An early start again for us. We (the auzzie boys and I) had a quick breakfast and set off for the river! going against the advice of other "tubers" we hired rubber tubes for the day to enable us to float down the river. We hired a tuk tuk and drove to the start of the river.
The river is placed between several enormous hills covered in all types of greenery and runs slowly between. It was already scattered with keen tubers meandering down when we arrived. Along the river banks are bars, small cafes, swings and slides. The done thing is to visit as many of the bars as possible collecting bracelets (as you receive a friendship style bracelet on entry). There were people that had both arms and legs full of multi-coloured bands. On the first day we went against the general consensus and stayed at the first bar dangling our feet into the river and playing games all day. After a full day of river fun and zero use of the tube- by the time we left the tubes had been taken by others- we returned to the town centre (no deposit refund).
The next day we acted like pros!
A slightly later start, lunch first at a cafe in town which played family guy episodes on loop and we tuk tuk to the river- no tubes this time. This day we made our way to 6/8 of the huts and had a respectable number of bracelets by the end. The majority of people attempted the rope slides and swings but I did not try- there were rumours that 1 person a month dies on them and that was too risky for me. We swam across the river or hopped onto other peoples tubes to reach the other side. This was a later night than the previous with lots
of dancing and finishing the night with chips at the family guy bar.
It's quite unnerving when you arrive into Vang Vieng and you see people hobbling around covered in bruises, cuts and bandages, spray painted bodies and covered in writing. But as long as you are sensible (like I was) its great fun. I escaped with only a small cut to the bottom of my foot from an unexpected rock in the river!

Next stop luang Prabang!