After a thoroughly freezing night in our guest house (thin blankets and 45 degree weather is not a recipe for warmth and enjoyment!), Laura and I were pretty stoked at the  prospect of sunning ourselves on tubes as we drift down the Nam Song River with an ice-cold beerlao.  Other travels have waxed poetic on the subject of tubing in Vang Vieng and we fortified ourselves with a hearty breakfast of mulberry pancakes, a mulberry shake, and eggs from the local Organic Mulberry Farm – little did we know this inauspicious start to the day would be repeated each of the four days we were in town! Why don’t we eat mulberries in the U.S.?…Boy are we missing out on deliciousness!

Anyhow, off of the subject of our truly mind-blowing mulberry breakfast of joy!  Ahh, tubing.  We  made our way down the dusty streets of this truly tiny town and turned down at least a dozen half-hearted entreaties for a tuktuk (these little contraptions are a rite of passage in and of themselves…thoughts of seat belts and concerns of safety are thrown right into the wind when you negotiate a ride on one of these charming vehicles).

The tubing business is town is actually top-notch…we’re in the dry season right now and the operators issue out about 300 tractor tire tubes a day to backpackers and tourists looking to tackle the river – they have the process down to a science.   You get passed down a relay line of sorts…hold out your hand for a tube number…pass over cash…here’s your tube…oh and by the way, sign away your rights on this line here…now go sit in the tuktuk and wait for they ride up to the Mulberry Farm.  A little charming bit of Laos -  there are several signs posted within the shop itself – little warnings to backpackers.  One of the more  charming signs “smoking marijuana on the river cost you very much” – is this a warning that you could waste away your life stoned…do they really care so much about your health and well-being?  No, it’s pretty widely known that the Laos authorities can be bought off if you are unfortunate enough to get caught…I thought that little warning was pretty priceless.

A quick ride in the tuktuk and we are soon grabbing our tubes and heading to the mojito bar for some mulberry mojitos – proceeds help the kids…so we were really just looking to help the kids  J  When we got to the edge of the Nam Song, we were surprised to see that tubing is pretty much the only thing you DON’T do when you go tubing down the river.  Within about two minutes of floating down the river the first riverside bar is there with a rope line they use tow you in…then you have blaring Western music, a full bar, and a crush of bathing suit clad backpackers.

The day pretty much proceeds like that – into the tubes for a minute, then towed into the next riverside bar.  All fun in and of it self – but what really keeps you moving onto the next location is the promise of increasingly large zip lines, swing ropes, and slides.  So, did I dare to fling myself off of a rope and into the river you might ask?  Well, I most certainly did.  I have video of it – but uploading videos in Laos is a lost cause.  I will post them at a later date for your visual enjoyment!

By the end of the day we were very ready for the huge campfire at the last bar – once the sun goes behind the mountains it freezing again.  Then a quick walk across the bridge, into a tuktuk, and back into town for a hot shower and dinner.

For more tips and travel stories you’ll want to subscribe to my RSS feed…it’s free and I promise I don’t bite!

Related posts:

1. A Little Fortitude…Adventures in Rock Climbing
2. A Little Nightmare…Could You Pass the TP?
3. A Little Relaxing…Lazy Days in Luang Prabang
4. A Little Village…Experiencing Rural Laos in Hongsa