Vang Vieng

Day 1: Up early as the minivan was picking me up at 8.30am. Said my goodbyes the Kent and Stafan and I'll definately miss them. By far the 2 most chilled-out people I have ever met and friends for life I hope. Had a fantastic few days hanging out with them, getting to know them both and finding out about Sweden (and telling Kent that he needs to say ''pardon'' instead of his Teminator style ''what'' if he doesn't hear someone properly). Have already planned to go out there to see them for a ski-trip as my next holiday. In turn, they are gonna come to England to check out some footy games (although it may be hard to combine Liverpool, Spurs, Leeds, Millwall, a manchester derby and a glasgow derby in one week). I'll try my best lads.

As they say in Sweden.....''NAJS''

Said goodbye to them and embarked on one of the more interesting trips of my life....

After some disagreements between everyone in the mini-van and the driver about our bus tickets (not quite the chilled Laos I was so far familiar with), we finally set off on the 6 hour journey to Vang Vieng. Whilst necessary, the travelling is generally the most boring part of all this backpacking lark. But not this trip.

Think African safari bumpy, while being at the top of a massive mountain, peaking over the edge, while the driver is on his phone and trying to impress his girlfriend in the front seat. I'd been warned about this trip by one of the bleary eyed english lads prior to departure and he wasn't wrong. They advise you not to do the trip at night and I can definately see why. It. Was. Crazy. Bumping all over the place on a cliff-edge the whole time and the driver is over-taking people on blind corners the whole way. It was definately an experience and I actually quite enjoyed it. The same can't be said for everyone else in the bus (I've got some good photos and a video of one of the bumpiest parts), which included the 2 english girls I met at the waterfall.

Anyway, I'm pleased to announce that we arrived safely and I'm now in Vang Vieng. When the bus ride finished, I didn't know whether to shake the drivers hand (for handling some very difficult ''roads'') or have a go at him for some of his driving. Seriously, some of the driving in S.E.Asia is so crazy it's untrue - you just can't believe what you see.

Arrived a few hours ago and I've just been for a walk around the town and to see where the infamous ''tubing'' takes place (going down a river on a rubber-ring - looks very cool). Meant to be quite lively around here at night so I'm going to see what's happening later. Few people from my guesthouse are heading out so I'll probably join them.

1 or 2 days here and then it's either Vientiane or a 7km long cave  at Kong Lo (or both). Gonna see how I feel and I'm just trying to book things as I go at the minute, which seems to be the best way. Anyway, having a great time, met some amazing people and I'm all safe and sound.

Day 2 (Proper Tubing): Blogging is quite difficult when you have significant memory loss and that is the story of my first tubing experience. Crazy but brilliant. Here are the bits of the day that I can remember.

4 of us from our guest-house had arranged to meet at about 11am to head down there together. This was myself, Matt, a young guy from the states, and Mike and Laura, an english couple from the north. We met up and then made the walk into Vang Vieng to hire our tubes. It's then a tuk-tuk ride up to the start point, which is about 3km away.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Tubing, the basic premise is that you float down the river on a rubber-ring, whilst stopping at a few makeshift riverside bars on the way. You are then meant to reach the finish point and get your tube back to the cartel by 6pm, so as to get your deposit back. The whole journey floating down the river is meant to take between 3-4 hours. Sounds simple enough.

The reality is quite different, hence why I have called this day "Proper Tubing".

The 4 of us arrived at the start point at about 11.30ish. We were greeted with a free shot of Whiskey each and then settled down for a beer at the first bar (we haven't come into contact with any water yet). We then floated down the river for all of about 10 seconds to the 2nd bar, which we were at  for about 4 hours I reckon, drinking and laughing the day away.

This bar had a couple of lads working at it who were self-proclaimed "Beer-Pong" champions, a sport I was not familiar with. Matt plays quite regularly in the states so he filled me in on the rules (not too hard to pick up) and we watched as these two won match after match after match. It's basically 2 on 2 and you have to land a ping-pong ball in the opponents glasses the other end of the table. Other additional rules include jumping on the floor in a mad scramble should the ball get loose and a clean catch of the ball if it misses, means the other team has to drink. There were 6 cups for each team and you need to land the ball in all of them one-by-one until all your opponents cups have been eliminated, and the contents drunk.

Simple enough. So myself and Matt (who I was now expecting big things from) decided to take them on. This is where things start to get a bit hazy. They told us they had won their last 30 matches or something and proceeded to beat us 3 games in a row. They were very good and had clearly been in Vang Vieng for far too long - I envied them. We gave them a good run and came close to a win but ultimately ended up losing and getting pretty hammered.

Spent some more time boozing with the english couple and some aussies we had met and then, about 5 hours into the day, we decided to venture over to bar number 3. Another 10 seconds in the water and we were there and from here on, I can't remember much. The 4 English lads were there (of course) and I have vague recollection of some dancing and also getting a zip-wire into the water. You climb up to about 30ft and start coming down the wire, only for them to pull the cord half way and send you tumbling into the river. Such a good laugh.

At about 8pm (I think), I'm walking back to the town (with no tube) and I'm rescued by some sort of drunken tuber pickup truck, full of others who were clearly in the same situation as me. Got back to town and next thing I know, it's 3.30am and I wake up in my guest-house room wearing just my swim-shorts (and feeling horrendous). And no, I didn't get my deposit back.

Like I said, proper tubing.

Day 3 (Hungover Tubing): A day filled with a terrible hangover and some ill-advised hangover-driven decisions. I'd not really slept since half 3 and felt no better when the morning came. I'd only initially planned to spend a couple of days in Vang Vieng but didn't feel I had done enough to justify saying I had "gone tubing in Vang Vieng". After all, we had made it no further than bar 3 and had covered about 0.0001 percent of the river. As far as I was concerned, that wouldn't count and I'd need to do it properly. Not today though - it was cold outside and I wanted to take my hangover to visit some caves (the other main thing that Vang Vieng is famous for).

I walked into town and hired a very suspect mountain bike. Suspect because the front wheel wobbled all over the place and I couldn't raise the height of the seat to accomodate my legs. So they were knocking the handle bars as I was peddling. This wasn't making me feel any better.

So I decided to embark on the 11km ride to "The Elephant Cave", one that our guest-house owner had recommended. Basically, I made it about three-quarters of the way there, got lost (no english signs and not a brilliant map with me), got lost some more and then headed back to town. I returned my bike, tried to forget the whole thing and wondered how I would now fill my afternoon...........

......Tubing of course. Despite the fact it was cold, I was intent on completing the river. So I hired a tube again and got the tuk-tuk to the start point. I decided to skip all the bars and just float down this time - bad idea! The water was freezing cold and I made it about 75 percent of the way before deciding enough was enough and getting a tuk-tuk back to town. (I think this is what gave me the cold that I'm just now shaking off). I got my deposit back this time though (and got some VERY strange looks from the guys at the cartel as I did) and then made my way back to my guest-house feeling a bit foolish.

That evening, I just moped around in town, got some food and watched the footy. Practically all of the bars and restaurants in Vang Vieng have either "Friends" or "Family Guy" on all the time trying (and succeeding) to lure tourists. I found one showing the footy though and then it was bed for me.

Like I said, hungover day and some bad hangover decisions. Dear, dear. Oh well.

Day 4 (Caving + Organised Tubing): After my failings the previous day, I decided to book onto an organised tour to visit the main caves in Vang Vieng. There are loads around so I booked a package that included 4 caves + more Tubing.

Pick-up from the guest-house was at 9am and there was just me, the guide (Kun) and 2 french girls (Pauline and Camille) on the trip. Both really nice and very chatty so we all got on well. First stop was the Elephant Cave, which contains several sculptures of Buddha and some rock shaped kind-of like an Elephant (wasn't actually that clear but the people out here seem determined to name each cave or rock formation after some sort of animal!). I saw what he meant though - most of the time you just nod along, even if you don't see it!

Then it was on to two more caves, which were much more impressive. Both very dark and we went quite far in, making me glad I hadn't found them all on my own the day before. A guide was definately necessary, or I might still be in there now! Had a bit of a fright at one point though. ''Health'' and ''Safety'' aren't really words they are familar with in this part of the world and we found out first hand in one of the caves when Pauline's entire leg disappeared down a hole. The warning from Kun had simply been a casual ''watch out left'' and while myself and Camille had managed to avoid whatever he was talking about, Pauline wasn't so lucky. Fortunately, she was ok and only had a few scratches but it could have been much worse - especially when we shined our lights on the even larger hole that was about 6ft behind her. Like I said, they don't do health & safety briefings. These caves were really good though and very enjoyable.

The final cave (Water Cave) was also really good (although freezing cold). This one allowed you to tube inside it with a rubber ring by pulling yourself inside by a rope. This was also really fun and we got quite deep inside before making our way back out. Very cold by this point and eager to get back out into the rare bit of sunshine I've experienced. It's been mostly overcast everywhere so far so I've still got my English tan! Then it was lunch and back to the truck to take us to the Tubing start point.

I'd initally planned to skip the tubing this time, given my 2 days experience, but it was such a hot day that I decided to join the girls and Kun and go one final time. This was organised tubing though because he wanted to get us to the end of the river for a certain time, where the truck would be waiting for us. This meant we were only allowed to stop at one bar - quite a shame because there were loads of people partying and it's far better to be there when it's hot (and the big slide was finally open). We wanted to stick around but had to go with Kun (they were his rubber-rings) and this time, finally, we made it to the end of the river. Was very slow again but much nicer to be doing it when it's hot. I don't think my liver was too upset I skipped the bars this time either!

We reached the end and all said our goodbyes. Had been a really cool day hanging out with the girls and getting some tips on places they had been, that I'm visiting later in the trip. While I was in town, I booked a bus to take me to the capital, Vientiane, first thing in the morning. I'd spent one day longer in Vang Vieng than I'd initially planned but I get the impression that happens to a lot of people - it's the sort of place that grabs you and you find it hard to leave. I'm convinced there were some people who had been there for a good couple of years! Can't say I can blame them.

That evening, I went out into the town with some people from my guest-house - Anthony & Nicola (England), Darrah (Ireland), Mike (Canada) and Nils (Holland). All really cool people and we went out for a meal and a few beers in some of the clubs. The night ended with us all sat chatting around the fire out the back of one of them. It's amazing how many people and different nationalities you come across doing this.

After 3 different days of Tubing, I can safely say that ''Proper Tubing'' is the best. The float to the bottom of the river is nice but it's far better to be getting hammered at the start, messing around on the zip-wires and slides. Great laugh and part of me fancied another day of it (was meant to be hot again tomorrow). But the decision was made and I was moving on. Vang Vieng - it's been emotional. Next stop - Vientiane.