Vang Vieng, Laos, 12-17 June 2012

We arrived in Vang Vieng after a very twisting and nausea inducing minibus from Luang Prabang. As luck would have it, we were in the same bus as Verena and the 4 Israelis as well as a Spaniard and Portuguese guy and a paddy couple. The latter 4 opted to stay at the guesthouse we were dropped outside whereas us others decided to look for something more central and cheaper. After far too much wandering around, we got a double room with a killer fan for £2 per night and right in the centre. We spent the remainder of the afternoon/evening watching How I Met Your Mother in the bar and drinking. Next day we decided to go tubing, but the Israelis didn't, so we left them to it, and after brekkie (and more HIMYM) we wandered down to ask about tubes and tuk-tuks to the start. We asked the right people as a Canadian couple said they were going too and their group were in a bar round the corner and for us to join in. We wandered round and found a bar going nuts full of people doing buckets and absinthe. We were handed a few buckets, I had a couple of absinthe, and we all had a dentist chair of Tiger Whisky before we even made it to the start of the tubing. These guys were further confirming that the some of the friendliest people to meet travelling are Canadians. From here in it gets a bit hazy. I remember 3 bars, jumping off some bloody high platforms, Jo flashing her boob as she tried to get out of the water, lots of bracelets, rope swings, loads of buckets, spray-painting each other, beer pong, floating about in a tube, whisky shots, running into the Spaniard who had a massive scratch across his face claiming a wolf did it, and the beautiful scenery as we floated down the river from the last bar to the end. I do vividly remember 2 French girls getting out of the water as we did, and one smashing her beer bottle and slashing her own knee in one movement. It started pissing blood so badly her whole lower leg was red, so I bandaged her up with my t-shirt and chatted French with them, but then when they asked where I was from and how I spoke French I suddenly couldn't remember anything in French anymore and couldn't utter another word! We got our tubes back with a minute to spare before we lost our deposit, wandered back to the bar where I can't remember what we ate or drank, and went to bed for a kip (it was only about 7.30). Jo woke me at 10pm, though I thought it was 10am, so when she said we were meeting Verena for a drink I bottled it and stayed in bed! The next day we were obviously awake pretty early, so we got some brekkie, hired some bikes and made for the blue lagoon some 6km away. Was a cool little place with lots of branches to jump off and rope swings and things, and a group of 50-something Aussies who we had apparently met tubing the previous day, though we couldn't remember that! After half an hour the Canadians turned up too. They were as battered and bruised as we were with similar unexplainable injuries. We chilled out there for a while, then as we cycled home 2 little local girls jumped a lift on the back of Verena and Jos bikes, cheeky sods! We spent the rest of the day doing not much, though we were grateful for the tv in our room with HBO showing movies. That night we went out to Bucket bar, where Jo returned from the bar with 5 buckets for free. We then tried another 2 bars but they were dead, so we returned to Bucket bar, had another drink, before Jo and Verena headed off to check another bar while I watched to footy for a bit before heading back to the room feeling crap from all the Tiger Whisky. Next morning we all felt crap. We did work out that Jo and I spent about £2 between us the night before though and ended up spanked! We did nothing at all really, I went and sat in another bar and watched Family Guy while Jo shopped for vests, then we watched about 5 hours of HIMYM! Following morning the weather had turned, so we were happy to leave, getting the short busride to the capital Vientiane.