
Despite practically the whole of everyday taken up by tubing I did also manage to fit in some other activities while I was in Vang Vein this time round. So I thought I would dedicate this post to the few things I got up to in Vang Vein that didn't involving inflated tractor inner tubes floating on the water.
I arrived in Vang Vein as usual a total mess. After a 20 odd hour, over night bus journey the way from Bangkok the only thing I really wanted to do was have a long shower, get out of my clothes and drop all my bags off that I had been lugging around from one bus to another. Unfortunately that was not happening as I had failed to let Alice know what time I was actually going to be arriving in Vang Vein so she had gone off tubing for the day meaning I had no where to drop my bags off, no where to have a shower and just no where to go.
If Alice had gone tubing which is what I had suspected there would be no way of contacting her till at least 6pm and it was now 12.30 so it was going to be long time till I would get to do any of the things I wanted to do as obviously without Alice I had no idea where I would be staying and obviously didn’t have the funds to get my own place even if it was just for one night. So I ended up spending the next 9 hours pottering around Vang Vein with no where to go. I was hungry so I got some food, watched some Family Guy in one of the restaurants and then went in an internet cafĂ© for a bit. That killed about an hour and half so now needed to work out what to do for the next god knows how long. I had got the bus all the way from Bangkok with a couple of lads from Melbourne who were over in Asia for a few weeks. I had managed to grab one of their numbers so I gave them and buzz and it turned out they were down at the river watching the sun go down getting a few beers in. I had nothing else to do so went along with all my gear to hang out with them down at the river.
It was now about 8 o’clock and I must have had been down at the river with Stu and Aiden for about 7 hours and still had not heard from Alice but thought she must have finished tubing now so set out once again in search of her. I checked my e-mails and had got a message to say she was had gone to Q-bar, one of the clubs/bars in the center of town. So excited thinking I would finally be able to drop all my stuff off I headed off to Q-Bar. I got to Q-Bar and guess who wasn’t there, Alice. So it’s now 9pm, nearly 8 hours after I had first got to Vang Vein and I still was walking around with no real idea where to go.
Then I get a phone call form Stu one of the Australian guys I had been down at the river with. I answered and guess who is on the other end only bloody Alice. Turned out Alice and Jade had been roaming the streets shouting my name and there calls had happened to be picked up by Stu and Aiden who then put them in touch with me. So 9 hours after originally getting to Vang Vein I had finally found Alice. Not only had I just found Alice but 5 minutes after I had found her but I bumped into another one of my friends from home Tamara who I had absolutely no idea was in Laos. Was crazy and a vey nice surprise!



Tubing took up most of the days and normally started winding down about 6/7ish. So the nights were spent, when possible, recovering eating greasy food from the many restaurants or kicking back monging out in one of the bars by the river with shakes and a cheeky beer.
The rest of the time was spent sleeping, eating, enjoying the surrounding and recovering from tubing. I really like Vang Vein, it’s a vey interesting place and I really cannot imagine what the locals must think of all us guys stumbling around the place. I also still cannot work out which would have come first, was it Vang vein that started tubing or did tubing make Vang Vein. Either way it’s a strange little place in a beautiful place in northern Laos. I don’t think I will ever end up going back again but still I wouldn’t be against the idea if the option came up again.





























15/01/10