Tubing is quite possibly the most fun activity ever (cheers Lauren!).

We arrived in Vang Vieng on Thursday and spent the evening in a bar watching friends (all the bars either show friends or family guy on a loop!) and had our usual red curry.

On Friday we had a quick walk around before heading off for tubing...or at least that was the plan. We crossed a little bamboo bridge following a sign for a cave and spring, this led to another sign and another across fields in the blazing heat. We got so far we didn't want to turn back and ended up walking fricken miles through cow fields, which I didn't enjoy, especially when Robin kept mooing and drawing attention to us!

We eventually got to the area for the caves and viewpoint, we were charged to get in and proceeded to climb up some steep bamboo ladders to the viewpoint. The ladders soon disappeared and we were left rock climbing (in flip flops) up a pretty precarious rocky mountain side. A Hungarian girl was following us up and asked if we were supposed to be climbing that high, but since we hadn't passed a viewpoint or cave we figured this was the way. Before long the girl following us turned back and after getting into some genuinely pretty death defying positions we decided to give up too. As we were climbing down 4 other people headed up, within minutes they'd given up too and were following us back down. When we got to the bottom the Laotian guy told us the springs were just around the corner so we headed there...after half an hour walk through a forest full of spider webs and a giant centipedes-type thing (so big the Hungarian thought it was a snake) we came to a clearing with lots of people sitting around, apparently it was two hours to the springs so everyone had given up! We all headed back after having a very unsuccessful morning!

After our little trek in the morning we headed to the starting point for tubing on the river. With our tractor inner tyres (or giant rubber rings!) we headed past the first bar and picked up a mulberry mojito which was sooo delicious. We then crossed the bamboo bridge and into the second bar (we still hadn't got in the water at this point) where we sat on the riverside enjoying drinks and loud music. We eventually got in our rings and after literally 20 seconds were pulled in by the next bar! More drinks ensued. Next bar, a bucket of something sickly sweet (at this point we'd gone about 20 metres down the river). By now the sun began to set and we figured it was time to head down the river a bit more as we needed to get back to town. We stopped about 10 mins further down the river for more drinks and dancing around the fire. At this point we were pretty hammered and Robin spray painted his initials across my back (it took 3 days to get off) which seemed like a good idea at the time! We then got back in the ring and floated for an hour down the river, by this time it was cold and pitch black and we seemed to be the only ones there, with no clue where the end was.

With rising panic I started hallucinating - or so Robin thought. I saw a fire on the bank of the river and could have sworn I heard someone shout Tuk Tuk. Robin thought I was going crazy but after a couple more minutes we heard it again and frantically swam to the shore where a Tuk Tuk driver was waiting in the bank to take wet tourists back to town! Thank god, I now understand how so many tourists die tubing - was so much fun though, highly recommended (minus the last hour bobbling in the dark!).

In the morning I woke up with a sore head, a missing toenail, green spray paint on my back and a huge no. 194 written on my arm in blue ink (this we all presumed is so they can identify unconscious people who get washed up on the shore)! Totally worth it though!

The next day we headed on the bus to Vientiane, which was a total nightmare, apart from the slight hangover we also - got picked up late, missed the bus, had an argument with someone working at the bus station, found out we had to wait 3 hours for the next bus, the bus took 7 hours instead if 5 and was so bumpy that everyone you fell asleep you smacked your head against something when you hit a pothole! But hey, it was an experience!