We woke up to rain again this morning, it wasn't coming down too hard so met Sam and Steph anyway. We got breakfast and stayed in there until it had passed and the sun had come out. We walked to rent our tubes because we were definitely doing it today! We had to fill out forms which pretty much says its not their fault if you die. In the past this was the place to be in Laos, there were bars and pubs lining the river and people would climb out of it to the bar then swing back in off rope and hurt themselves badly or even die. This was shut down for quite some time and now re opened with only two bars on the route. We got in a tuk tuk with the tubes attached to the top and set off for about a 15 minute drive to the starting place. We walked the tubes down to the rivers edge and then stood for a few minutes trying to work out how to do this and stay together, some of the water seemed to be flowing quite fast. We gave it a go holding onto each other but then had to let go because it was so shallow in parts you had to push off with your hands. We were separated but not for very long. It was quite shallow where you set off so a little difficult to get going but we got there and started floating down the river, some parts were really slow where you hardly moved then others we moved quite quickly and over some small rapids. We could see the first bar and two people down by the river with ropes. They threw a bottle on the end of the rope to James first to pull him in we all hung onto each other until we were pulled in. The tubes went into a big pile and you walked up a small slope to the bar, when we got there there was a free shot of Lao Lao whiskey which we all had. This was the most disgusting drink any of us have ever experienced! Bottles of Lao beer were quickly purchased after this. We got a free wristband and sat to chill for a bit, they had a basketball court and a ping pong table here too. There were quite a few people here which surprised us because we hardly saw any other people on the river tubing. After finishing our beers we got back in our tubes with only slight difficulty and floated back down the river. There weren't really any other bars to go to so we just floated along, we wish we'd have had a camera with us because the views were amazing from here but had decided against it, chances were too high that it may have got wet. We saw only a couple of others tubers but quite a few people kayaking, they seemed to find it hilarious to splash us with their paddles on their way past. When we got to the end point a guy pulled us into the shallow whether we asked for it or not and then asked for a tip. It was easily done by yourself so we were yet again stingy non tip giving travellers. We walked up a small hill with our tubes back to the office to give them back and get our deposits. As we were wet we walked back to our guesthouses to get quick showers and go out for some tea. After we'd had tea we decided to stay out for a few drinks, we found a bar called Fat Monkeys who were giving away free vest tops when you bought two vodka drinks. Us three girls got a free top each while James sat back with a beer laughing at us trying to decide on a colour. On the way back towards our guesthouses it started to spit with rain, we got into a bar in time for the rain to start pouring. We got a last drink and sat while it poured down with rain. A huge storm had started and was lighting the whole sky. We waited it out for as long as we could before making a run for it. When James and I got back we went to the upstairs covered balcony at our place to watch the storm. The storm was amazing making the sky pink and the lightning was unreal. A few more traveller type people came to sit on the balcony too one of them was a total traveller cliche! His name was 'toony' (real name Joe) he had the whole traveller outfit on but the thing you noticed most about him was he had a very exaggerated twitch in his arm and neck. After talking to him for about 10 minutes about the usual stuff, 'where have you been and how long for' etc he started telling us about the parties he'd been having while working in Cambodia. These parties involved ridiculous amounts of alcohol and huge cocktails of drugs. He said the twitching started after these parties but he was sure it wasn't linked. He said before he'd come away he'd gone vegan and he thinks he's got iron deficiency, these are the reasons he'd given for the twitching. Hmm...this guy is majorly in denial that taking ridiculous amounts of drugs has done this to him! He just wouldn't have it when James put it to him that it was probably the drugs, he just stuck to the iron deficiency. Not long after this conversation we made our excuses and left. We were very much ready for bed anyway. What a day!