is located. You can get a mulberry shake or some other organic food before you go but I'm too excited to get floating down this river. They say the river takes about 2 hours from start to finish. The scenery is amazing. The river is running fast, limestone cliffs surround you, green everywhere.... perfect setting. We get in our tubes and we are off.......

After a long float down the river with minimal paddling necessary we arrive at the first stop.......some 50 meters from the start...... thats right.... 50 meters. You get in the river and then the next thing you know you are out. Here is where tubing gets interesting. Tubing in the Vang Vieng has very little to do with the tubes and floating on the river. It has everything to do with the endless string of outdoor bars that line the riverbanks. Yep....bar after bar. Bamboo huts and benches and platforms..... beer, fruit shakes with liquor, fruit shakes with other fun stuff in them.....and music that is loud like in the clubs loud. One after the other. They are all serving the same thing. You can get snacks along the way at eat bar.... they double as small eateries too. What sets them apart from one another is what they offer in terms of entertainment. The first bar we arrive at has a long zip line that starts high up in a tower and lands up upstream so you can float back to the bar. The next has a gigantic rope swing with a trapeze handle. The rope swing is the most common of the attractions at most bars, but the height varies quite a bit. Others have volleyball nets set up, some have badminton courts, I shot a slingshot at a row of empty beer cans... the options seem endless. Owners must constantly be inventing and innovating. How can they be the best? It started this way I'm sure.... a couple guys on the river selling beer our of small ice chests... Then they started to build places for tubers to hang out and drink their drinks. Then electricity got sent out to the river and music has been playing ever since. The next evolution was cheap thrills. These drunk kids need something to jump off of into the water. Lets make it higher. Lets add ropes in..... how about a zip line....and the evolution will continue. In 10 years who knows what this will be like.

Back to my adventure. I'm 50 meters from where we started, it is 1:30 pm..... we order drinks and go jumping off some high dives. The zip line deserved a try or two or three. I do a swan dive from the top of the 10 meter platform. Scary a bit.... More drinking..... beer for me... I try Angeliques coconut shake/pina colada....yum. We head off to the next bar because we all want to try the rope swing... and by all I mean me and Shane. So we float the long 20 meters to the next bar. More drinks get ordered by my friends, I sit this round out.... I'm a serious lightweight. I can't remember if I mentioned much about Lao Lao in my last blog. I know there is the picture of me after my shot of it. Lets just say it is Lao moonshine and it is vile. They give it away free to people on the river. I get offered a shot by a fellow tuber and I tell him I'll pass. He says it is rude to refuse a drink and I slam down a shot and then immediately pour him a bigger one..... take that tough guy. So I'm pretty buzzed now.... we are not more than 100 meters from the start and this river is 4 km long.

But the rope swing looks great. I'm so ready to do this. I've always had a thing for rope swings and have never had a great opportunity to try one. My first go is so great. The height..... so high.... The other obsession I have with rope swings is doing a back flip off of one. I have always thought of this.... I've had dreams about it.... in my dreams the landing is perfect. The one time I tried this before in my life I managed to land directly on my crotch in the water and was in a world of pain. This rope swing I was about to try to back flip from was considerably higher than that previous experience. That might frighten someone with good common sense. But to the half drunk tuber, like myself, the higher the swing, the more time I have to complete the flip. This is the same rational thinking I used when I was trying to learn to do a 360 on skis. The higher the jump more time for rotation. That story ends with me falling harder and enduring more pain. But still I'm back to that crap logic and I'm going to let it all out on this rope swing in the Vang Vieng. Plus I have an audience and I'm talking it up like I know what I'm doing. I even have someone who is going to film it on my camera. Without buildup, without hesitation, I'm off the platform, the release, one full rotation and some change, i'm in the water and pain free. It was a success. It was just like I imagined it would be. I could flip on this thing all day long. Shane and I climb the tower again, decide to do a tandem swing. We get back to the bar.... people finish drinks and we are floating again. We decide to float further this time. Passing bars. We are with some veterans or the river, Rini and Claire... this is their third day I think. They inform us the best bar is up a ways. So we get there... this was only 150 meters away. We have gone 300 meters of a possible 4000. It is now 3:30pm. Two hours gone..... A Scottish guy offers to buy me a drink after my heroic back flip.... He was really impressed. "I'll have a fruit shake with vodka" Down the hatch. This rope swing is much higher at this bar. I'm sure I can get two rotations out of it. Double back flip. This is going to have to be on film. I climb the ladder. Damn this is really high. Did I think this through. Am I drunk. Look at how far down the water is. "Your up dude....." The Lao guy up at the top says... "It's OK..." that is my cue. No time to second guess. Everyone is watching. I go..... One flip..... Half a flip..... I"m going to make it.....splash.... it was a one and a half. I'm OK with that. I'm pain free. Nothing hurting. Not even the nuts. This is good. Very good. I'm content. No more jumping needed for me.

When we left the bar it was almost 5pm. We really needed to get a move on to finish this river in time. I have heard stories of people getting stuck past sunset. Dark... cold... in the rain and trying to get back to town. They end up having to hire a boat to get back. Plus they have to deal with the tubing office and pay fines. You see these people come in to town around 8pm. They are way too drunk for their own good and while the rest of us sit around town enjoying dinner they stumble up to the tubing office where they get yelled at by the shop owners. The guys working the store must love this. They let these drunk....sometimes tripped out backpackers hear it. It is the same thing every time... the same yelling... and I think they love this part of their job. But I don't want to be on the receiving end of one of these bollockings. So when people stop at the next bar I continue on with Shane. We are both drunk enough... don't need more drinks. Actually Shane still has his drink from the last bar in his hand while we float. We still have about and hour of tubing/paddling to do. The sun is beginning to set and there couldn't be a better time of day to be on this river, with these mountains in view. I'm relaxing, still buzzed from my three drinks, and so happy to be here. I ride that high for the rest of the evening.

Tubing in the Vang Vieng was over.... but my stay in VV was far from complete. Turns out there is a hell of a lot more to do in VV than just get crazy on the river. But when people say that tubing is why you go to VV you really cannot blame them. It is fantastic. It is an event that works here and probably nowhere else. The scenery is right, the country is right, the alcohol is right, the lack of safety regulations is right...... it all works and has been working for years and will continue to work for years to come.

What else did I do in VV? There is so much more. Tubing was just the tip of a large iceberg. The 90% mass concept, below the surface, hidden from plain view works so well to describe Vang Vieng. People come because they can see the 10% tip..... tubing in the VV. It is a shiny tip, they head straight for it, they want to experience contact. Curiosity pulls them, ease of life pulls them closer, the current of the slow life and relaxation pushes them even closer..... when they get there and they see it is an iceberg they jump ship and swim in the freezing cold water to touch it. Because they abandoned ship and are clinging to the protruding 10% they have missed the all important collision with the other 90%. Their ship veers off to the left and bypasses the impending doom of the 90%. As a result they sit in the 10% restaurant, they do the 10% tubing, they party at the 10% bars on the river and the island bars.... some actually leave this place and never even swim below the surface to see that there is a whole 90% left to explore.

I jumped off the bus and landed in 10% land myself. I walked around my first day, familiarized myself with it, went tubing, watched some Friends, and could have fallen victim to what many backpackers fall victim to here in VV, missing the mass underneath. However, perhaps it is just my nature, my quest on this journey, but I have been seeking out the below the surface stuff from the beginning. Eating at the local joints in Hong Kong, following the Makansutra in Singapore, going to Luang Nam Tha..... That is how I would choose to spend my time. So, if you take a few days to depart from the river you will find amazing things in this place. One such activity was the Rock Climbing I did here. I wrote about my first rock climbing experience in Krabi. It was amazing. I loved the place, the guide (Man... need I say more), the company (Chris and Joe), and the activities. Climbing in VV was equally as good. In some ways better. We climbed for the entire day... just 4 of us. The entire rock was all ours. Nobody to compete for routes with. My company was two students from Cal Poly who were doing a semester abroad in Thailand. They were on a long weekend and came up for a couple days. The other member of the group was my buddy Phil. That is the same Phil from Koh Phangan, the one I did kickboxing with and befriended for the week. Our guides name was Nom. He spoke almost perfect English, was funny, made us feel safe, and worked hard for us. Belaying us all day, cooking lunch for us up on the mountain, lead climbing all our routes to set up top ropes, he was perfect for the task of guiding us. The location of the climb was well up the mountain. We were overlooking a vast valley. You could see town, limestone cliffs in the distance and up close, rice fields, jungle..... it was amazingly beautiful. From their we climbed up as high as 30 meters. Add in the height we started at and you are looking at around 150 meters off the valley floor looking out as you climb. I've never experience anything like this before. The climbs were of varying difficulty. The first few were easy and got progressively more challenging. I finished all the climbs and didn't fall. I hit one very tough part that I was forced to use some unorthodox technique. This is when I throw my thighs around a rock and shimmy up like you would a tree. But I made it and felt good about my climbing for the day. My buddy Phil (it was his idea to come and climb), turned out to be terrified of heights. I've never seen such terror, except perhaps with my Mother (sorry Mom) when we were going up the road to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs. Phil had been so confident... "I'm a pretty good climber". He failed to mention that he does all his climbing at very low heights, more like bouldering. He started shaking, sweating, he was still on the ground. He went up about 10 meters, he got dizzy and asked to come down. He was trying to face his fear, that was the goal today. He did an amazing job. Though he never finished a climb, he did face the fear. He was good at climbing just like he said. He never had any difficulties with the climbing itself, just the height. The climbing was a success on many levels and I took great joy in watching my friend face his fear. For such a big macho muscular guy it was nice to see him vulnerable. We all have those fears in us and can only hope that we are strong enough to try and face them head on like he did.

What else did I do.....? I got a bike one day and rode around for hours. There are endless options. Caves, lagoons, hikes, villages, elephant camps, all within 15 km of the town. You can ride for days and never see all of them. The caves are deep and some hard to get to. You need a flashlight. The lagoons are so clear and an almost unreal shade of blue. They have swings that go into them as well. Swings everywhere. The countryside is spectacular, riding is enough, you never have to visit a cave ever if you don't want to.

Every evening I would venture down to the river and bath myself in the cool water. This is what all the locals do. You see them down by the river around dusk and the kids are playing, the women are washing each others hair, the men are maybe washing or fishing with large nets that they throw and collect. The current is strong enough that you can swim against it and stay in place. I usually do a bit of this and then just relax on the banks watching the sunset. The light is perfect at this time of day and the mountains look most impressive.

I had long talks with Sao in the evenings. One day we talked about education. He explained to me how the kids in the towns and cities were being educated. He told me that he was born just down the road at the hospital in VV. He graduated from university in 2004 and has been running the restaurant ever since. He said that he doesn't feel like he has really worked hard in the last four years. That is why he is fat, according to him. We talked about the villages in Lao. Most people live in villages and work more physical agricultural labor. He said that even though they don't have good education in the villages, that these people work hard, and because of that are happy, fit, and healthy. He explained to me that in many ways he admires that lifestyle and thinks they might be better off than city people. I agree with him on many levels. We sacrifice simplicity and hard work for some of these comforts we get in the city.

During my time in VV there were 3 big weddings that took place. Weddings in Lao consist of big parties that start at about 9am and go all day and night. There is food everywhere and the drinking of Beer Lao gets going as early as breakfast. By 11am you can smell the beer in the street. The dancing starts around noon. It is a wild celebration. Sao went to all the weddings and left me alone in the restaurant on two occasions with the kids and possibly the grandmother. On one of those occasions I played with his little girl. We had fun together, I was so touched that I had been allowed to stay, Sao trusted me, I trusted him, I love this place....

There was the morning when I woke up early because of the rain and wind. I walked out to get coffee and a man asked me to join him. He spoke little english, in fact not much more than hello and thank you. We sat and enjoyed a very typical Lao tradition, Lao coffee and tea. His friends joined us. We all tried to communicate. I asked them to tell me the names of table condiments in Lao. They did a good job, I tried my best, the language was tough, I don't remember any of the names. There was a lot of talk between them, there was silence, we all sipped coffee and watched the morning around us unfold. We drank coffee at the only open place on the street. Someones home turned into a storefront. This is so often the case. People live here, and during the waking hours turn their home into a business. They hang Beer Lao banners around the front of their house to indicate to everyone that they are serving not only beer but food and are open for business. You can see the kids laying down on their beds in the back while you sip your coffee. The husband and the wife alternate duties. It doesn't feel invasive, it feels welcoming. The image I have from that morning is the rain falling on the street, the baby girl of the family standing on the table in the front of the shop staring at the same rain I see, she is squatting like every Asian person can from the start, she stands up and still has her gaze fixed on the street, her father walks up slowly behind her, he gets close enough that she can feel his presence, she stays fixed on the street, he looks as well, then he reaches an arm around her and she melts into his love. They embrace and smile and the day is already a success, for them, for me..... I am an observer, I am a participant, I am invisible, I am visible.

There is still so much more of the 90% to tell, but those stories I'll keep for myself and to share with you all in person. I will however finish with a short discussion of food. You maybe thought I would leave that out this time. Nope. Food still remains high on my list of priorities when traveling. First, because it sustains me. Second, because it is so damn good. And third, because it is a look into culture and is a gateway to true emotions. I did my requisite exploration of the local market. I ate frequently at the cheap street stalls. I found another salad (not papaya) that I love, almost more than the papaya. It is called a Lao Salad.... imagine that. I think the salad I eat in eat place helps me to place that country in my mind. Papaya in Thailand, Lao Salad in Lao, and I'll get to Bali soon enough (I'm already here so I know there is a Bali Salad to add to the list, just wait). The Lao Salad is a bed of romaine, cucumber on top of that, tomatoes around them, scallions cut coarsely on top, a soft boiled egg sliced thinly, a dressing of crushed peanuts, lime, sugar, egg, oil, and love..... topped with more crushed peanuts. It is divine. I'm in love... I ate two a day for 4 days. From the same place. A husband and wife team that runs this small street stall.

Vang Vieng is a gentle reminder of what I'm searching for on my travels. I'm searching for what is below the surface. I'll indulge in the 10%, of course I will. Those are the experience that you share with other travelers, you hear stories about, are usually quite fun and easy. But I'm always going to try and find 90% land. These are the stories and experiences that shape the journey. I'll be able to share them with some and not with others. I won't ever see all 90%, it is endless and undefined. You cannot put limits to it, you cannot write a lonely planet about it. It is dynamic, it shifts, it won't be the same tomorrow as it was today.

Hoping that you are all finding something beneath the surface that is making you smile and is fulfilling you.
Loving you all..... each day I'm away,
Marcus

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Photos

Vang Vieng
Views of these limestone cliffs, and heavily forested landscape are with you wherever you go in VV.

My Guesthouse
So you get a good sense of what my accomodations are like, here is a picture of my den. I slept in this room for 5 nights. What you see is all there was, plus a tiny bathroom/shower.

Food Stalls
This is where you get cheap eats in VV. With a salad and omlet for breakfast I was left $2.50 poorer.

Typical Condiments
The usual table set up in Asia. There are a couple brands of fish sauce, chili paste, sugar, seasoning salt, regular salt, black pepper, shrimp paste, utensils and a roll of toilet paper as napkins.

Lao Salad
This salad is heavenly. I had one every day I was in VV from the same woman and husband team. A bed of Romaine with cucumbers and tomatos and scallions on top. Then a soft boiled egg. Followed by a dressing of homemade mayo, lime, sugar, peanuts, and chili. Served up it looks like this and tastes 10 times better.

Tubing Today
Because it is low season in Lao and the flux of backpackers through VV is low, only this tubing place was open for business. The main tubing office in VV.

Pile them on
How many Tubes do you count? We had 11 on our tuk tuk, plus 11 people and a driver. Way past capacity.

Team Alpha
These were my tubing buddies for the day. Moments later I got moved to the back of the tuk tuk. I had to hold a couple extra tubes on our way to the launch site.

Off we go
This is tubing. You are in a tube and you sort of float/paddle down the river.

Also Tubing
Then there is the vertical enteratainment. You climb these very tall towers, grab hold of trapeez handles and do your high flying acrobatics out into the river.

Tandom Tubing
Shane and I go doubles on the rope swing. This too is considered tubing. Tubing can mean so many things. You cannot get bored on the river with these options.

Also Tubing
This is also part of tubing. Sitting at various bars along the river and drinking beer, fruit shakes with various alcohol, or having free shots of lao lao. It is a party all day long.

Shane
This is my new actor friend Shane. He is from Vancuver. He is a professional actor. He just finished schooting a scene with Jennifer Aniston before coming to Asia. We had a great time on the river together. He was loads of fun. That is Shane doing the tandom rope swing with me.

The climbing team
Two college students from Cal Poly (on a study abroad quarter in Thailand), Phil, and my guide Nom. This was the group I spent the day climbing with in VV. It was only us up on the mountain and we had the entire wall to ourselves. It was a special day.

Gearing up
This was gong to be my last climb of the day. It was the most challenging. It was also the longest, 30 meters. We were up the mountain about 100 meters or more. So when I got to the top of the climb, exhausted and covered in sweat, I took a moment to look over my shoulder and take in the entire valley view from 150 meters up. It was the shizzle..

Doing the climbing thing
Some of my moves on the rock. I don't have good technique and I'm strong enough in my upper body to do things I shouldn't be doing when I climb. I even invented a new move I think, call the shimmy. When you get stuck on a large protruding rock, you just wrap you thighs around it and starts sliding up. It looks so uncool.

The view we had climbing
This was the backdrop to our day of climbing. It looks even better when you are 30 meters up from there. Waiting around to have a turn climbing was no problem, just sit back and lose yourself in this view.

Around Vang Vieng
I hired a bike one day and explored what was around VV. I found myself on this bridge miles away from anyting.

The blue lagoon
Another fun departure from tubing in VV is going to visit various caves and lagoons. They are easily accesible on bike and you can spend days trying to get to all of them.

Hair Cut, Shoe Repair....
Have you ever needed a hair cut and to get your shoes repaired, but didn't want to make two trips to different shops. Well if you come to VV this is a one stop solution. These barber shops set up around VV do hair cuts, fix shoes, and will repair bags and clothes. Genius.

The Island Bars
The river gets really wide just as it comes in to VV. Then the river splits and a small Island sits in the middle. On that Island there are many outdoors bars that have bon fires, hammocks, great music, and relaxing bungalows to hang out in. The signs direct you as to where you can go and have a fun time.

Another river view
So pretty.

Comments

[Su]

LOVE IT!!!!!!!!
I wanna tube the Vang Vieng!! Sounds like so much fun, love the backflip part, and I am so glad those flips ended well for you!! This one had me laughing and crying, oh the little girl in the rain.......I FREAKIN am Loving this vicarious living thing with you as the narrator! Love and Huggies, Su Su