We woke & got ready for our travel day. I ducked up to the bakery to grab some breaky for us & returned to find Jac ready to go. Our ride arrived to take us to the bus station where we had a half hour wait before we were away. We had the front 2 seats on a VIP bus but VIP doesn't really mean the same here as it would in Oz. The bus was full but they kept loading people on. So where do you put people when all the seats are full? On little plastic stools in the aisle of course. Probably best not to be the one on the stool at the front as you would provide the cushion for the 20 behind you when the driver hits the brakes. So we set off at 9.30am up the bumpy windy mountain roads. Of course after an hour we had to stop at another village to load lots more Laotians into the aisle, then continued through some spectacular mountain scenery & stomach churning roads. It was amazing to see little shacks built on steep hillsides surrounded by crops of corn. Definately easier places out there to farm. After about 5 hours the curves gave way to a little straighter roads. We stopped off for an included lunch of nice fresh soup before continuing on, arriving in Vang Vieng about 4.30pm. Well once again they didn't drop us in the town but 2k away. We agreed a price with a Tuk Tuk driver then when we went to get in his Tuk he said "no, jump in the van with all the others". Sick of this we said "b***** you we'll walk" & set off up the road as they kept shouting to us to get in. The walk is no probs as our packs are pretty lite & we're just getting sick of those drivers. It didn't take us long to arrive & we got to share smiles with the locals as we walked along as well as enjoying the scenery. Our accommodation is nice & comfortable so we showered then headed out for a look around & some dinner. The town itself is pretty small with a main street & a couple of small other ones running off it. What everyone comes for though is the tubing. You hire a tube & are taken a few k's upstream where you begin the long float back down. The banks are lined with bars where you stop & can drink & party before moving on to the next bar. It has had a lot of press over the last couple of years as a result of all the backpacker deaths. Youth, drugs, alcohol & stupidity combined with the water is not a good combination. We want to experience it but we're pretty wise to the dangers & won't drink much at all until the last bar when we don't have to go back in the water. We've come to be a part of the scene & we're in for a hot day tomorrow, so it will be lovely just to be tubing & relaxing. Tubelaxing, or maybe it's relubing? No definately tubelaxing.