Vang Vieng: The partyer's disneyland

11/23 We arrived in the late morning into Vang Vieng, a small and cute town situated along a scenic river with karst mountains everywhere. Amongst backpackers, vang vieng is known for its tubing. Now this isn't like tubing in the boise river or boulder creek. This is tubing on lao lao whiskey and beerlao! You rent a tube and a tuk tuk takes you up to the start. The tubing part of the river is 4km. But all the bars are located in the first 800m. We started about 1:30 and figured we'd have plenty of time to make it all the way back to vang vieng before dark. Boy were we wrong. Anyways, there are maybe 8 bars in the stretch. You start at the first bar with a beer and a free shot of lao lao whiskey. It has an incredibly sweet rope swing at least 25 or 30 feet high above the river. Quite scary the first time, but then great everytime after that. Especially with a few tall boy beer laos in us. Eventually it was time to move onto the next bar. As you're floating downriver. Laos guys throw ropes out to you to pull you in. When you get pulled in they quickly poor laos laos into your mouth and welcome you aboard. The bars, without the toys of the swings, ropes, and zip lines are sweet in themselves. Just a bunch of people from everywhere having fun, dancing, and good music. Throw in the water stuff, the Franks, and it's amazing!! Of course there were other things going on (read lots of drugs) and supposedly even mushroom shakes, though we steered clear even though a couple american girls were really wanting me to roll some joints for them since they had bought some maryjane and were completely sure that everyperson in colorado could roll a good joint with their eyes closed. By the time it got dark we hadn't even made it to the last bar, let alone the 3km's past that. So instead of tubing that part in our drunket state, we took a tuk tuk back to town where we feasted on baguettes. On a side note, the baguettes in laos are amazing. Thank God for the French influence there. It's so nice to have some good bread finally. We definitely got more than our fair share of the big 3 (beer laos, mango shakes ,and baguettes) in laos since they were all so incredibly cheap. We crashed early that night...around 9pm, but that's what happens when you start at 1.
The touristy part of vang vieng is interesting b/c it a bunch of people recuperating and watching reruns of friends and family guy and also lots of people in arm slings and foot bandages most likely from drunken river accidents (thought he one gal I did ask had broken her hand punching her boyfriend for cheating on her)
The rest of our days in vang vieng weren't so crazy, though of course they did involve plenty of beer laos
Our 2nd day we took a tour that first involved a boring buddha cave but then a sweet tubing trip inside a cave. You jump on this tube and then paddle into this cave that i only really accessible via floating inner tube. So that was a cool experience. After that we kayaked 12 km's of the river along the gorgeous mountains including the last 4 km's that we had missed on the tubing. We of course did stop at a bar when we got to the tubing area. It was the slide bar that we had missed before and featured a giant slide that shot you straight out and slightly up over the river. Very scary and very fast, even after having done it a couple time, but so much fun. That night we went out for beer laos and a fancy steak dinner for whitney's american birthday. (3.50 for steak, salad, french fries, fruit shake, and garlic bread on a baguette)
Our last day we rented bikes and toured the vang vieng rural countryside a bit, which was great. We stopped at a big cave and then did some swimming and rope swinging at a great little swimming hole called the blue lagoon. That night we rolled up to a bar with hammocks overlooking the river and watched the sunset over the karst mountains and river while sipping on beer laos and reflecting on how sweet laos is. One of the things we love about laos is how the family just lives in the store or hotel or business that they work at. This may happen in the other countries, but it's so noticeable here. You roll up to a conveniance store and the baby is just walking around chasing marbles on the floor. grandpa is leaning up against a case of beers, grandma is knitting on the floor and you can see the mattresses stored away to be brought out at night (and most of the day as well). Pretty nice really. Means you can live and work at the same place with no commuting and lots of sleeping. That night we got a massage and the usual chicken baguettes and fruitshakes before catching the incredibly windy and bumpy night bus to the world heritage city of luang prabang.