bird legs getting bigger

We arrived in Vang Vieng a few days ago... Vang Vieng is a small town
in Laos that is mainly known for it's outdoor attractions - rivers and
great caves. Our free time there has been spent with 3 really great
friends so it made for a very comfortable experience. - We'd met up
with 2 friends from Vancouver , and had made good friends with a
Dutch boy. Our Vancouver friends are on the same route as us for about
2 weeks, but a few days ahead - so it has, and will be fun to meet up
with them when we can...

We finally did the famous Tubing in Vang Vieng - That Dave
and I had been looking forward to do since long before we ever left
for the trip. There were a few negative feelings experienced for me
thru-out that experience - me not having much of a tolerance for loud
drunk people, but I'd like to just tell the positive aspects of this,
so I'll try to be short on the neg. details - after all, we can still
try as hard as we can to enjoy OUR OWN experience.

So after the 5 of us had all done our morning mucking about we finally
met up around 1:00 to go TUBING. We were all really excited - it just
seems like something you *have* to do if you are in Laos. We went to
the shop where they systematically rent out tubes - you pay a fee, put
down a deposit and get a stamp on your hand. Then, as many people as
possible are jammed into a tuk tuk and an equal amount of tubes are
stacked on top of the tuk tuk ! - What a terribly amazing and funny
sight to see!!! Then the people and tubes are driven to the drop off
area up river.

Immediately at the drop off area there is BOOMING music coming from
about 4 different bars and stack and stacks of near-naked bodies and
equal stacks of tubes. - So our general idea was people have 'some'
drinks before they go. Hahah not so, it's like these peoples' goals
are to get shit-faced, and stay here ALL day jumping off trees and
playing on sketchy rope swings where there is an area of water to land
surrounded by ROCKS on each side. _ don't know, I can't convey it, it
was drunken chaos. Drunk people in swim shorts and bikinis that really
have no interest in tubing at all it seemed. We decided we wanted a
drink, but not at these first few busy crazy bars. SO we all hopped
into the water and tubed to nearby bars that were loud, but not so
CRAZY RAVE-Like. Every bar wants you to come in so the throw ropes at
you constantly to pull you in.

We chose a bar and got some Big Beer Laos. It was really, really nice
to have a cool beer and watch the river and tubers float by, with
amazing jungle mountains in the background. Every bar had rope swings,
and Dave was the first to take the swing! At the next bar we were
starting to feel good off of our beers, and they had a swing that
seemed a lot less sketchy than all the others - It was a zip line - so
you hang on and go a straight line, rather than a swing that can take
you any direction. And also it was the only jump where there was
clearly lots of room for for error - there was literally no way you
could not hit deep water. So, I did it!!! I've never done anything
like that before, the jump off point was about 40 ft' and then swooped
down a bit. Dave filmed me and my little limp body looks so
insignificant! And when I drop to the water my skinny limbs are
everywhere. From watching people before hand Jessica and I knew to
drop off before the end, as to not get flung really hard. Our friend
Johan however wanted to go to the end to 'do a trick' and it was a
very stupid idea. He ended up getting really injured from the impact.
He thought he may have broke if collar bone. So luckily we were still
close to the drop off point, and Sean got him in a tuk tuk to the
hospital. Turns out he had just severely pulled a muscle. So the poor
guy didn't get to continue.

Thank god (to me) the piles of bars with loud music and drinking are
only within 10 minutes of the start of tubing. - we ended up staying
at least 2 hours in that area - drinking and swinging, but after that
point is what I truly enjoyed. - Just floating on the river, in
quietness, looking at the mountains and the sun and NATURE. The only
complaint I have is that we are in dry season right now so it was VERY
slow. - To the point where most of the time we had to paddle along
otherwise not move at all. Also there were often times where the water
was so shallow we'd get stuck and have to walk! So, I would highly
suggest, if it's in your control, that if you ever plan to do this,
come when the water flows a little more! But not too much more, or
it's dangerous. - But it was too slow and shallow for us.

We ended up tubing only an hour and a half - when we could have gone 2
more hours down river. If we brought our tubes back by 6pm we got our
deposit back, and the river was just so slow that we prob wouldn't
have gotten back until 8 if we went the whole way. So, clever tuk tuk
drivers hang out at certain areas of the river and will take you back
if you don't wish to continue floating.

So, it truly was a fun experience, but my heart just can't help but be
dampened by all the 20-somethings that just don't give a shit about
experiencing real life and feel the need to be completely out of their
minds to enjoy something as simple and pleasurable as floating down a
beautiful river. To Each their own - I want to say, and I hate to
stray from my blog topic - but I have been meaning to make an entry on
how embarrassed I am of some of the people my age here. I won't write
it right now, but hopefully soon I can get permission to post a blog
entry of a friend of mine. She is an excellent writer and has written
a good piece with regards to some of the tourists here, and she's
probably being a lot nicer than she wants to be, or how I would be. -
And I think it is a worthy topic. Anyway, soon.

We are in Vientaine Now, Only have been for a day, and again it is
Lovely, Laos is LOVELY. I will hopefully post some photos by tomorrow
=)