Oh Vang Vieng……. Where to begin! Vang Vieng is a town in the northwest of Laos between Luang Prabang and Vientienne. It is situated on the river and surrounded by some of the most beautiful mountain scenery I've seen. It is on the well-established tourist trail because it is the home of tubing. This involves sitting in a rubber ring and making your way down the river from bar to bar, drinking buckets filled with terrible alcohol, for many it involves taking illegal substances and basically getting all kinds of wasted! The act of tubing is now secondary to the drinking, many people choosing to swim between the first few bars and not continue down the river at all! Having heard all this I wasn't even sure I wanted to go but since I had some friends to go with I thought I should definitely check it out!

Sophie and I arrived into Vang Vieng late in the evening and went in search of our friends and low and behold we found them but they were on their way home! Being the troopers they are and because we had just arrived they turned around and we headed out! We got to bucket bar in time to get a free bucket - yep absolutely free bucket of alcohol! We had a fun night, visited a few bars and then headed home at a reasonable hour!

The next day was our time to tube! We decided we would go early because I was determined to get through the whole river! We started in the first bar and I took it a little easy opting for a beer instead of a bucket. At the second bar I decided to move on to the buckets. There was a rope swing you could do - which most people did (not me I'm a chicken and proud)! We carried on down the river visiting some other bars - one with a massive slide which sends you flying into the river (I did do that…twice). Later we were sitting on a platform at a bar, sitting around a fire when we heard a loud crack and suddenly we were falling off into the river! Nobody was hurt, so it was in fact very, very funny! We made it most of the way down the river and got our tubes back 10 minutes after 6 so lost 20,000 kip of our deposit ($2.50). We went for some dinner and some more drinks and had another good night out in Vang Vieng!

As a little side note I was really pleased to hear how the tubing money is divided. Apparently each of the local vilages takes a turn (10 days) of running the tube hiring place and for these 10 days they get the profits from the business).

After our day of drunkenness we decided we would do something a tad more wholesome and hired bikes to go visit some caves and a "blue lagoon" outside of the town. We got a little lost on the way out and ended up at the wrong caves where a really nice man tried to rip us off to see his cave instead. He allowed one person to go to check out the caves before we paid to go. While we waited he kept reducing the entry price - when our friend returned and said it was not worth a visit the old man laughed heartily! He really was a funny man!

We headed back towards the main road where we found a small shop with a really interesting owner. He drew us a proper map and also recommended another site to check out! We headed off to the blue lagoon and got there without further incident (although it was funny because there were many contradictory signs along the way). We got to the blue lagoon and went for a swim - it was really refreshing! We chilled out there for a while and ate some lunch. Then we headed off in search of the second site the man had recommended for us! Unfortunately he hadn't been explicit enough and we couldn't find it (we actually cycled past it ….twice)! We did have an enjoyable cycle though through some small villages and the scenery was simply fantastic! Obviously because we were still in Vang Vieng we went out again that night! It was our last there after all.

The following day we had organised a trip kayaking from Vang Vieng to Vientienne, We were a little shocked when we were picked up in a tuktuk, I think we'd expected a minivan or something! Ah well nothing to do but suck it up and get on with the journey!

We got to the starting point of the trip and got in our kayaks, I had asked the night before if we got helmets and was told we did, we didn't! This was only slightly worrying! We headed down the river and the scenery was pretty nice! We had to kayak through some very gentle rapids - although some people did manage to flip. And obviously I include myself in some people - and the flip was completely my fault! I did also get hit in the head with the kayak - could have done with a helmet! I remembered my extensive training though and held on to my paddle! It was strange when I've kayaked or rafted before I've always been told to try and hold on to the paddle if possible but obviously it wasn't a priority - in Laos however the paddle is definitely the priority!

We stopped off for lunch on the river bank which was actually really good and then after a break we continued down river. When we got to the end of the kayak trip we were told were changing to a van - which was a relief because none of wanted to get back on a tuktuk for another 2 hours. Then we realised by van they meant a smaller, less comfortable tuktuk! Excellent! The first bit of the journey was incredibly dusty - hard to breathe dusty and I was right at the back - not the most enjoyable journey of my life! Things got a bit better when we got onto paved(ish) roads!

Eventually we reached Vientienne and checked into a hotel! Sophie and Dave were jumping straight on a bus. The rest of us went for dinner! The following day I was up early to get my bus to Kung Lo cave - so I bid my friends farewell again and I was back on the road on my own!