Vang Vieng made a welcome change from the quiet streets of Vientiane. There's plenty going on and loads of things to do here, the laid back atmosphere creates a near horizontal way of life. I suppose that's one reason why so many tourists visit here, another is the tubing- floating down the Nam Song River on used lorry inner tubes and getting pulled in to bars, along the way, by ropes thrown by locals. Because of the 20+ backpackers dying in 2011, mostly from rope swinging into swallow water, the tubing had to be calmed and was cancelled for a while.
Fortunately it has now been reopened, just without the rope swings and the high jumping ledges. Although the dangerous bits have been curbed, the drinking certainly hasn't. After a big warm up session at the first bar, 40 of us were all released onto the river at roughly the same time causing chaos on the water. Less than half of us managed to catch the ropes at the next bar, the other half couldn't handle the current and were left to drift down the river. Those who did make it, were rewarded with free shots and mud bath volleyball, setting the tone for the rest of the day- drunken silliness with a bit of tubing in between. The drinking time far outweighed the tubing time, that was until the bars had closed and we had to find our way back to the hire shop. If we wanted to get our deposit back then we had to hand the tubes back by 6pm. An impossibility. We were left paddling aimlessly in the darkness, not knowing how to get back or where to hand the tubes back in. We all got split up and the riverbanks were awash with drunken back packers. We weren't reunited until later in the bars. The pubs and clubs in the town stayed open for most of the night, carrying on the drinking games and the cheap-drink offers from the tubing.

It's safe to say, we were all slightly fragile the following morning, no one made out of bed until quite late. Once everyone had surfaced and struggled through breakfast, we ventured out to explore the local caves and waterfalls. It was the first sun that most of us had seen in Laos and we were keen to make the most of it. Most of us had time to kill before that evenings' night bus to Luang Prabang anyway, so once we were sober enough to drive, we hired motorbikes, 11 of us in total. Driving round, we received a lot of attention from the locals, most probably because of our bad driving but riding with such a big group was a lot of fun.
The dirt track, that lead to the waterfall, made us realise there are some advantages of coming to SE Asia in rainy season. The heavy rains had ruined the track- huge puddles covered the bare rocks below and the deep ruts meant we all took it in turns to get stuck and then we'd all take it in turns to push each other out. With the combination of the jungle setting, the mud and the mix of nationalities, I couldn't help thinking we'd started our own bike-born version of the Camel Trophy. Just less professional and more hungover. The previous few day's rain meant the waterfall was fantastic, the best I've seen in Asia so far. We took full advantage that we were the only ones there, stripped down and enjoyed the crystal clear, cool water. The morning hangovers were soon forgotten and we left the waterfall in search of the Blue Lagoon caves. A few navigational errors and a huge downpour meant we didn't quite make the caves, we half guessed the sun wouldn't last!
We arrived back at the hostel just in time to return the bikes and enjoyed a celebratory beer before everyone broke away to catch buses, sleep or head out into town for round 2.

For me, it's an 8 hour night bus to Luang Prabang with a few of the others. Spending most of the day on a bike brought back a lot of memories from Vietnam. Buses simply do not compare. Two wheels is definitely the ultimate way to travel.