Vang Vieng was the next stop in our itinerary. It was what you might call a tourist-town, in that the only reason it exists is to fleece money out of drunk Westerners! Think of an Asian version of Magaluf or Faliraki and you’d be close to the mark.
Still pretty sober at this point…
Possibly the sole reason for the town’s existence – and definitely the sole reason for its prosperity – is tubing. What this entails is as follows: each person rents a rubber tube and is taken by tuk-tuk about 2k upriver to a bar. Participants then have a drink in the bar whilst staff hand out free shots of Lao-Lao whiskey (rice whiskey) to anyone who wants it. Next, they get in the tubes and float downstream. Every 20 yards or so there is another gigantic bar, each one replete with more free whiskey, a massive rope swing, zip line or a giant slide, which the increasingly drunk participants can play with to their heart’s content. Dangerous? You betcha! It is absolute carnage.Great fun though! The idea is that you make it back to where you start but we spent 6 hours getting about halfway!
Vientiane is just another big, unfeasibly hot city and doesn’t deserve an entry in it’s own right. We stayed one night in an expensive hotel (11 pounds a night doncha know!) and have booked an overnight bus down south to Pakse (on which we get our own bed!)