Crazy Tubing Adventure

Okay so we arrived in Vietiane around lunchtime, found somewhere to stay spoke to some people there who said there was not too much to do, had a look for ourselves and agreed so we booked a bus to Vang Vieng the next morning.

The bus ended up being a mini van which I thought was gonna be a great comfortable ride, but I was wrong, it was like getting beat up in a sauna. The road was so bumpy I kept getting bounced into the roof and the air con wasn't on and every time we hit a bump my window would close, not a very enjoyable trip at all an actual bus would have been much better. Anyway we got there found a guesthouse and after all the travel got an early night.

The next day was tubing day. We had heard alot about this, tubing down a river stopping off at bars with rope swings and such, but nothing could prepare us for it. You hire a tube pay a deposit which you get back if you drop it back before 6pm. No problem right? We then got in a tuk tuk and on the way there people told us tales of losing thongs, cameras money...etc... we thought we are not that stupid we will be alright...right?

We arrived at the drop off point to thumping tunes and free shots. All the bars are pretty close together so I will start with bar 1. We stayed there for quite a while as they had a massive rope swing and had a stunt comp on that day and good music. After a couple of beers and some more free shots of the local whisky we headed to bar 2. More free shots and a bucket or 2 were had there. They had a zip line that when you held on till the end it stopped abruptly and you got flung into a backflip whether you wanted to or not. Got some funny video's of that.

At the next bar there was a 10meter platform to jump off so after some more free shots and buckets and lots of jumping myself I finally got Jess to jump off it which was good for her as she has never jumped off anything that high before (and probably never will again).

The next bar had a mud pit so Simon and I thought we would wrestle around in that and some mud fights as you do. It all gets a bit hazy after that. I remember some mud volley ball at another bar and I remember Jess and I doing a rope swing together, but then suddenly it was dark and I was floating down a river by myself not knowing where I was so I was calling out for a while not sure if I had passed town and next thing I hear Jess reply but I couldn't see her. Suddenly a boat started up and headed over to me. I thought this was the best thing. I was being saved! I jumped in the boat and he took me to this tiny makeshift bar where Jess was sitting around a fire and had been for quite some time. We sat around talking to the local Laos guy and next thing he is bringing out a tarp and some pillows and a blanket and he set up a little camp for us on his jetty on the side of the river! So we decided to sleep there.

We woke up when it was still dark and contemplated heading down river in the tubes to home and we checked our "waterproof " bag and saw we had Simons keys and wallet..oops..then we looked in the bag further and what do we find our camera soaking wet and full of mud, no good, so we thought we should head back to find Simon, we will just grab our thongs, nope no thongs. Better check the wallet yep we lost 3000 baht about 100 bucks, the perfect trifecta. No point dwelling on these things more pressing matters how do we get home??? We thought we better wait for the sun to come up which thankfully happened sooner than we thought, as soon as it did we got a good look at where we were. It was absolutely stunning right on the river at some local Laos house in a little cove underneath these massive limestone cliffs I would post a photo if we had a camera ha ha .

Next thing this little old man is coming down to say hi. He says he has some medicine for us and proceeds to pour us, including himself, a shot of the local whisky which has dragonfly's and some other random things in it. It was like 6:30 am so we tried to decline but he persisted so we had one, so what did he do pour another of course! He then wandered around and found us some thongs which had been washed up odd ones of course but we are still wearing them now. He lit a fire for us then asked if we wanted coffee, at least thats what we thought, he didn't speak much english. Sure enough it was coffee but before he gives it to us, another shot, and then he pours a shot into our coffee!! We think he was trying to tell us he would take us home in his boat but we just wanted to float down the rivr as it was quite sunny now. He jumped in his bat and we thought he was coming to get us but he took off to the otherside of the river. Nows our chance so we jumped in our tubes and floated down the river. It was beautiful but a long way so lucky we waited to the sun came up. After a pleasant ride we made it home and found Simon who was freaking out he was about to call the police, fair enough it was 8am we were 14hours late!

So that was our tubing adventure lost a camera and some money but gained some unforgetable memories so all in all I think we are up cause you can't put a price on that!!!

Ko Phangnan

I havn't updated my blog in a while because … well I’m on holidays so I will try and remember what has happened.
We enjoyed our last few relaxing days in Ko Lanta then headed back to Krabi for a couple of nights. We were walking around the town on our last night when some guy a restaurant called out “free buffet” so we went and checked it out. Turns out it was their opening night and they were putting on this huge free buffet with beautiful local Thai food. Jess went for the vegetarian looking soup which was in a clear broth and she had one sip and tears started running down her face it was so spicy but looked so innocent Jess kept sweating and crying for a few more minutes then a band started up and we had some more drinks and dancing.
The next day we had a bus to catch but not till 6pm so we sat around in a movie bar watching movies and generally being hung over. We got on the bus to Surat Thani where we had to get on the night boat to Ko Phangan. The boat looked like a giant bath tub and the upstairs part where we all slept was like a hall with a 4 foot high ceiling and mattresses lying next to each other was pretty cosy and we had a good laugh wondering how we were gonna sleep there. It ended up being really nice it was quiet and the windows were open and the boat gently rocking and we actually ended up sleeping really well.
We woke up to the sounds of people yelling “Taxi” from the pier so we jumped in one and headed to our accommodation. We arrived at about 7am and there was no one around so we waited and hour and finally got checked into our rooms. The beach where we were staying was amazing so we just hung out there snorkelling. It wasn’t quite as spectacular under the water as Phi Phi but we still saw some interesting fish and some big schools. At lunchtime we ran into some people we met at Ko Lanta and organised to go scootering around the island the next day.
We set off on our scoote

rs looking for an elusive waterfall but the maps we had were not accurate and after some extreme scootering around some crazy dirt trails and a bit of hot uphill walking we gave up and headed to the beach where the Full Moon party is. What a crazy sight that was. It was day time so not much happening but you could see all the bucket stalls with signs on them like “get fucked up bucket” and “no bucket no boom boom” check the photo for more genius names. Simon decided to party on there that night so Jess and I headed back. On the way home we got a flat tire thankfully but also sceptically right outside a mechanic. Didn’t cost too much so we had dinner and headed home for an early night, as we had the full moon party the next night.
Full moon party what can a say…..crazy madness…never seen such a spectacle.
So many messy people. I had to pull one guy out of the ocean, which was the world’s biggest toilet; I think he was trying to swim home. Was good but won’t be heading there again.

The next day obviously did nothing which was good as the weather really turned was super windy and rainy. The weather was just as bad the day we had to leave and we heard rumours of ferry’s being cancelled due to rough seas. We were a bit worried cause our Thai visa was running out and we had to get to Bangkok and on to Laos. But it turned out alright the ferry was just late and the bus to Bangkok waited for us. It was a 10 hour bus ride to Bangkok supposed to arrive at 6am. 4:30 am we arrived dropped in the middle of Bangkok no idea what we were gonna do. The good old taxi drivers that are always there came up with an idea and dropped us at a 24 hour Mc Donald’s and told us to wait and he will come pick us up at 6am and take us to a travel agent where we can get tickets to Laos. His travel agent was really expensive and only had a bus so luckily he was right near the train station and after much deliberation we ended up with a ticket on the night train to Laos which didn’t leave to 7 that night. There was baggage storage at the train station so we dumped our bags and headed into the shopping district. What we didn’t know was that the big shopping centres didn’t open till 10 and it wasn’t even 8 yet. We killed time for a bit then wandered around the shopping centres, found a huge food court and then caught a taxi boat to Wat Pho which is a temple with a massive gold reclining Buddha statue. It was huge and very impressive the rest of the temple was great too even if we were a bit tired and hot too appreciate it. We then wandered around and got lost in a Chinatown market and ended up back at the train station for another overnight journey.
We all had upper bunks which to me looked like I wasn’t gonna fit or it was gonna hold me but once they folded out it turned out alright (not as good as the boat) .
After another night on public transport we finally arrived very exhausted in Laos.
We have been here almost a week now but will write about that later because….. well…. I’m on holidays.