A breakfast beer and omelette woke us up the next morning, the famous Vang Vieng tubing was the plan for the day. Swimming attire donned and tube in hand we jumped on a tuk tuk and headed for the river. We managed a full 30 seconds before the first rope was thrown and we were pulled towards the a bar. A gang of revellers dressed in animal onesies greeted us and we joined in with the beer pong tournament and exchanged stories, back in the tubes for another 30 seconds to the next bar, a woman with her 11 year old son for company and the local version of the Venga Boys were unexpected highlights! Back in the tube and so it continued into the evening culminating in a night flotilla of several tubes weaved together with arms and legs heading off down the river, for 2 hours we laughed and joked our way back to the town.

Feeling adventurous the next day we rented mopeds and headed for some waterfall action. Vang Vieng is a town were 2 minutes becomes 10 and 5 kilometres becomes 15 but we made it eventually through winding back roads and flooded mud paths, beautiful 20 metre waterfalls and cascading pools were are playground when we arrived. On the way back the muddy paths got the better of Sam and a gentle slide set him off the side of the moped, the scream was terrific, we ran towards him, as he turned holding his arm we feared the worst, with his hand pointing in one direction his finger had different plans and was firmly pointing in the other! Some gentle advise from Martin saw him yank hard on his pinky and the dislocated finger was firmly back in place. The image will remain firmly in our minds for some time!

Onwards we went towards the famous blue lagoon, not very blue and more of a river than a lagoon you could jump from trees and swing from ropes to your hearts content. The landscape was dotted with caves and was the obvious next choice, for a small fee you can park up and trek through a farm to the rocky outcrops and duck and dive your way through small passage ways and large caverns. The best even had pools of water for swimming. The setting, vast round topped tree covered rocky cliffs, surrounded by fields of rice dissected by fast flowing rivers was stunning, a place anyone would happily call home.