Laos: Rolling Down the River

Thursday morning, after a hearty breakfast, six of us met up for tubing down the Nam Xong River, Vang Vieng's most popular activity. We hopped in tubes and traveled about fifty yards before reaching one of the first of several riverside bars. Of course, the drawing point of the place was the large zipline.

After several turns involving flips, bellyflops, and backbusters, we hopped back into our tubes. This time, we went about twenty-five yards, as we could not avoid the rope swing at the next bar. We gave it a few tries, I dove off the roof of the bar, and back in the tubes we went.


Water Buffalo!

This time we floated down the river for a bit longer, enjoying the views, relaxing on our tubes, and singing songs. Finally, a mega-stop came into view (two ziplines and two massive trapeze swings??!! Heaven!) and we steered back to land. Erin, aka Little Acrobat, showed off her double flips off the rope, while I perfected my belly flop. We ate lunch before jumping back into our tubes.

After about an hour of floating, the sun began to go down and the air got colder, meaning the novelty quickly wore off. We paddled for dear life with our flip-flops, eventually pulling into port around 5:30 pm.

Sunset view of the river.

That night was a big one...we started with dinner at an organic cafe before I met up with the American boys for a big night on the "town." Those boys are nothing but trouble, and before I knew it, it was 5:30 am...bedtime!

Today was what the doctor ordered...I slept until noon, ate lunch, and spent the rest of the day and early evening parked on one of the bamboo docks by the river. I think I shall call it an early night tonight!


Lounging by the river.