IN THE TUBING.

Vang Vieng is a natural playground for adults, consisting of giant rubber rings in which you float down the river between lush green mountains whilst people throw ropes out to you to pull you into their bars, where a (lethal) whisky bucket costs approximately 75p and there are enough rope swings and slides into the river to keep you entertained for hours on end. It's ridiculous and it's kind of unbelievable that there is a place on earth like it that actually exists. And therefore it is simultaneously awesome.

The little village of Vang Vieng (probably not big enough to be called a town) has been the scene of much debauchery over the time we've been here - at one point 14 of us strong. After a huge first night sampling whisky buckets ("Not strong enough!" followed by a free bottle of whisky being divided between our buckets that were of course already doused in Lao whisky), we took to the waters for three days of tubing.

On our first day we met the legends that are Mr and Mrs Lao Lao, who offer you free shots of whisky every five minutes and know all the dance moves to 'We No Speak Americano'. They also have 'body paint' which is obviously not body paint at all and is in fact acrylic spray paint that probably has way too many chemicals in to be spraying each other with constantly to be considered healthy, but when in Rome... On our last day I actually thought it would be a great idea to turn Avatar. For some unbeknown reason the others resisted this request and I thankfully remained more flesh coloured than bright blue, as it takes a few days to get the stuff off.

I'm aware that I sound like a high school student who has recently been on Spring Break, but that's pretty much what it was like - not even the rain could stop us on our last day. The only non Spring Break-esque part was the fact that bar the first night we were in bed by 9pm every night because we just can't handle our whisky in the tubing.

We met one guy at breakfast one day who looked and sounded like he hadn't been sober in the whole time he'd been there - approximately 100 days. It's understandable how people get sucked into staying in a place that is so much fun but sadly we realised we must buy the obligatory 'In the Tubing' vest tops and book a bus out of Vang Vieng else our livers would never forgive us and we'd never find our dignity again. And there is nowhere more sobering than our next destination, Vientianne. Trust me. x