The laziest (but definately the best!) pub crawl ever!!
After finishing our motorbike trip we flew into Vientienne, the capital of Laos (I know we're supposed to be on a budget and flying is a bit extravagent but the alternative was a 24hr+ bus ride - definately not my idea of fun!). We decided that we were ready to get back on the tourist run again and headed for Vang Vieng - a town notorious for water activities and restaurants where you lie down and watch friends while you eat!!
What changed our minds - tubing! OK, let me explain, you sit in a tractor inner tube and literally float down the river - very relaxing (apart from when your tube runs aground in the shallow water, ouch!) This isn't half of it though - along the river are loads of little bars selling drinks and free goes on their swings. Not a normal swing either - just a piece of rope hung really high above the river - hold onto the handle bar at the end, close your eyes (well I had to anyway) and jump off. When you let go you fly through the air and land in the river (and hopefully not on a fellow tuber!) Amazing!
The further down the river you ventured, the higher the swings (and the braver we became thanks to the beers at the previous bars!). Very amusing to watch other people 'swinging'. Everyone develops their own style - I kept my body dead straight (you had to concentrate to do this and I found it worked well at blocking out the blatent fear I felt at swinging from a piece of rope about 12m in the air with my only way out being to crash into freezing cold water!). Ad on the other hand couldn't contain his excitement and as soon as he let go of the rope and started free falling he started to make whooping noises and running motions with his arms and legs! Very funny to watch! (I've tried to upload a video but apparently that's not a feature of this blog and it's too big to e-mail so you'll have to use your imagination!)
When we first arrived we weren't sure what to make of it - there were tourists everywhere you looked and you could sit in one restaurant and hear at least three episodes of friends at the same time - however - after a couple of days we were very reluctant to leave.
What changed our minds - tubing! OK, let me explain, you sit in a tractor inner tube and literally float down the river - very relaxing (apart from when your tube runs aground in the shallow water, ouch!) This isn't half of it though - along the river are loads of little bars selling drinks and free goes on their swings. Not a normal swing either - just a piece of rope hung really high above the river - hold onto the handle bar at the end, close your eyes (well I had to anyway) and jump off. When you let go you fly through the air and land in the river (and hopefully not on a fellow tuber!) Amazing! 
The further down the river you ventured, the higher the swings (and the braver we became thanks to the beers at the previous bars!). Very amusing to watch other people 'swinging'. Everyone develops their own style - I kept my body dead straight (you had to concentrate to do this and I found it worked well at blocking out the blatent fear I felt at swinging from a piece of rope about 12m in the air with my only way out being to crash into freezing cold water!). Ad on the other hand couldn't contain his excitement and as soon as he let go of the rope and started free falling he started to make whooping noises and running motions with his arms and legs! Very funny to watch! (I've tried to upload a video but apparently that's not a feature of this blog and it's too big to e-mail so you'll have to use your imagination!)This is seriously the best bar crawl I have ever done! In fact we enjoyed it so much that we went back the next day, and the next!!
posted by Ellie and Adam at
5:22 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home