Vang Vieng is the adventure capital of Laos. Located on the Nam Song River, and surrounded by limestone karsts jutting out of the ground to create a stunning landscape, this town is the starting point for many adventurers looking to go caving, rock climbing, kayaking and more. In recent years however the party scene overshadowed the many natural wonders of the area, and the town was inundated with gap year party goers looking to score cheap drugs and have a good time. Unfortunately, in 2011 alone, approximately 27 of these revellers died, from either drug induced heart attacks, drowning or broken necks from falling from the zip lines over the too shallow river. Embarrassingly, many of them were Australian.

By 2012 the government saw sense and ordered the closure of the many unlicensed bars that had sprung up along the river. The hard drugs disappeared, and what is left is a handful of bars and significantly less people able to still enjoy themselves, albeit (slightly) more responsibly. Still, alcohol and rivers don’t always mix, as was evidenced when I went.

I spent my first day in Vang Vieng enjoying some quiet time. It was really bloody stinking hot, and I couldn’t get up the energy to do much more than sit in one of the many restaurants showing Friends (I watched 5 hours straight!), drinking fruit shakes and catching up on my blog. The next day though I was ready to try the infamous tubing. There are two tubing ‘stations’ in town where you rent your tube (and dry bag if you want, as I did), and then a tuk tuk takes you about 3km upstream to the drop off point, the first bar of the day, located right on the river.

At the first bar I ran into two French girls who had been on the slow boat with me and who I’d hung out with briefly in Luang Prabang, so the three of us stuck together for the day. After a couple of beers and a game of beer pong with a Kiwi couple and some guys from Singapore (I really suck at beer pong), we were ready to start floating down the river. The staff at the first bar will do everything they can to keep you there though. ‘Oh, the party’s here, they’ll be no-one at the other bars’, they told us. They even had a party planned for someone’s 21st (though I had it on good authority there was a ‘21st’ every day). I’m sure there are some that never leave the first bar and party there all day.

We didn’t care. We were here to float down the river, it was hot, the water was cool and inviting, why waste precious floating time? So off we went, and it was pure bliss. The water was so refreshing after days of being hot and sweaty. The river moved slowly and it was totally serene watching the huge cliffs rise above us on the side of the river. It wasn’t long before we reached the second bar, and the staff threw out ropes for us to catch, and they dragged us in. Another beer, then floating again, to the third bar, and so on. At the fourth (or maybe fifth??) we rested for a while as a storm passed over and there was a brief downpour, but then we were off again.

The actual tubing is so much fun and so relaxing. We had a great time, some great floating, some beers (one, two, three, gun!) and were thoroughly enjoying ourselves (until one of my friends lost her phone in the river. See what I mean about alcohol and rivers not really mixing).