We didn’t really know what this was, except it was pretty much why most people stopped in Vang Vieng when touring Laos, so we felt we had to give it a go. A steady stream of travellers coming the other way to us had been sporting T-shirts promoting the activity and were all only too keen to tell us to do it! We had had a little taster of what to expect from our Kayaking trip the day before, but we were totally unprepared for the fantastic day we were about to have.
We strolled to a warehouse in the town, and each signed out a tube. This was literally just an over inflated tractor tyre inner tube with a splash of white paint around it. Every tube came with the intriguing combination of an optional lifejacket, and a disclaimer to protect the tube hire operation if we hurt ourselves! Our tubes were promptly loaded onto the top of a Tuk Tuk and we were crammed in there too with Arthur, Yehel, Tony and along with several other tubers, we were among the first of the day to be driven to the start point.
We arrived and were greeted by pounding music coming from a ramshackle wooden waterfront shack which turned out to be a bar, promising us a free shot of the local whiskey with every drink purchased – it was only 11am at this point! Due to a few too many beerlaos the night before we grabbed a soft drink, but with the free spirits flowing the drinks didn’t stay soft for long! The bar’s main attraction was a huge rope swing, which was about 5m up and pointing out into the murky brown river. You climbed up a big tree, grabbed the swing from the platform, swung down and out and let go as late as you dared above the river. Gravity then took over and seconds later you found yourself very wet and being swept rapidly down the river to the next bar unless you swam to the bank or grabbed the lifeline the barman would throw at you. There was a sign at the bar saying the river had been dug out for our safety – I wasn’t too sure about safety as it looked rather high, but watched Rob and Yehel both throw themselves off it- much to their delight and the others on the deck watching. Then to our absolute surprise Arthur said he wanted a go. We had no doubt at this point that he was as hard as nails but we were still rather impressed that a man in his sixties was going to give it a go, especially considering he had a dodgy shoulder and had difficulty lifting his arm some days! But up he went and to the largest cheer of the day he swung out and made a perfect landing into the water! Next thing we knew he had climbed out of the water and was shinning up the tree to go again, but unfortunately this time he span in the air and hit the water hard, side first. When he climbed out of the water he was bruised up his leg and his whole entire side and chest. We quickly got him some ice and he decided that his swinging was over for the day, but he still wanted to continue down the river with us. Just after that who was to arrive but Jamie and Shawn ….. then Roald and Chris! We were all back together again! We looked at our watches and realised that we had spent over an hour at the bar and we hadn’t even done any tubing!
It was time to tube, so we went down to the riverbank, scrambled into our tubes and began floating down the river, holding onto each other and trying to steer in and out of the currents, it was harder than it looked to go where you wanted to! However we can’t have been in the water much longer than a couple of minutes when we happened across the next bar. More of the same, a simple wooden shack on legs sticking out over the river, blasting out the tunes, this one with a huge zip line instead of a swing but still plenty of free shots. Helpfully the bar staff threw out some ropes to haul us into the rocky bank. We greeted by a guy carrying a shot each for us, after that we got onto the platform of the bar. It was to my horror that I realised we’d seen the bar from kayaking the day before and this had the zip line that I had promised I was going to go on. One more shot later and Rob’s gentle persuasion I found myself at the top of the platform. I will be frank….. I was scared! I grabbed hold of Rob who then prised my fingers off him and moved them to the handle of the zip line. I stared down, then shut my eyes and held my breath and jumped…….
Thankfully I landed well and apparently made a good job of it. It was actually much more fun than I thought it would be and found myself jumping off once more. But then that was enough! We had a few drinks at the bar and then headed onto the next one. The next bar had a smaller version of the swing from the first bar and then next thing I know I had Rob in my ear again going - go on have a go – it’ll be fun…. Shaun was also being pestered my Jamie to go and he was just as nervous as me. After a while he was persuaded and went, and said he enjoyed it – so I didn’t really have much of a choice, and again I found myself at the top of the platform wishing I wasn’t there and I shut my eyes and went. This one was definitely scarier than the zip line, but again I came out the water and found myself buzzing. This one I did just the once though.
I’m sure you get the idea of what the rest of our day consisted of, floating a few minutes down the river to be hauled in by someone to have a few drinks and whatever other intoxicants were on offer, to watch Rob, Chris, Roald and Yehel throw themselves off what turned out to be increasingly larger and larger swings.
The largest swing however was the last swing, by this point we were if I’m honest – rather drunk…… There was no way I was going to throw myself off anything, but I looked up and there was Chris at the top of the platform throwing himself off! The platform was at least 6m high over the river. As soon as he came out of the water he was straight to Rob telling him that he had to go! (They had become swing buddies throughout the day) After some ummming and arrring Rob decided he had to go, and him and Chris ran up to the platform and I watched – nervous for them both. As I watched Rob grabbed the Zip line and Chris the swing and they both jumped together. It was at that point I realised that Rob was far braver (or stupid?) than I would ever be, as their combined efforts broke the swing and sent Chris crashing into the water with a nasty whiplash across his forearm!!!!
After one more bar with an impossibly even higher swing that must have nearly killed Chris and definitely put an end to Rob’s swinging activites for the day, we jumped in our tubes as apparently it was a bit of a float before we got to the finish point. We had no idea just how far it was going to be….. It was very relaxing just bobbing down the river, then we noticed it was starting to get dark….. and then it got darker and darker until it as pitch black! It was also beginning to get cold at this point, despite the beercoats we were wearing, so we were now eagerly awaiting the end. After floating for a mile or two longer we finally found the end point and climbed to safety on the gravely shore while fending off the small children trying to grab our tubes so they could return them to us for a small fee!
Thoroughly soaked we then staggered back through town to the tube depot where the owners were waiting for us. It turned out we were the last guys back and the second guys out that morning. We were suitably impressed with our tubing efforts and returned home for a long hot shower and even longer sleep…..
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Alcohol + nightswimming = WIN
ReplyDeleteRob is a tube.
that is all xxx