Tubing in Vang Vieng

So, what is Vang Vieng most famous for amongst the younger backpacking tribes...the spectacular limestone cliffs? the delicious Laos cuisine? the laid-back, bungalow life, reading books and chilling in beautiful gardens...nope...how about floating down a river in inner tubes, stopping at make shift bamboo bars along the way selling BeerLaos, whiskey buckets, laos laos shots and god knows what else! Ha! It seemed more like Ibiza meets Laos and we felt a little bit old as we observed the revelers knocking back the drinks and enjoying each others' 'company'. Everyone seemed to be having a great time though, with the rope swings, tile slides and water antics and we were sure a few years back we would have been diving right in too...let's leave it to the youngsters now though hey?

We finally gave in to the 4km tube ride down the river with about 2 km to go as we managed to get beached a bit too often (it's the dry season!) and it all seemed a bit too much arm effort...tuk-tuk back to town please!