Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng, home of tubing in Laos. This place sported lots of aussies and kiwis lazing about the place, which meant that it had to be a combination of three things:
1. Cheap
2. Totty
3. Lots of beer

With these three pieces in place Antipodeans will hit critical mass and perform a slow meltdown of boozing and partying. The difference with Vang Vieng is that they could do this on the water of the Mekong. We were, of course, delighted to join the fray.





We went tubing, and drank beer floating down the river. The way this works is that you rent a tube, they drive you to the top part of the river and then you float down slowly. To ensure a constant supply of beer there are bars all the way down. The cool part is that you don't even have to get out of your tube. You simply hail a "Beer Lao!" to the bar owners, they throw you a rope, pull you in and hand you a bottle in exchange for a water soaked note. Ace.



Black mountains slide idly by and westerners fling themselves off rope swings.

While we were tubing down the river we heard a splashing sound near the bank. I was facing this bank, while Nic faced me, legs locked, watching the other bank. I noticed that something had fallen into the water. It headed straight for us with its head just poking out. I realised that it was a large snake. With a "Jesus Christ" I panicked Nic so much she nearly flipped out of her tube, and more importantly nearly committed the sin of spilling my beer! Our fairly frantic splashing made the snake change his mind and he veered off towards the other bank. He was about one or two metres long.

The whole tubing thing finishes at a bar no less with hammocks and more beer. No wonder antipodeans seem to be swamping the place. It is beer heaven.