The stories about Vang Vieng (party haven, mad tubing, tourism gone wrong) apply to an earlier time when you could tube your way along the river, stopping at bars along the riverbank and enjoying heady hedonism before collapsing back in town after rampant overindulgence, whatever your pleasure. Vang Vieng isn't all that much different now in that it still attracts a party scene, but the riverside bars have been closed down and the zip wires taken down after too many accidents (and even deaths). You can still go tubing, but the party scene is strictly on dry land in the town itself these days. With a bit of control it probably would have been great fun (my lovely friend George visited when it was in full swing and had a great if crazy time! http://georgieandjames.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/vang-vieng-parties-and-tubes/ - check out her blog for an entertaining alternative version of Vang Vieng!), but even without the crazed party scene it is still popular for having a let-your-hair-down good time.
Anyway... The bus to Vang Vieng was a nightmare, roller-coaster ride sick-inducing journey - I think the driver had a death wish (maybe it's the same guy who drove you guys, George?!) and if I hadn't been strapped into my seat I might have hit the roof of the bus as speed bumps (or potholes, any other type of bump in the road) did not deter the man. At one point I flew a foot into the air before my seat belt threw me back down...! Despite the crazy driving, the scenery was incredible and it just kept getting better the closer we got to Vang Vieng. The town and river (Nam Ou) are surrounded by karst peaks and it's no surprise that this area became the setting for a popular tourism hotspot - from any vantage point, it looks spectacular.
By the time we'd settled into our hostel and recovered from the journey, our appetite returned so we decided to have a wander around the town and find somewhere for lunch. It is a small place, full of bars and happy hours to keep the party scene going. We found this tiny little cafe with a lovely view (above!) and filled up on pancakes (me) and spaghetti carbonara (Bradley) which tasted amazing. We decided to save the water sports for the next day so we booked up some kayaking, and went shopping for a dry bag (abundant everywhere, with 'In the Tubing' written on everything) and Bradley bought the obligatory Tubing T-shirt (I wish I had too now!). We had a couple of beers and watched Family Guy (EVERYWHERE in Vang Vieng had Family Guy DVDs or occasionally Friends - or, bizarrely, Wallace and Gromit! - DVDs running on repeat!) and grabbed a street sandwich before getting an early night in preparation for the next day.
The next morning we set off for our kayaking trip – we were driven upriver and dropped off for a two hour
kayak back to town with our instructor. The scenery was awe-inspiring and it was so peaceful - though we had great fun going over the rocks and fast bits too, we got very wet at times! The instructor tried to direct us away from bits that were too white-water, but we whizzed through a couple without capsizing!
Kayaking was great fun and very chilled out, so we decided to just grab another street sandwich and some beers and go tubing too!
Tubing has changed a lot since the aforementioned party days, but even though it was minus the spray paint and vodka buckets, alcohol and tubing still merged pretty well - the driver who took us to the drop off with our tubes even stopped in case anyone wanted to buy some beers from the shop! It felt very teenage :)
Despite the encouraged drinking, not everyone was as prepared as us, so one group of guys were left negotiating with a friendly local from their tubes to get them some beers. We left them waiting on the riverbank while their new friend dashed to the shops for them... It must be a lucrative business!
The other lucrative side-business comes from the kids (only 10-12 maybe?) waiting at the side of the river at the end of the route (where the tubes are returned to get your deposit back) who help pull you in (to save you drifting downstream!). It's very opportunistic, especially since the water is so shallow and it really wouldn't be too hard to manage on your own, but you can't blame them for trying! Even if you say you don't need help, they still haul you in regardless, so you feel you ought to give them something for their trouble - a nifty little after school job, I just hope they get to go to school too!
There's no denying it - tubing is brilliant fun! The river flows gently with the occasional shallow fast patch, so for the most part you're just drifting with the current, drinking your beer and watching the sun head toward setting. Occasionally, you could find yourself losing control of your tube and drifting away from your group - when this happened, you had to somehow reach for each other and paddle back into position (this usually happened after whizzing over some shallow rocks, where you had to watch your exposed lower back!). It was more of the same scenery from the morning, but with a slightly more raucous group to distract you than our lovely kayaking instructor. You could see the debris from where all the bars used to be, but actually I think this way of tubing was just as much fun - or maybe I'm getting old!
Despite the encouraged drinking, not everyone was as prepared as us, so one group of guys were left negotiating with a friendly local from their tubes to get them some beers. We left them waiting on the riverbank while their new friend dashed to the shops for them... It must be a lucrative business!
The other lucrative side-business comes from the kids (only 10-12 maybe?) waiting at the side of the river at the end of the route (where the tubes are returned to get your deposit back) who help pull you in (to save you drifting downstream!). It's very opportunistic, especially since the water is so shallow and it really wouldn't be too hard to manage on your own, but you can't blame them for trying! Even if you say you don't need help, they still haul you in regardless, so you feel you ought to give them something for their trouble - a nifty little after school job, I just hope they get to go to school too!
There's no denying it - tubing is brilliant fun! The river flows gently with the occasional shallow fast patch, so for the most part you're just drifting with the current, drinking your beer and watching the sun head toward setting. Occasionally, you could find yourself losing control of your tube and drifting away from your group - when this happened, you had to somehow reach for each other and paddle back into position (this usually happened after whizzing over some shallow rocks, where you had to watch your exposed lower back!). It was more of the same scenery from the morning, but with a slightly more raucous group to distract you than our lovely kayaking instructor. You could see the debris from where all the bars used to be, but actually I think this way of tubing was just as much fun - or maybe I'm getting old!
The trick with this new era of
tubing seemed to be to keep all your beers in a plastic bag, to keep
them all together and provide a handy recycling station. The big problem
with this is that not everyone is as green as they could be, so while you're busy being conscientious and enjoying a quiet beer in the countryside as you bob along the river, other people are littering their BeerLao cans all over the place. Admittedly, this follows a trend of littering across many of the places we've visited, but in Vang Vieng it is almost wholly tourist-led, so it's particularly frustrating to be part of a blot on the landscape! Once we finished tubing for the day, we collected as many cans as we could squeeze into our bags - though we knew there would be more the next day... A small attempt to balance our environmental impact!
We had so much fun and felt so happy and positive that we decided to go tubing again the next day! We dropped off our tubes just before the sunset cut-off, and went for pizza and more beers (and inevitably, several episodes of Family Guy) before trying a couple of other bars on our way back to the hostel.
The next day was much like the day before - tubing, beers and, as we got back a little before sunset, we were able to watch the sun set from a bar on the riverbank while having dinner - perfect!
We had so much fun and felt so happy and positive that we decided to go tubing again the next day! We dropped off our tubes just before the sunset cut-off, and went for pizza and more beers (and inevitably, several episodes of Family Guy) before trying a couple of other bars on our way back to the hostel.
The next day was much like the day before - tubing, beers and, as we got back a little before sunset, we were able to watch the sun set from a bar on the riverbank while having dinner - perfect!
After a leisurely dinner and another beer or two, we headed back to the hostel and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1) and got an early night since we had an early start the next morning for our bus to
Luang Prabang. This proved to be a much nicer journey than the previous one - it had the gorgeous scenery through the mountains without the race-car driver!
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Great blog Kerry and thanks for the link. Aah it makes me want to go back! You might be right about the bars as we never made it very far down the river as we got to drunk in the bars. Funnily enough I'm staring at my obligatory tubing t-shirt, covered in spray paint, as I write this, its hanging on the end of my bed!
ReplyDeleteYou've spurred me on to finish my blog as I've still got Bali to write up and most of South America!! X x