Vangvien

Well, there 's not much else you can say about Vangvien other than its mental. Arriving from the tranquility of Luang Prabang it is quite a culture shock to see 1000 drunken europeans running around an area that looks like something from the Krypton factor that got dropped in a river. The event is called tubing and it happens every day here!

Before you can go tubing its important that you look like an idiot! To do this, friendly people at your guest house will get cans of spraypaint(!) and cover your back in say, a flag of your county! Once you've done this you can start the tubing! This involves going down huge slides, zipwires and off swingropes until inevitably you hurt yourself! Also on offer is mudwrestling and volleyball!

The town itslef is annoyingly westernified which is nice but makes you lazy! You can sit and watch Family Guy and eat pizza all evening! Which is fun for a change but soon gets dull! far better are the caves and lagoons nearly! The caves are absoluely huge! vast tunnels running for long distances full of knocks and crannnies, pits and stalactities! There's also a blue lagoon which is freakishly blue and is teeming with fish!