Monday, March 17, 2008

River Tubin'


Day: 173


The six of us plus two more we met decided to take the initiation float down the Nam Song. The thing to do in Vang Vieng is take a ride on a tractor inner tube down the local river. The locals have helped out by building bars along the way. We were some of the first people in the water and it took us 8 hours to float 4 km. We didn't set any speed records but we did manage to stop off at a lot of bars. The bars all have their own little scene with music blaring, free shots of laolao (the local rice whiskey) and cheap beerlao. The bars also have rope swings or zip lines that put patrons quickly into the cool water. I never got the gumption to give one a go, but Miss Leslie did the zip line and the mack daddy rope swing out into the river. The big rope swing started on a platform 25' high and if you dropped off when the swing was at its highest you could drop in from 35-40'. Wild stuff if you weren't all there. After the last bar we all had a furious 1 hour paddle to make it back before we had to pay a late fee. I think that most people pay a late fee after watching the groups come in at 9 pm last night. We ran and got some dinner when we got back and ended up at a nice little pizza joint. At least 5 of the bars in town all have a different Friends episode playing all day every day. I guess the thing to do is get drunk and stoned and go watch TV all night. Our pizza place didn't have TV, but along with the regualar menu you got a 'Happy Menu'. It included shakes with pot, mushrooms or opium plus several other dishes with these main ingredients. It did have a warning of taking opium with lemons or limes. They did have your well being in mind. None of us had any side effects from our pizzas or shakes last night so we made it back to the bungalows to collapse from the big float.

Exciting times here. We start off tomorrow to Vientienne. It should be two big days of riding with some heat to boot. All in all good fun.

By for now

CK

1 comment:

JennSean said...

LOVE the stories!!! Sounds like you are having an awesome time in Laos!!
-JH