So we arrived in Vang Vieng on the 4th of Feb and we dumped our bags in the fírst guest house that we could find. It wasn't to bad and had a lovely veranda that over looked the main street. Vang Vieng is a small town and it seemed like it was only there due to tourism but it was nice all the same. We did a quick walk of the place and discovered loads of cáfe's that seemed to play Friends practically all day long, so you could sit their and watch tv while you ate, then at night some places played the odd film! That night we had dinner on the river front (Vang Vieng sits along side the Nam Song River) And then got an earlier night.

The next day we checked out of our guest house and moved to a river bungalow that had awesome views. After brekkie we hired some bikes and took a ride around the town and then on the main road to find where you start tubing from (I will explain tubing in a minute). On our way we saw loads of teenage school kids cycling to school with umbrellas in their hands protecting them from the sun. It was really strange you wouldn't get kids at home doing that! Anyway we spent the whole day cycling and was knackered by the end of the day, so we had dinner on the river again and then went out for a few drinks.

The next day we went and did the famous Tubing which basically involve you getting a tube (a big rubber ring) being driven up the river to a drop of point and then floating your way back to the town. Along the way there are loads of riverside bars that you get pulled into. The whole aim is to float down whilst getting drunk (which we did) and it was really good fun. Each bar has some sort of massive rope swing or zip line that you can go on and you drop in to the water. Plenty of drunken belly flopping going on, but you get big cheers for that!! If you look round Vang Vieng you see loads of people hobbling about with bruises and bandages as they are quite dangerous these swings. Loads of people seemed to end up getting hurt. Lesson to be learnt …..don't drink and Swing ha ha.

We spent the next day walking to a cave, some American couple told us it was only 5km but it ended up being a lot longer. We saw a few small kids on our way they ended up stealing our water and then started to ask for money, no chance…the cheekie bleeders! By the time we got there it was getting dark but luckily there was a tuk tuk hanging around so he took us back.

The next day we booked to do a days caving and kayaking down the river. We were both really looking forward to it. We started off at an entrance to this cave it looked ok nothing too scary. We then were given a rubber ring to float in through the cave and a headtorch to see powered by a small motorbike battery hanging round our neck getting wet in the underground river, oh well it must be ok! I was being all cocky before we went saying I wouldn't be scared and then I freaked out inside. It was really good but the ceilings where very low and it was really dark too (very claustrophobic), after awhile I got use to it. We then had lunch, lovely BBQ chicken kebab's yum, followed by a rubbish cave that was meant to have an elephant stalagmight but really it was made out of cement (who are they trying to kid hay) Next stop was to go and start a long kayaking trip down the river where we stopped of at a riverside bar to have a drink and swing on the crazy ropes again! By the end of the kayaking my arms where so sore and it took awhile for me and Sean to work together as a team and get the kayak to go in the direction we wanted but we did it in the end and it was a really good day (our arms are now massive like popeye he he)

Loads of love

Jen and Sean