Day 20 - Vang Vieng - "If my parents were like you I would hang out with them more.."

Headed off to town to hire our tube and take the tuk tuk ride 5 kilometers up the river to start the cruise down, We passed many bars and restaurants on our way down the river - they throw out a long pole to you and haul you across the river and out of the tube to visit. We watched many huge swings and flying foxes that people were throwing themselves into the river from. There are some good videos of it on youtube. We visited one bar and then headed down the river only to discover that the rest of the trip was quite slow with no riverside entertainment. So we finished the trip and caught the tuk tuk to do it again.

By now it was about 2.30pm so the river had really fired up so we decided to visit some bars. There was lots of advertising for drinks by the "bucket" and sure enough that is exactly what they were! The buckets were a little larger than honey tub size filled with whatever alcohol you wished, for about $5. We splashed out on a g & t to share - it goes in the tube with you as you float to the next bar stop. The next one we stopped for lunch as well, while watching the mud wrestling put on by the local backpackers. Chatted to some backpackers from Doncaster who made us promise we wouldn't tell their parents what they were doing ... jumped back in the tube and finished the river about 6pm.

A nice shower and then on the way out of the hotel helped a couple who had driven their 4WD off the side of the raised driveway, surprisingly we got it out undamaged, headed in to town for dinner and then home totally exhausted.