Tubing down the Nam Song.

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Vang Vieng, 18--03-2008. One of the main attractions in Vang Vieng - apart from enjoying typical Lao tranquil village life and admiring the strangely shaped karst stone formations all around Vang Vieng - is tubing down the Nam Song river. The deal goes like this; you pay 40.000 Kip down at the old market, you get a tractor tyre tube, they bring you by Tuk Tuk some distance up river and down river you float for 4/5 hours surrounded by the stunningly beautifull limestone karst terrain. The locals have made things even more enjoyable for you with a shitload of noisy bars along the route where you can take a break from tubing and get back to late to return the tube - fine is 2 dollar american, but then the american buck is shit these days anyway so let's forget about the fine and enjoy ourselves, right.... - . Apart from big Beer Lao these bars also serve all sorts of shakes, weed shakes, opium shakes, magic mushroom shakes, well, let me not try to stretch your imagination or, maybe better, your taste buds, I'm sure you get the general idea. I got back in time with 30 minutes to spare, four big Beer Lao and a free shot of Tiger whiskey down my throat. This tubing has become so popular it's nowadays a like a rite of passage on the Southeast Asia backpackers list. Worth the money and the effort.

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