We were sat in guest house reception waiting to be picked up at 9:30AM and guy finally turned up at 10:30 (this is what people mean by Laos time) only to drive us around in a circle and drop us literally 2 mins down street from guest house. Crazy, could see the bus from the reception and if know it was ours could of walked there, oh well.

Bus dropped us off in Vang Vieng at a guest house which driver must get commission for doing as right out the way a couple km from the main srip, but given the fantastic views of the mountains and the lake from here we were only to happy to stay especially given the room was 35kip each which equates to about 2 pounds. That evening we found an Aussie run bar just around the corner (I say Aussie run, its owned by an Aussie who spends 6 months a year here and other six months in OZ where he currently was). Met a Kiwi and Aussie cuple here who were both teachers in Saigon currently on holiday Laos and spent a few hours in here chatting to them, together with the 'local gay in the village' who the girls who worked here referred to as 'Ting Tong' which means 'Crazy'. Great bunch of poeple though and really good evening.

Had planned to go tubing next day, and no didn't bin it off due to hang over, but actually because it seemed a bit overcast and thought therefore a good day to go and check out the local caves via a bicycle which we hired from the guest house. This was a proper local bike not to disimilar to a postmans bike and really good fun to ride, just the one gear but you can get some serious speed built up on these bad boys. The first cave ok but nothing special and it was a mission to get to over some very rocky terrain which these bikes were not equipped to deal with and how we survived without a puncture I do not know. The second however was pretty special and included a guide for the entrance fee of 10kip which was required since the cave was about a km from where we left bikes, trekking through fields over birdges and through vegetation, where we were finally greeted by a pretty spectacular cave which had a buddhist shrine inside (as did they all). We were guided around equopped with our headlamps and battery pack hanging around neck. After this guide showed us a little rock pool where we could go and have dip, which was a welcome sight, (altough the day appeared overcast it did nothing to reduce the temperature, and I spent the entire day sweating my arse off..........

After this we headed out to another cave, but too dark and didn't want to keep paying to hire torches, so decided to leave this one and head to the final cave which had a prmise of a lagoon. This was the most spectacular of the all and talk about saving the best to last. The cave was a trek up a cliff to get to and was hard going, but once there it was a massive open cave which once again housed a buddhist shrine (far more impressive mind you). Trekked back down the cliff face and climbled a tree to then dive into the laggon below, B E A Utiful was the water which welcomed me. fter an hour or so of swimming in river and lounging around we cycled back to the guest house in the sweltering afternoon heat, quite clear now why you see no locals about during the day in Laos, its too sodding hot!!! In evening headed into town where we chilled out at a restaurant and watched episode after epsiode of Family Guy. All bars and restuarants offer this facility of tv showing, friends or family guy, or some othert American comedy together with lounged out decking for the recovering Tubing victims.

The next morning we headed into town to pick up our tube and jump on the band wagon with the many other people heading to the start point of the river. Jumped on a Jumbo (big tuk-tuk) which I ended upstanding on back of since no more seats. Once at start point jumped in tube (which is basiaclly a giant inflated tractor inner tube) and off we sailed down the Mekong River (which may sound like a romantic setting, had it not a dirty brown river). Anyway no more then 2-3 mins down river was the first bar and there we were greeted by a guy holding out a giant stick to drag you into the shore (as did all the bars). Still have to make sure you get over to the side mind you by some ferousious paddling since this is one hell of a wide river. At this first stop there was a 30 metre high rope swing, and a bar which was serving up the famous SE Asia mix of Whisky Bukets and the local faviourite (and mine) bottles of Beer Laos. Person after person was flying into the river from 30 meters up only to land with a crack get winded and then try in pain to swim back to the edge to get out before the rapids whisked them off down river............ It took me until the third bar (didnt stop at 2nd) to build up courage (or maybe to drink enough beer Laos) to attempt the rope swing which was great fun!!! Also played volleyball at this bar with a load of other people and the bukets and beer by now were in full flow with everybody. It was at this bar that somebody who had clearly had a buket too many began throwing in tubes and watching them drift off down river.......... Only for the locals to try and stop him and then him try and throw them in also, what a drunk, only to then find out he was an English Drunk....... I wonder why us English have such a reputation around SE Asia and the rest of the world!!!!!! He was soon fooled into getting in a ring and heading down river much to the enjoyment of everybody at the bar!!!

Met some people from bus joruney to Vang Vieng at this bar and ended up spending a good few hours at this bar before deciding to finally leave and head to next one. At next bar had volleyball and football so had a game of footy, where my first tubing injury occured!! Sliding tackle on what I thought was sand, but which actually had concrete underneath did not agree with my leg. This was followed by my second injury upon leaving this bar via the slide (yes seemed like good idea at time) whereby I went down slide in tube only for the valve to stick into my stomach upon impact with water and tear a gash up my chest!!! Oh well you got to come back from tubing with war wounds haven't you!!! Just as well old Stevey boy Nicoll not here as I beleive death would be imminent for him here given his injury track record!!!!

After another bar (the final one) where all were signing along to usual favourite sing alongs of Wonderwall etc it was time to head down the river and call it a day, or night since it was now pitch black!!!! This was not so much fun as on a couple of occasions all you could hear was the engine of a boat but not see it (since they dont use lights!! helpful) and you would just hope that you managed to avoid it!!! Luckily on way down we caught up with a group who had been tubing before and therefore knew where to get out, without them we may have ended up in Vietnam, so thankyou to those guys!!! Dropped tube back and had to pay late return charge, clever guys know people will be late once drinks flowing so must get a nice extra income stream from this as a result!!!

Back to guest house changed and headed to Aussie bar for dinner followed by a couple drinks at Bucket Bar where we were accompinied by Bindy the giant (and I do mean giant) Rotweiller from the Aussie bar. We had clearly made a new friend here as he had walked us home the night before when we were there and now he accompinied us all way to this bar and sat at our feet until we left at which point he walked us back home again!!! Thats the treatment you get when you get yourself a local bar, and everywhere we go, as all British do, we do get ourselves a local!!!

The next day we had planned to get bus up further north into Laos to Luang Prabang, however bus was full, so had a day of lazing around guest house (which not at all a bad thing given the fantastic scenary and chill out feel to place).

So that was Vang Vieng and tubing was accomplished and I even lived to tell the tale. As for the drunk who left that third bar, who knows where he now is maybe drifting around in his tube in the South China Sea!!! Brilliant! See you in Luang Prabang!