The bus ride from Luang Prabang was winding and twisty throught the mountains, and took about 7 hours. We'd all try to sleep and then go careening around a corner and all of us go sliding out of our seats or smack our heads against the windows. Besides that... Mark & Gary are great travel buddies --- they literally could have their own stand up show, the crazy things they talk about and how hilarious it is.
We arrive in Vang Vieng and found a place to stay on the river, cute little bungalows. Comfy beds (well, at least I thought so...)!! From there we went to rent our tubes to go tubing down the river. It was already about 3 pm, but we decided to go anyway. We were told it takes 1 hour straight through, but because you stop at riverside bars, you can take all day. Notice: riverside bars. this would NEVER be allowed in the States, or really any other western country for that matter. Lonely Planet has a giant section warning of the dangers...
We put in the river and about 100m down there was the first bar. The people at these bars (locals) will throw out a line/small tube/ or bamboo pole on a line to pull you in from the fast moving current, or if you should miss the get out point. Julia and I decided we were only going to go off the swing at the first bar since we already thought we were going to slip off doing that one. We both went twice -- you get REALLY high.... I think the second time I jumped I was about/at least 20 feet in the air. I thought I was never going to surface when I swam back up after falling in! SO MUCH FUN!
We continued down the river stopping at all the bars. The 3rd bar had these lttle local boys all drinking from a pot, wanting us all to try it, so we did. Tasted pretty good...
Me: What's in it?
Local Boy: Whiskey
Me: Whiskey with what?
Boy: Whiskey
Me: OH!!! you're MAKING the whiskey (after noticing all the rice in the top)
YEah.... so that's how it goes, all the bars down the river. Loud music, meeting people, talking to the locals... the boys did a few more rope swings. We made it to the last bar, it was already getting dark (we were going to pay the fine for having the tubes back late). When we left there it was pitch black out. Julia and I had made friends with one of the bartenders there when we got him to escort us through the 100m dark path to the bathroom. When we all went to leave, we ended up being the last ones and... no more tubes. all 4 of us climbed into the raft the bartenders all had and were able to go back to the other side/ down river with them.
It is easy to see how doing that can be soooo dangerous, but we were alll careful, and had a great time! (Don't worry mom!)
