After what I considered to be quite a nice sunday at the Buddha Park chillin out, going for a ride, being one with the city its streets and its people I get back to the core of Vientiane. I had to take my bike back and was also quite hungry after my 50km ride. After returning my bike which I hired @ $US10 a day. boo. I was returning home and in the near distance I saw what I knew was Julians bright orange backpack (same backpack as mine) in the group of about 10 young girls. Ha! thats so Julian I though and casually walked up and introduced myself to everyone. What was really going through my head was "ooooooh yeah, its tubing time baby!!!" and holy fuck I need to get out of work for the next week.
Julian and the girls had just gotten off the epic 24 hours bus ride from Hanoi over the mountains and were off to Vang Vieng tomorrow for some epic partying. We all went out and has a very very nice dinner, mine being a great pad thai, quiet drink and then and early night.
I managed to get work off, thanks Souly, Your a champ! and then raced back, booked my ticket and got my stuff ready for what I knew was to be a the last of my partying in South East Asia. Kinda like the storm before the calm. The trip wasn't too bad, it was pretty much the whole group and myself and two other people that were on the same bus from Hanoi. They had decided to swim in the Mekong River not knowing that it was the border with Thailand and when they came up to the beach were welcomed by National Guards and Ak-47's. They spent the night in Gaol and were released the next morning to go tubing. Good story to tell the kids hey. :D
Vang Vieng is what you have to consider the backpackers mecca in South East Asia. It supports a river with a lot of bars along it that gives you free shots of whisky (bad laos whisky), cheap buckets, a lot of drunk backpackers, swings into the river which at first look quite dangerous but after a few leaps you realise the river has been dug pretty deep and for what its most famous for tubing. You can actually hire a tube and go down the river but most people recommend that you don't on the first day and that you just go party. You end up finding that you tube about 50meters from Qbar (the first bar when you cross the bridge, and the little swing) all the way through to bar1, bar2, bar 3 and I think bar4. You forget how to count after bar 3.
I saw a lot of people with slings in their arms and 1 or 2 that were considerably dangerously passed out in the river, but other then that most of the injuries seemed to be cuts and bruises from falling, playing soccer or rocks on the river. I did hear that 1 person dies every year in Vang Vieng and that 2 died while I was there but I didn't know about any of that.
leaving PG area now!!!
Day 1/4 we got there pretty late and so we kinda missed the river party because it all ends around 6 when it gets dark. So we check into the hotel. about 2 bucks a night and found the nearest restaurant which by no coincidence happened to sell "Happy" foods. and by happy I mean it had a lot of weed in it. Cmon its Vang Vieng its what people do there, as well as buckets and Shrooms :P We all hooked ourselves into a Happy shake. mine being banana. It pretty much tasted like a blended banana and shredded ice, and I didn't really think it did anything at all. We all got food *insert blank food memory here* and then the owner. nice chap offered us a free joint because hey, we ordered a shipload of food from him.
The first hit of that joint was like holy crap the shake has just kicked in. I have not been that stoned since… well a while. maybe camping. It was also the bushiest weed I've ever had, no hydro here. At some point the Jules, Ben lily and Emma were heading off to the Irish bar for beer and pool. I was meant to go but the girls were keen for another joint (or 2) and I just could not resist. I was meant to join Jules for a beer later but 2 hours had passed and well.. still hadn't moved. Quite alot of fun in the end. The whole experience brought back so many mixed nostalgic memories. It made me think of being in high school for one when I used to smoke alot. But the weird thing was that it made me miss my girls. This group of girls, so young, happy to be travelling the world and partying, getting high in Asia somewhere :D good times!
Oh well, nothing last forever. So for the next three day we hit up the river. And to break it down into a shorter less detailed version of the events the went like this
Day 2 : River. Awesome day
Day 3 : River. chesh running @ 50%
Day 4 : River. last day of party. went to far. blacked out somewhere around the took took. came too and was wearing my jeans instead of my swimming shorts. was now at Qbar on the main street sick as a dog and Jules feeding me a Baguette. Spent the rest of it recovering with joints at the smoking restaurant and was in dire need of passing out.
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