21st – 22nd April 2012

 

Recovered from the roller coaster journey by taking a loooooong shower and a power nap, my headache was finally gone and it was time to get looking round. It was already late afternoon and Matt, Alex and I decided to have a look round while Lauren and Leonie went to sort out their Vietnam Visa and Alannah deciding she would like to get to know her bed more.

 

The things that has struck us when we were walking around were:

 

1) hundreds and hundreds of fruit shake and banana pancake stands. Even lined up with each other!

2) So many bars and restaurants all showing either Friends or Family Guy on tv

3) And development on every corner to build more bars for more friends tv!

 

After devouring a banana pancake, I returned and collapsed in my bed to write my postcards. Sometimes you need an hour to yourself to recharge. All this travelling and listening to people constantly sure takes it out of you.

 

In the evening, I checked out the Bucket Bar with Alannah, Matt and Alex and the party atmosphere is INTENSE! Music blaring out techno music loud enough to make a deaf person go deaf again and drunk people swaying on the platforms in time to the music, we each got a free bucket and I spent time drinking that as it was proper strong! We met some Americans and one of Alannah’s friend who works at the bar. One word has to describe him would be ‘legend!’ he certainly knows how to tell a story!

 

Seeing as we had a long day, I called it a night and went to bed to be ready for in the tubing!

 

Breakfast the next day was in the form of fruit salad and muesli at the Other Side Restaurant, one of the many bars showing friends on tv, it was good to watch friends and we ended up watching 3 episodes! It’s addictive, man!

 

Having minimal stuff with us as we have been forewarned by many people who have stayed in Vang Vieng that you are guaranteed to lose something, we climbed aboard a tuk tuk and went to the start point of the tubing.

 

Unfortunately, we had no tubes with us as the river is so low that you would be scraping your bottom on the river bed so we decided to walk it.

 

Upon arriving, we were greeted with this message, which made me chuckle.

 

First off, we started at the Q Bar, where upon arrival, we were greeted by the bar staff with a shot and a pint. All for free.

 

Drinking them on the platforms, we watched the tubers who hired tubes anyway and also watched the drinking games that were being played on the platform.

 

It all looked very good and fun but I didn’t really want to be involved in that. I’m not a drinker who drinks to just get drunk. It was all shot after shot, bucket after bucket, beer after beer, I found in the tubing. I think I would have loved to got in a tube if the river was higher but I did find myself wishing I was back in Luang Prabang with their chilled out vibes.

 

After a game of beer pong with my mates, it was time to move on to the next bar in which we got a table in the river!

 

Soon, it was to the Why Not? Bar in which again we got a free bucket. I swam over the river to this bar. Thought it was pretty funny especially when I bumped into some of the 2012 adventures Facebook group here! We had a good chat and soon we were being bitten by hordes of midges. It was time to get out and go to another bar down the river!

 

The next bar, we got some lunch and I was offered the promise of free whiskey…snake whiskey. I had 3! It was tasty! The snake looks like it has been in there for a while!

 

Anyways, soon it was late afternoon and we decided to call it a day and grabbed a tuk tuk back to town, where I promptly fell into a loooooong nap and woke up at 9pm. We did say that we would all meet up at 10pm and go partying in the evening to embrace the Vang Vibe.

 

However, we were soon distracted at the pancake stands and had a lot of food that we ate on the road, all dressed up and looking ready to party. Heck, we were at the entrance of the Bucket Bar. But after our food, all of us looked each other and nodded and sighed. We want to go back to bed!

 

We were totally ‘tubed’ out! For shame!

 

I still don’t know what to make of the tubing experience, in theory it sounds and looks so much fun and I think I would have embraced it if I was a lot younger, perhaps when I was 20 maybe but now I’m an old 26 year old with wisdom in the world.

 

Maybe I’ll come back and try again when the river is higher…then I’ll get tubed out.

 

Have you done some tubing in Vang Vieng?