In The Tubing Vang Vieng Laos

14 August

(All due credit for the tuk-tuk and river photos, they're not mine--someone on the web is a much better photographer and also remembered to bring their camera tubing. Thank you!)

With darling David feeling a bit better (though certainly not well enough to shop), we drove on down to the little town of Vang Vieng, on the Nam . Stayed in bungalows at the Thavansouk Resort—all of $6 a night, I'm told, for a king size bed, our own porch, a TV, all very luxe. Main claim to fame in Vang Vieng? The swift-flowing river that skims limestone karst mountains whilst skirting dozens of bankside bars, all equipped with buckets of alcohol, Beer Lao, and rope swings. Because alcohol and watersports are natural partners.

It's a slick operation, run by 1000 families of locals who rent out inner tubes, tuk-tuks, and a blue marker to write your number on your arm. The water is fast enough to move you with minimal effort, but smooth enough to make navigation easy for people who've had a bucket of whiskey already. Various bars have slides and swings, zip wires and mudpits, all to tempt in the hordes of westerners who appear to have magicked themselves here directly from Manchester and Sydney. And Ireland—saw an Irish girl who went off a slide and bit her tongue partly off on the way. Maybe rethink the alcohol and watersports.

It's great fun, though health and safety would never let this exist in the West. The end isn't actually marked, and theoretically you could float the 70K to Vientiene...we climbed out onto chicken wire and a bunch of locals who didn't even blink. Clearly this is the norm in Vang Vieng. All of the white people in town are currently sporting identical tank tops (in every colour of the rainbow, though), with the logo “In The Tubing Vang Vieng Laos.” Like a herd of lemmings.

Mine is pink.