Vang Vieng, Laos

Nov 23- Happy Birthday!!! (Vang Vieng, Laos)

Today was a special day for Steph so we celebrated by spending a couple hours on a bus (damn...). After much waiting, we ended up leaving on the bus to Vang Vieng at around 11am (supposed to leave at 9:30). Then a ~3 hour bus ride got us to Vang Vieng just before 3:30, at which point we quickly found a hostel (cheap and nice, wooo!) and a sandwich and went to see if we could go tubing. We got to the tube rental place at around 4pm but discovered that it probably wasn't worth it to head out that day. Damn. Instead we ended up chilling in hammocks, watching the sunset, and drinking beer for a couple hours, pissed that we weren't getting shit-faced in a tractor tube (awesome scenery, mediocre sunset- nothing like NM for sunsets, bar none). After sitting for a while we decided that we were hungry and ate some mediocre pizza while watching Friends re-runs and decided to turn in for the night in preparation for tubing the next day. A few notes about Vang Vieng. Total party town (most everyone here is here to tube), there is lots of western food and nearly all the restaurants show old re-runs of either Friends, Family Guy, or very occasionally the Simpsons or Southpark.

Nov 24- Happy Birthday take 2 (Vang Vieng, Laos)

So today we were going to tube no matter what but decided it was well worth sleeping in (got up around 11ish). After some banana pancakes and a tuna sandwich (that's what Steph wanted so that's what she got) we rented a tube and set off for the river. We had little to no idea what to expect from tubing so it was nice that we were riding with some veterans in our tuk-tuk. It was really interesting hearing some of their stories before getting on the tube, like this one guy who apparently hadn't made it back to Vang Viang with his tube once after tubing every day for almost a week. Anyways, with no preconceptions, we got off the tuk-tuk, grabbed our tube, and were immediately given a free shot of lao lao (homemade rice whiskey made from sticky rice). The rest of tubing goes about like this: there are several bars a long the river, each blasting super loud techno or hip hop and each giving out free shots of lao lao. Some of the lao lao is good, some of it is bad, and some of it is just plain nasty (vomit inducing). The people there are largely Europeans and love to party. There are huge swings and slides and zip lines that you can ride into the river (which Steph gladly did). Buckets (like the ones you make sandcastles with) are sold with large amounts of whiskey and stuff to cover up the taste. So are beers. Everything is expensive (except for free lao lao). People get pretty wasted. Our time was pretty fun because we were able to meet up with the Irish couple we met on the Hanoi-Vientiane bus and hang out with them down the river. The only downside was that at about 4pm we discovered what time it was and had to have the tubes back by 6pm. Unfortunately, it is more than a 2hour float down the river. We tried anyways and failed, but had a good time failing (minus the fact that it had gotten dark and Steph was freezing and we were still floating down the river). After returning our tubes, eating a chicken sandwich, and showering, we met up with the Irish later for some more buckets. After a free bucket and one for only 10,000 kip, we parted ways and went to bed.

Nov 25- Riding Bikes and Seeing Caves (Vang Vieng, Laos)
Today we weren't that hung over but still got up pretty late. After some lunch and some wandering looking at tourist agencies to book at for the next day, we found one and booked a tour. Then we rented some bikes and road across the river to see a cave. Pretty cool, but nothing too spectacular. Then we decided we weren't caved out yet and rode to another cave nearby. This one was interesting because you had to leave your bikes locked up about 500 meters away and walk through a rice field to get to the ticket booth. Once at the ticket booth, it was probably another 500 meters or so to the cave itself. We had some guide show us through, which was ok, but the real star of the cave was getting to see a tarantula wasp hovering over this giant spider (Steph was reeeeeeeealllly excited). Apparently these guys paralyze the spider and then lay their eggs inside them. Once the eggs hatch the little wasplings eat the spider alive from the inside out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk. It was actually pretty awesome. After seeing the cave we returned our bikes and decided it was time to watch some south park, but failed and watched family guy instead.

Nov 26- Tube Caving and Kayaking (Vang Vieng, Laos)
Today we were on a tour group to go check out a cave via intertube and kayak down the river. We showed up at the agency early and were in the Tuk Tuk by 9am. We get to the river and cross and are about to go to this other temple-cave thing ("Elephant Cave"- named for the natural limestone formation that actually does look like an elephant) but our tour guide saw a bunch of other tourists coming and told us we wanted to be first in the other cave. We're so glad he did because the other cave was pretty awesome. The other cave is this super long cave that has enough water in all of it to allow you to explore it via intertube. We get on our tubes and put on headlights and start pulling ourselves on this rope through the cave. At one point we had to get up and walk (too shallow) but otherwise we could go through the entire thing on the tube. Our group went all the way to the end via rope and a bit of paddling at the end, but it was totally worth it. So awesome and probably our favorite cave adventure of the whole trip. After the cave we had a pretty awesome lunch and set off on our kayaking adventure. It was pretty tame kayaking, by no means hard, but this British couple did manage to flip their kayak which was entertaining (they ran into a bush... soooo funny... also ironic since they are now sitting directly behind me in this internet cafe in Luang Prabang I'm using... hahahaha). During the kayaking we passed the same part of the river we had done tubing and stopped at two of the bars but it was a bit more lame than actually doing the tubing. The one interesting bit was when Steph went of this enormous slide and hit the water badly, bruising her leg (ouch!). After some kayaking it was really nice outside and we had a beer and chilled by the river for a bit. After beer we wanted some good food and some TV re-runs, got both, and happily decided it had been a pretty damn good day.

Nov 27- Tubing take 2 (Vang Vieng, Laos)
Today we decided to take to tubing again.  We got up late (Vang Vieng is a lazy town for the most part, great for sleeping in) and grabbed some food and then headed out for tubing.  Pretty much the same as before, although this time we drank more buckets and got enough of a buzz going that we had to take the tuk tuk back (trying to get our full deposit back, but we missed it by minutes).  After some dinner and some food, we called it a night.