Today was one our funner days in Lao. Joylani and I both felt sick in the morning, but at least we could sleep in. It wasn’t a travel day, so no waking up early to catch a bus. Nor is Vang Vieng a tourist trap, so we didn’t have to awake early to go on a tour. Sometimes I think I sleep-in less while traveling than at home… We had a lazy morning, eating a good breakfast and then spending some time online. By noon, we were feeling considerably better, so we rented some inner tubes to float down the river. A sawngthaew dropped us and our tubes about 3km north of town. From there, we got in our tubes and went with the slow current of the Nam Song. The fun thing here is that there’s a bunch of bars and restaurants along the river to stop at. Plus, they all have zip lines, swings, or really high platforms to jump off of. The place we stopped was a bar playing loud music. Some Lao ladies pulled us in from the river with bamboo poles. We climbed up and met a couple from SF we’d met on our boat ride to Nong Khiaw. We talked to them for bit over some Beer Lao’s. Then I encouraged Joylani to go up and try the zip line. The line descends from a 30-40 foot platform. Joylani never jumps off stuff into water, so it was fun to actually see her do this. She had a nice glide down and let go right before the end of ride, coming down feet-first in the water. I went for a try and took a guy at the bars advice to hang on until the end, which is basically where there’s a stopper to stop the handles. So I whizzed down and it felt like I was going pretty fast when the handlebars hit the stopper. I was violently jerked from the zipline and I flipped backwards almost into a dive before hitting the water.

one guy goin down the zipline 

After that we got back in our tubes and floated down some more. There were a lot of other people lazily tubing down the river and tons of people drinking and chilling out at the riverside bars to Marley and techno-ized Black Eyed Peas. When I saw a really high crane-looking tower with a platform and swing, I knew we had to stop. A guy tossed us a rope and pulled us in. We ordered a drink and I climbed up the tower. I grabbed the handlebars at the end of the cable and jumped off the 40-some-odd-foot platform. I swung down towards the river and then back up again until I became stationary in the air and dropped off the swing, probably only 15-20 feet up. I had to do that one twice

another guy going on the swing… 

After that, we got back in the tubes and floated down until we got to our guesthouse. Most people that’ve visited Vang Vieng rave to me about the drinking part of the tubing, but I actually enjoyed the swings and stuff more. I mean, Beer Lao is pretty good and it doesn’t get too much more relaxing than floating down the river and drinking beer. But jumping and flipping into the river at faster speeds and greater heights than most riverside rope-swings was definitely a highlight. A touristy activity, as there were no Lao tubing or drinking on the river, but it fun nonetheless.