In the Tubing VANG VIENG

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After a very bumpy minibus ride we arrived in Vang Vieng and found a nice place to stay straight away. Phouna Guesthouse - 50.000 Kip and 5 minutes walk to the centre.

The first afternoon we hardly did anything apart from exploring VV a little and in the evening we had a nice dinner down by the river. Huge portions and very delicious! Nom nom nom!

We had quite an early night so we are prepared for the tubing madness on the next day. We hired the tubes for 55.000 Kip and a Tuktuk drove us up the river. We got stuck at the first bar and had a whiskey shot and beer. After a while we floated on and I spotted a sign telling us they'd serve Chili Cheese Fries - for free! So I scrambled out of the water to learn they weren't ready yet, so beer it was! We stopped at some other bars on the way and continued with buckets. The further down the river we got the quieter the bars were. We just took out bucket with us and sipped away on it on the river. We tubed into Stefan and Simone as we left a bar and continued the journey and drinking with them. We took a Tuktuk back at about 5 pm that we make it back by 6 pm. After a shower we went for dinner and some more drinks in Smile Bar where we met Danielle again. As she had problems with her knees I brought her to bed and then it was bedtime for us as well.

The next day Ryan was hungover so I went out on my own to meet Danielle again before she set off on her 24 hour journey to 4000 Islands. Afterwards I met up with Stefan and Simone and we hang out at the restaurant at the river all afternoon. Oh lazy day! Ryan felt better in the evening so we went for dinner and then to bed.

To escape our laziness we hired bikes and explored the other side of the river. We wanted to go up to a viewing point and it started off quite well with bamboo stairs. Unfortunately, it didn't continue like that. We had to climb over huge rocks in the midday heat and with flipflops. I developed a massive headache which got worse and worse and as we made it to the top I thought my head would explode any second. The view was amazing though! After we managed to crawl down we rode on to a cave and every single bump in the dirt tracks (and there were loads) made my headache worse so I decided to go home as even paracetamol couldn't cure my headache. I felt really sick and could only lie in bed as I must have had a severe sunstroke.

Ryan, Stefan and Simone went to the Blue Lagoon and had a nice dip in the cool water. They also climbed up to a huge cave and went exploring through the darkness before riding back to town. In the evening I felt better and had dinner with all of them.

The next day we went tubing again with the aim to make it down the river and we were successful. I have to say that we only had two beers on the way though..

The next few days in VV were just chilled out, had yummy ham&cheese sandwiches, read a few books, slept, drank some beers and buckets, went tubing once again and enjoyed life.

We had a great time in Vang Vieng and saw loads of weird people who apparently had too much of the tubing madness. Some of them spent several weeks there, work in the bars and are drunk 24/7. That's not the right life for me... or for us.

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