Tubing (Nothing to do with unnecessary breast exams!!!)

Sorry for the delay in blogging, been quite busy... So finally the stomach settled down and I could venture out. Vang Vieng is full of tourists and things to keep them entertained, all day tv (Simpsons, Friends or movies), burgers and chips, beer... My idea of traveller hell though great if you're not able to venture far from a bog :-0 However Vang Vieng has another attraction which is why so many people come here, Tubing!! Essentially they give you a tractor tyre inner tube, drive you 3km up the river and let you float down the river. Every 100m or so for the first kilometer there are bars, who rope you in, and have a variety of swings from about 3-7m high from which you can swing into the river, brilliant!! And a tad scary, it took me about 5 mins to swing from one of them... Though to redeem myself I swung from the highest one and dropped on the first swing along with Alex a kiwi (most people wait for a few swings to get lower cos it's bloody high!), we have balls of steel!! And you need them cos of the drop... Derek and Melissa, Alex's girlfriend waited apprehensively by the side :-) It's excellent fun. We also spotted a giant poisonous centipede, longer than a banana and thicker than your thumb, which the locals trapped in a beer bottle, they fill it with Lao poteen and a swig apparently keeps you up all night, if you know what I mean, eh wink wink nudge nudge!!?? The last 2km of the river you just float gently down, there's amazing scenery all the way, limestone karst covered with jungle rising high above the river, and beer if you want it. There's also as much drugs as you want, though we don't do that sort of thing, and from the story we heard the other day from a lovely group of people who gave it a try a week ago, of police/spliffs/$500 fines/corruption/galvanised holding cells in the midday heat, I think it's wise to give it a pass...