Wow. Vang Vieng is insane! And offically one of my favorite places in the world... Mainly for TUBING!!!

So we first experienced tubing- floating down the river in a tube (rubber ring) and being pulled into different bars along the way by Laos men throwing rope out to you and pulling you in. Each bar has different games and is always hard to make yourself leave one and move to the next. Our first experience was at the first bar, i took part in a game of musical tubes where i got down to the last 4 tubes, even surviving a rather large hairy man (looking a lot like Alan from 'The Hangover' films) sat on top of me as we went for the same tubes...

Further bars had swings that drop you into the river, zip lines, jumping posts, slides, mud volleyball, everything. Despite their being over 10 bars along a 3km stretch of river we only ever made it to the 5th or 6th. At 6pm it all stops and everyone heads back to town to carry on the fun in the bars on 'the island'. One bar, Limbo Bar, had a flaming fire limbo stick, despite alcohol fuelled confidence none of us tried it, especially after watching many 'macho' men attempt to go under it or jump it and fail... painfully. Safe to say we had a very good night, and i might have possibly forgotten some of it...

A couple days later unfortunately Sarah was a bit poorly, opting for a day by the pool, me and Claire braved the caves! We visisted 2 that we walked through (i was a bit more scared than expected and Claire marched on through, torch on her head like a pro). Following these we went to a water cave where we got back on our beloved tubes and holding onto a piece of rope above our heads pulled ourselves through this never ending pitch black cave following our Laos guide who sang Laos songs to us as we went. What an experience. We were so glad we did it.

The day after this proper tubing called again! However i now slightly regret the decision as i am COVERED in bruises, can hardly sit as i have the biggest bruise on my bum, further big bruise on my back, shins also covered, oh and an infected hand which has swelled up from a small cut i got from the zip line and gave me sooo much pain on our long bus ride the next day. Antibiotics are slowly curing it though, and we have now discovered from chatting to other travellers that these infections are very common, although im sure many of you agree it was bound to happen to me?!

Despite this Vang Vieng was a huge success, we just need some Vietnam time to recover now!