Photo from Flickr by lawtonjm

Vang Vieng in Laos has, in the last 10 years or so, become a backpacker haven. Laying on the Nam Song River the town is now famous for its “Tubing”. Tourist flock to the town to get pissed up, hop in an inflatable ring and drift down the river between the many bars. Most people get so wasted that they can’t tell their ass from their elbow, but this is normally the point, to forget the mundane hassles of normal life, the council tax payments, the family mortgages, and concentrate on nothing more than where their next bucket is coming from. 

There are a hundred bars and guesthouses lining the river, blaring out music and offering free shots and cheap drinks to all that drift up to their bars. Many have slides or zip lines for party goers to launch themselves upon and into the river below. For those that need a time out, the constant re-runs of Family Guy and The Hangover are on hand to keep them entertained. Though no one manages to avoid drinking too long, as the completely wasted atmosphere is infectious and it’s soon time to join in again.

But at what price does this partying come?

There are the obvious safety dangers, with a number of backpackers dying in the river each year, however in my opinion people know the risks, they are aware of their remote location and are responsible for themselves. But what of the impact this type of tourism has on the local area? Crime, especially that committed by youths is on the increase in the town, as is the use of drugs. Ignorant tourists stumble through the streets half naked and throwing up, acting in a way which is completely disrespectful for the modest and conservative behaviour of traditional Laotians.

Where does the trade-off lie? It is difficult to pin point. On the one hand we must be aware of being patronising, of berating this invasive Western culture which locals can do nothing to fight against and get swept into, what about personal choice? Many locals enjoy the change, and join in. They also profit from it, with most of the village working in, or around the tourist trade and which brings (relative) affluence to much of the area which was unheard of in the 1990s. On the other hand, we must also question those tourists who take it too far, who with bikini on and bucket in hand march through the town completely oblivious or more worryingly, completely uncaring of the impact their behaviours and actions have.

Maybe the key is for socially respectful tourism, for self-awareness and understanding of your surroundings to ensure a balance which is healthy for everyone.

What is the True Price of “Tubing”? was originally published by HappytimeBlog - Backpacking around the world - Learn how to make money travel round the world with you

Despite having far too many days tubing behind us and everyone feeling like they’ve had a good beating we had grand plans… Grand plans of motorcycle adventures. When Georgie and I had rented a moped on our first day we couldn’t help but notice they also had a pair of rather serious looking dirt bikes and that set us thinking – Toby will be here, he loves dirt bikes, I want to learn how to ride one and we should go to Luang probang… See the logic?

I was first up at about 8 am and despite the pain (Toby could hardly move and Georgie was hung over) I woke up the others, it was a beautiful morning in Vang vieng and we all knew that it had to be done. We checked out of our room and found a single room that would look after our bags for a couple of days and then limped along to the man with the motorbikes. I have to be honest and say that I was more than a little nervous because up until then the biggest bike I’d ever rode was a little moped – and never had I tackled a bike with a clutch!

I don’t think they get rented out too often because it took us a good hour to get the hogs started but Toby knows his bikes so I let him do his thing… Then I was up,  Georgie gave me a pat on the back and off I went up the road – I bluffed it enough to inspire enough confidence in the renter but I still wasn’t 100% sure about it so we decided to put Georgie on with Toby for a while until I got used to things.

The bikes were Honda Baja XR 250’s, mean looking dirt bikes with big twin headlights and one a hell of a kick. Once started and warmed up they ran like a dream so before we left town we got ourselves a map and some breakfast, it was a scorching day and just sitting around was almost unbearable so as soon as our baguettes were gone we threw a leg over and hit the road.

We took it steady while we went out of town and I was getting the hang of things pretty quick, I did however miss a gear and make my bike screech spitting hot oil all up my leg. Toby and Georgie followed behind me and after about 15km we pulled over to take in the scenery, Toby had spotted a pretty intense track he wanted to blaze up and I wanted to inspect my bike for the oil leak. Turns out my bikes gasket was in a bad way and the bloke who owns them had just smeared some gasket seal around it which teamed with a smoking hot day and me revving the bolocks off it had forced it to spit… We probably should have been more concerned about it but all we could think about was getting back on the road to cool off. Toby emerged from the track grinning like a fool and we set off once again.

We passed through rice fields and small villages, along winding roads and alongside rivers – all very idyllic and beautiful. We were now making our way over the hills that surround Vang vieng and back down the other side, the road was smooth enough but any serious pot holes were scoffed up by our trusty steeds with ease. We found a small cafe down by the river as it travels between the last of the tall hills and pulled over for coffee and a refreshing dip, it was stunning – the scenery around Koh Phi Phi in Thailand is similar except here there is no sea only the river but somehow it knocked spots off it, completely rural and silent. The swim had only served to highlight just how shagged we all were and it wasn’t looking good that we had barely left Vang vieng and were all feeling it already but when has that ever stopped us. Back on the Baja’s and back on the road. We stopped again at a marker which said “Luang Probang 215 km” this was a slight blow as I had thought it was mere 135 km (Don’t ever listen to the Lonely Planet guidebooks they are full of shit!). With this new information we thought it best I stop and check my oil and buy a bottle for the road, while we were smashing down language barriers with the local motorbike repair man another chap appeared on a push bike who said he was doing the very same journey – sweating like a river he instantly vindicated our big old bikes.

By this point I had this dirk biking down to a T so Georgie hopped on my bike and we set off north, this  time to try and get a few more Km’s behind us.

With every mile the scenery became more and more stunning, we were on the up once again and the straight roads were well and truly behind us. Hills soared all around us and the houses turned from brick buildings to small wooden huts, the local children all came out of their huts as we passed to shout and wave and the road was littered with cows and chickens.

We managed to put 90 km between us and Vang vieng in no more than a couple of hours, all winding roads and sweeping bends, working our way slowly above the cloud base and with about a 40 km/h average speed, we pulled over at a hilltop rest stop for some lunch and to take in the stunning and infinite views back down where we had just come from and across to where we were headed. We had made the right choice, despite it becoming clear that we still had a long long way to go and it was going to be a very long days riding we were all loving it!

Two hours later it was a completely different story… Georgie was starting to get seriously uncomfortable and Toby’s back was killing him, we’d stopped at a few villages along the way for a snack or two but the miles left to go were hanging heavy over us. The fact all the people in the villages would come out and see us and wave like mad would spur us on for another few miles but the sun was starting to set and we still had 50 km to go… We stopped one last time to take a few snaps of the stunning scenery as the sun started it’s decent and turned everything vivid colours, then we sucked it up and made one last knackered push for Luang Probang.

We came over the brow of the hill and started to drop down towards our destination, we could see the mighty Mekong winding through the valley and the sky was turning from vivid flame orange to beautiful warm pink – there was even a rainbow stretching from the hill we had just came from, it seemed like every time we started to flag something came along to remind us how lucky we are to be able to do it, how amazing our journey actually is and the sunset was just one of them.

We managed to get through the winding roads and down the hill just as it got dark and with the darkness came literally millions of bugs, visors down we ploughed on to Luang Probang and by 8:30 pm we finally arrived, tired, dirty and aching we rolled into town on our super duper bikes, found a restaurant, ate in silence and then crashed out at a guest house… It had been an amazing day, one of the best days I’ve ever had!

The long way Laos… Part 1, Vang vieng to Luang Probang. was originally published by HappytimeBlog - Backpacking around the world - Learn how to make money travel round the world with you

With Toby in town and a days recovery under our belts it was finally time to get our tube on with him. Up at the crack of noon we got a quick bite and bought our tubes then piled into a tuk tuk for another day of floaty fun, a beer to start with at the first bar (walk before we run) then it was head first into the buckets.

Toby being quite the Jack the lad he was straight up on the rope swings, hanging by his legs and all sorts… He did however manage to land badly and knock the wind out of himself on the first one and by the time he managed to scrape himself out and back into the bar he was bright red but loving being back in Laos.

By the time we reached the second bar we were all well and truly pissed and the zip wire was screaming out… Drink, drink, drink… Splash, splash, splash.

The whole day carried on the same and as we floated down to the last few bars I’d had enough booze to think a go on the rope swings was a top idea (up until then I had only been swooping about on the zip line) and I also thought that on my first go a full back flip would be the only way to fly… Amazingly, I dropped out of the tree swooped over the river, swang my legs up, let go of the swing and tucked my knees (here’s the important part) UP BESIDE MY HEAD and with all the grace of a professional gymnast flipped end over end until I bombed into the river below. The guys who work for the bar threw a rope and pulled me back in and I stood on the steps to watch Toby have a shot… He grabbed the swing – swooped down over the water – kicked his legs – let go and TUCKED HIS KNEES IN FRONT OF HIS HEAD – flipped a 
few times and hit the water. Almost a success except that when he came up he was totally limp and knocked out cold by his own knees. Obviously anyone who knows me knows that I have a completely healthy admiration for David Hasselhoff and on seeing my man Toby floating down the river like a turd I dived in and swam over with all the grace and speed of a power boat. I grabbed hold of him and started swimming back and the chaps on the side threw me a ring and pulled us back in to shore, Toby had come round again by the time we were back on dry land but he was a little shaky so I left him with Georgie while I got our bucket and got a stiff drink down his neck…

Toby got his stuff back together, got a few more drinks in him and had a couple more attempts at a back-flip but the bad landings and booze had started to take it’s toll, Georgie wisely stuck to the zip lines and on the last bar I pulled another flip and also landed badly, not quite knocking myself out but slapping the water so hard it felt like my whole back was severely sunburned… After that we stuck to the whiskey until sunset when we all staggered back into town for food before bed.

The next morning Toby and I both woke up in agony, battered and bruised from the swings – we felt like death warmed up and no amount of Tiger balm could ease it. Georgie was luckily just suffering from a hangover and all it took was a nice portion of eggs to put her back together…

We’d met a cool bunch of people on the river the day before and all planned on meeting up for a second day of it, midday at the first bar. We got there around 1pm and the other slowly arrived by around 3pm and by the time we got rid of the first few buckets we were sore but rearing to go all over again.

The day followed the same sort of pattern as the previous – too much drinking and too much Tarzan like swinging, but as the previous day… Mucho fun was had. We even managed to start a mud fight at one of the bars which has a couple of big mud pits. Anyway, by the time we arrived back in town for drunken dinner we were all feeling the strain, we had sores on our sores and it felt like we had all been run over by a train. We scoffed our grub down in the way only a drunk person can and then gave our tubes to the kids in the restaurant, they had already started playing with them while we were eating and to be honest we didn’t have the heart to take them away from them. Almost paralysed we all hobbled back to our guest house to shower off, Toby and Georgie went out for a couple more drinks at a bar in town but I was too beat up so I got all basted up with Tiger balm and laid as still as possible…

More tales from the tubing. was originally published by HappytimeBlog - Backpacking around the world - Learn how to make money travel round the world with you

We have been in Laos for four days now and after our initial day of R&R we woke up with a view to get on it good and hard, as I mentioned before Vang vieng is very famous amongst a certain type of traveller… The piss head. The beautiful scenery hides one of the most infamous stretches of bars in all of South-east Asia a little too well… On the river – the only access is to get a big rubber tube and float from bar to bar. Gallons of cheap whiskey + river x tube = In the tubing Vang vieng…

Sarah, Georgie and I were up pretty early and after my usual morning coffee transplant we went off in search of this mystical place, it’s strange because as a traveller who has never been here we were lead to believe that this sleepy town was all about the tubing but as we found out the Laos “laidback-ness” hid it quite well. We strolled about the town for a while looking for tubes and transport but it took us close to an hour before we found the place.

No more than five miles up the road our tuk tuk jammed full of potential piss heads turned off the main road and took us down a dusty track towards the looming hills and the river, as we approached the distinctive sound of thumping bass broke the peace and all I could think about was how desperately I needed a beer Laos (I’m  not alcoholic it’s just that there is so much advertising for the stuff I was overpowered).

A string of bamboo and wooden bars dot the river on both sides all armed with big speakers piping out lively music, we arrived at the first and got stuck into cheap booze and cheap conversation with the other floaters. It was no later than 1pm but the party mood was heavy in the air, we chatted and drank watching from the bar as people climbed a nearby tree/ladder and flung themselves out on a huge trapeze swing… Looked so fun and I was certain after a few more buckets of whiskey that would be THE BEST IDEA IN THE WORLD.

By the time people started to flop onto their tubes and start floating towards the next bar we were well and truly hammered but it only served to make us want it even more, I splashed straight out of my tube and took a dunking while the girls elegantly floated off, Sarah somehow managed to get marooned but in the end with much laughter and soaking my money and ciggs we clambered up the rocks to bar two…

At bar two they had a zip line which looked infinitely less deadly than the swing so Georgie stepped up and took flight… You will have to wait for the video’s to go up to see it in all it’s glory!

The whole day continued like that and each bar offered something a little different, some had mud pits, some had swings and zip lines and some had bottles of paint they lashed you with as you arrive… They all had free whiskey shots for new comers.

We met some really cool English people who work at the bars and partied with them until the sunset when we decided to head off while we could still see so not to float all the way to Cambodia.

Covered head to toe in paint and mud we staggered off our tuk tuk and back to our guesthouse, got some dinner and were in bed by 11pm – starting so early so hard meant we couldn’t go on anymore… Sarah was sick which is normally a good gauge that mucho mucho fun was had by all…

Monday went exactly the same as Sunday… Wake up feeling rubbish, copious amounts off coffee, breakfast then off to the river to start again… It really is something you will have to see – there is no point in me trying to better describe it because to be honest I don’t fully remember it but Monday was zip wire day we were all over the zip wires all day and apart from one dodgy landing by me (Ouch!) it was top fun!!! I managed to forget to let go at the end and was somersaulted a good few metres into the air before smashing into the water head first… A LOT funner than it sounds.

So thats Laos so far, we love the sleepy little town of Vang vieng and it’s dirty little river secret (the well hidden river bars and throngs of pissheads) and we have enjoyed them to the full! Yesterday Sarah had to leave to go back to Bangkok sadly but to be honest we were glad of a day off and when Toby arrived an hour or so later thank god he wasn’t up for it… But today is another story!!! See you on the river.

Tubing in the Vang vieng… P.s. Bye Sarah hello Toby. was originally published by HappytimeBlog - Backpacking around the world - Learn how to make money travel round the world with you

With Koh Phi Phi, Thailand and an 18 hour bus ride now behind us we find ourselves in Laos, we never managed to get here the last time around but Sarah was well keen to come and we didn’t take much persuading.

Anywhere that wasn’t a bus would have seemed pretty fantastic after our epic journey all the way from Bangkok but in all honesty I wasn’t expecting to be charmed by Laos the way I have been, at the border we had to pay one of the biggest visa fees we have come across yet and normally if the border pisses me off then I take a lot more persuading to enjoy a country… But no. The journey from the border to Vang vieng was picturesque and we arrived just after 2 pm (we got on the bus in Bangkok at 7 pm the day before) and were dropped right outside a guest house, normally there are touts and tuk tuk drivers fighting for your attention and it’s like being a rabbit caught in headlights but not here. We got our bags and the guest house owner politely asked if we would like to see a room and that was that… 

From our balcony we can see out across most of Vang vieng, it’s a small town sitting in the shadows of soaring limestone hills similar to the ones around Phi Phi, with the infamous river (where tubing happens – more about that later) running between the two. Very quiet and sleepy, the town almost feels deserted at first – even the landscape feels chilled out because the clouds creeping over the top of the nearby hills even seem to be doing it lazily.

Bags dropped we were all keen to get out for a proper meal so we strolled up the road to a little place with a movie on and got stuck in. If there is one thing that you could never forget in Laos it’s the name of it’s national drink – Beer Laos, every restaurant has a beer Laos sign, table cloths ash trays and every shop has beer Laos T-shirts, signs umbrellas and anything else you could think of – everywhere you look, in every single view you will see at least one Beer Laos advertisement!

Needless to say after all that traveling we weren’t much good for anything, the girls decided they were going for a nap but I needed to hang it out and get my body clock back in tune so I rented a motorbike with the plan to go for a drive for a while until they woke up… Georgie is secretly a biker at heart and couldn’t bear for me to be gallivanting around the Laos country side without her so she blew away the cobwebs and got on the back.

Laos reminds me a lot of Cambodia, but it seems everyone has just a little more – it’s clearly not a rich country although when we passed through the capital city of Vientiane I saw several high end sports cars the likes of which I’ve never seen on our travels. There are no hassles here and everyone seems happy, I don’t mean friendly locals and smiley people I just mean in general they seem happy – with life maybe?

We took our shabby little moped from one side of town to the other passing beautifully rural scenes and always in the shadow of the stunning limestone hills, then we set off across a bridge towards the hills to get a closer look, the road was atrocious but it’s nothing super biker Aaron can’t handle and we bounced along next to rice fields enjoying the beautiful scenery with the only passing traffic consisting of cows… We only rented the bike for a couple of hours to get our bearings and feel for the new town and new country and by the time we returned it that nap that Georgie wanted to have had managed to catch up with her so off she went to bed – apart from dinner in the evening we didn’t manage to do anything else, I can never understand why travelling takes it out of you so much its not like we actually have to do any work but still by 9 pm it was most definitely time for bed…

So far so good Laos has charmed our pants off and we are excited to be in a new country, our friend Toby has touched down in Bangkok and although he has had a change of plans we should still be able to meet up sometime soon. Sadly Sarah is leaving tomorrow and we will be off exploring on our own for a while but Laos will be a place we love I think, it’s cheap too which is a good thing for what’s left of our budget.

The long long road to Laos. was originally published by HappytimeBlog - Backpacking around the world - Learn how to make money travel round the world with you