C&J's Travels: Vang vieng tubing day 24

We thought it would be wise to start the day with a big brekkie, so we headed down to a restaurant for some food and some friends. After spending far too long watching friends we eventually make our way to the start.
You basically pick up your tubes from the town center, there is one shop that hires everyone tubes, and they then take you on a tuk tuk up the river to the start of the tubing.
We get our tubes and hop on the back of the tuk tuk not quite knowing what to expect.
A couple of things to note about the tubing. Everyone who does the tubing in Vang Vieng has a 'uniform' - Tubing in the vang vieng swimming shorts, tshirts and ray bans. And after the day is done you will add some wristbands to your collection, one for every bar and lao lao shot you drink. Every where you go in SE asia people are wearing these with pride, and it just adds to the craziness of the place.
For those of you that didn't see it there is a pretty interesting article here about the danger of the tubing, and Jeremy and I made a pact before we started that we wouldn't jump off any platforms or swing off any ropes, especially as it was dry season and I don't want to die just yet thank you.
Even still its amazing what dutch (Laos) courage you get after a couple of shots of whisky,but luckily neither of us broke the pact.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/07/vang-vieng-laos-party-town?cat=world&type=article
Anyway we get to the start, and the only way to get to the river is through the 1st bar. So its a shot of Lao Lao whisky and then we decide to get a beer and relax before we get going. We meet 3 Aussie girls that are travelling for a few weeks around Thailand and Laos and 2 english girls that are also travelling SE Asia. We end up spending way too long at the first bar with them just chatting and drinking, so eventually all of us decide to make our way to the second bar.
You basically grab your tube and just hop into the river and float down using the river stream (with some paddling too) Then when you are ready to be pulled in you put up your hand and someone will throw you a rope and pull you in. Simple really :)
Anyway the second bar is pretty cool and another shot down, Jeremy and I get involved in a beer pong game, and lose, but only by a little.
After all that beer we decide to get a bucket, which is great. We meet some more people and play some drinking games with the girls and some other people we meet.
We realise that if we want to get back in time to avoid the penalty on the tubes we better start heading down river. We end up at the third bar which is pretty dead to be honest. Another shot and another bracelet.... This bar has an added bonus - flying ants! So after being bitten a couple of times Jeremy and I decide to start making our way down the river to the end. We say goodbye to the girls with plans to meet them at the end and hop onto our tubes. Jeremy manages to leave behind his tshirt, and about 2mins later manages to drop his Oakleys in the river, never to be seen again, but I think one to many shots means we don't really worry about this until the next day!
Anyway we start making our way downriver, in some parts the river is hardly flowing and we have to paddle,and in others it is so shallow you almost scrape your butt on the rocks. But the scenery is amazing, I have quite a few 'can't believe I'm here' moments on the way down!
We make it about half way when Jeremy decides enough is enough and manages to barter with a local fisherman to take us on his boat the rest of the way. Although I wasn't very happy with him in the beginning, I realise now that it was definitely the best decision cos it was getting dark quickly! We make it back with minutes to spare before they close.
We head back to the hotel, send some drunken texts to Jarrod and Stacey (who have both done VV before), sorry guys :) And then decide its time for food before we go out to party.
Haha,after the food all either of us can think of is sleep,so we head back to the hotel and pass out. Great fun!