Tubing, Glorious Tubing

A few days ago in Vang Vieng we decided to spend the day tubing on the Nam Song river. We rented our tubes and were dropped off a few kilometers north of town. Even though it's dry season, the water seemed to be high enough and we enjoyed drifting along in the late morning. The local people have set up little "bars" along the side of the river. They will corral you in with a bamboo pole while yelling "Come on! Come on! Beer Laos!" and try to give you free shots of "Laos Lao" which is Lao rice whiskey. Yuck...it tastes like eating grass! For the purchase of a drink, you are allowed to play as much as you want on their various contraptions such as trapezes and zip lines. The first time i went on the zip line, i was a bit freaked out and didn't want to let go. I found out the hard way that if you don't let go, you will be flipped violently into the air. It happened so fast that i was more surprised than scared and somehow managed to land feet first in the water. Haha...i definitely let go earlier the next time. Some places had rope swings from high cliffs and other sorts of things that would definitely require signing "in case of injury, we are not responsible" waivers in the states. We floated on our huge rubber tubes for hours, stopping every now and again to rest on the riverbanks. What a lovely way to spend the day.