Experiencing the local culture in Laos

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I left Luang Pra Bang wondering why I was even there in the first place. Although if you're reading this and thinking about going, to be fair I have not heard one bad thing about the place and everyone is surprised that I didn't like it. I arrived in Vang Vieng and asked the hotel if they had wifi. They said yes so I took a room, it turns out they had the password to the neighbors restaurant's wifi and you had to sit on the second floor balcony with a strong breeze in order for for you to get a signal. They kept saying that tomorrow someone was coming to install their wifi. I was there five days and tomorrow never came. I shouldn't have expected anything different. The first night I met some people on the bus into town and we went out to the bars, while there I ran into some people that I had been traveling with in Vietnam. We decided to meet and go tubing the following morning. This whole town is designed around tubing where you pay an exorbitant amount of money for a tube and a deposit which you will never see again because no one quits drinking at 6pm regardless of when you start. So at noon we left with tubes in hand and got dropped off up stream to where you start and in reality finish. One way to do it is to get into your tube and float down the river for two hours until you arrive back into town, no one does this. Another way is to get into your tube and float down the river and grab the rope that the bars throw out to you and drink at every one of the bars along the river. The downside is you have to find a tube and get back into the river to the next bar. Smart people don't get tubes and they just walk to the bars. It looks like spring break more than anything else. You try to bring and wear as little as possible because you're just going to lose it. There was spray paint and you were sure to have beer poured on you, buckets were passed around, and there were free shots. It was crazy. I didn't see any mushroom shakes though, but it could be because I wasn't looking for them. People die every year on the river so I wanted to stay rather sober. It still didn't stop me from going down slides and jumping off swings into the river. The next day at dinner I couldn't eat anything and went back to my room and became violently ill. I threw up all night, every 45min, I barely ate anything the next day but bread and water. Finally I was able to eat some food on the third day. Some might think it was from drinking or whatever, but I'm 99% certain it was from something I ate rather than something I drank. I almost went to the hospital, but I'm a guy. The town has a hospital and I am sure it is pretty busy with all the people who had foot injuries walking around. One guy was on crutches and still hitting the river, he was a trooper.

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