Surviving Vang Vieng, The Tubing Experience

The last eight days have to be honest been a bit of a blur, each day has dissolved into the previous and my body aches all over. This is because we have reached Van Vieng. Originally a sleepy town made up of a couple of streets beside the Nam Song River and sawtooth mountains, but now it has truly been overrun with backpackers. People flock here for one reason alone, the phenomenon that is tubing. It began about 10 years ago when a few tourist and Laotians got tubes and cruised down the river stopping off at local spots for a few beers. Since then it has snowballed to the party capital of Laos and perhaps Asia.
We arrived in the town late at night and you would be absolutely oblivious to what this town is famous for, the ghost town only hinted its true nature when we encountering a few boozy westerners shouting slurred words to us. Our tuk tuk driver spent a good hour trying to find our pre-booked hostel; De Rose eventually we chanced upon it and by the time we managed to explain to a few dozy sercurity guards that we were staying here it was 4am. Woken up by a demented rooster we went to see what this tubing thing was all about.

You pay a deposit on your tube and are then taken via tuk tuk upriver, walking down a trail you emerge to a swarm of westerns dancing and drinking on riverside platforms. There are bars peppered down the river 14 in total and each one offering a different genre of music but they all give you free shots for just walking in. Beers and Buckets of cocktails may as well be free too. Accompanying the bars is a adventure playground of diving boards, very big rope swings and slides that look more like ski jumps, these are soooo much fun. As you float downstream locals throw plastic bottles on strings hauling you into their bar. Not that they are too bothered whether you buy at their bar or someone elses; in tubing's infancy the bars were owned by a few family's who made all the profit. But once the Socialist government got wind of this they said that the whole town should get involved and thus everyone share the profits. Works well but has helped western culture infect all aspects of Van Vieng. On your downtime here (and you will need some) all the restaurants littering the main street serve western food and play endless repeats of Family Guy and Friends on flatscreens. They don't have tables, rather beds with a table on top so you can nurse your hangover as if you are in the comfort of your own home albeit the tropical climate and pounding sun. You have to wonder what the children think of us, the brash, loud and intoxicated tourists invading their town on a daily basis, I think i'd grow up to hate them.

The combination of fast moving water, alcohol, heights, rocks and male bravado means their is quite a high rate of accidents here, this year if you are to believe the locals, there have been 17 deaths, 4 of which were this season. You constantly have to be aware of what you are doing and know your limits, this is not the place where you want to get a injury. One of the guys we had seen drinking in a previous bar fell backwards down very steep concrete stairs, bleeding from the head every alcohol fueled man on the dance floor tries to be a hero, no-one has authority to actually give proper first aid and Laos hospital are notoriously bad. Last I heard after being resuscitated in tuk tuk he is now in a coma in Vientiane Hospital. Night falls fast here, 6:00 and its dark and your a idiot if you continue tubing (but some do) Jerome the Dutch nut I met in Goa said when he did it the locals found him clinging to a bridge, arms numb, tube long gone, he did it in wet season so had to contend with faster flowing water and the occasional log. One of the secrets of tubing is that it is best done tubeless, either opting to swim across the river without a cumbersome doughnut that will get stolen at some point, or walk between bar by makeshift Indian Jones style bridges.

At nightfall we all head to the Qbar in town. One night we went back with a few fellow tubers and spent the night swimming about our pool outside our hut (sadly it was only one night because we can't afford that luxury for more than a day) Another night at a bar stroking the local dog I was offered "Soup Dog" I really still can't get over dog on a menu! Basically Van Vieng Tubing is a blast I couldn't get enough of the rope swings and diving boards and met a lot of nice people, but you can only stay there for so long before going crazy or one way or the other damage your body. On our last day to kick off a much neededd detox period we rented old-school pushbikes and traveled a beautiful but bumpy journey to the blue lagoon. All the way down cookie cutter mountains (that looked like sleeping giants if you squint) surrounded us and roosters fled for cover. Hot and sweaty on arrive the blue lagoon was so refreshing and helped nurse the bruises and abrasions self inflicted from tubing and swinging, bent over one side of the lagoon was a tree with more rope swing and a jump from a branch about 18ft high. The water here was deep, cool and full of fish. This was a great way to cap off a crazy week. We have just left Vang Vieng for Vientiane, the old Royal City and Laos' capital. My days here will be hard to forget.