Vietnam Part 1 – Ho Chi Minh (Siagon), Mui Ne and Nha Trang (4 - 14 September)

After a rather good bus ride where I had two seats to myself, I arrived in Ho Chi Minh around 7pm and with a very rough address where I was staying. Ho Chi Minh was a little different to what I expected and to what I was used to. It is a big, bright, bustling city that never sleeps. I gave a taxi driver my address, insisted on the meter so he couldn’t overcharge me and got in what was supposed to be a short 5 minutes drive. 15 minutes later though I was still in the cab, and I could tell was being taken for a sucker, and to alter my senses even more, I saw the cab driver play around with his meter and have it go very quickly from 50,000 to 480,000 with a swift bump of his hand on something underneath. So I asked him if we were nearby and he said yeah two minutes, and we drove past where we had already been and I said it to him and he said something along the lines of one way streets make hard, although all the roads we had been on were dual way.

I’d had enough and told him to pull over as he was taking the p*ss out of me and I saw him tinker with his meter and he laughed as though I was joking, and finally another minute or two of gradually getting more stern with him he pulled up at my address (which to this day I am not sure if it was even the right address) and pushed another button on the meter and it finished at 910,000 (nearly £30) which is a lot in Vietnam. I refused to pay him that as I knew he took me around the traps and he messed with his meter and he wasn’t opening the door. Lucky a tourist officer (kind of like a police officer without as much power but are there for the safety of tourists and for information etc) walked by and I started banging on the cab window saying he won’t let me out and is trying to rob me. Long story short, the cab driver I think got scared, told me it was now 91,000 (that his meter has an extra 0 on it for some reason) and opened my door, and the back door so could get my bag out, and then refused to give me my change from 100,000 which really is worth nothing but I wanted it out of principal. He quickly drove off before the tourist officer could take down his details and I was left on a random, but at least busy street, located a guesthouse, different to the one in my original plan but it did the trick.

Not impressed with Siagon already I was a bit sour and thought I would get out of here asap as I heard scams and robberies were common and last thing I wanted on a holiday was those kind of worries. Luckily while strolling the streets I randomly ran into Binks and Nat who I had hung out with in Laos and they had met some locals and we went and sat on plastic chairs on the street and drank beers with the locals and my thoughts on the place rose with the locals we were hanging with being super friendly and also Nat and Binks reassuring me that Vietnam was awesome. So we enjoyed some beers and laughs and general chat on the road side and eventually retired to bed, saying my byes to Nat and Binks as they were leaving the next day.

The next day I did was I do best, explore the city, try and find a post office to post some crap I had been lugging around for weeks that was getting annoying and checked out the market there that was supposed to be one of the best in South East Asia, but to tell the truth it was just like all the others which was still cool. Although I did have an amazing feed there which costs £3.50 and consisted of a bowl of Pho with prawns and 6 prawn rice paper rolls and a can of drinks. The best thing about these markets which I ate at a couple of times was that you didn’t have to order, they just gave you what they thought you wanted or would like, and it always worked out well. Second night I booked a trip to Chu Chi Tunnels and then hit the hay pretty early, as the tour was an early start.

The Chu Chi Tunnels were pretty interesting, and pretty amazing at the same time. How these people lived in these networks of tunnels amazed me, the sizes of the tunnels were tiny! One tunnel you could try get into was so small that I barely fit and had to raise my arms to get in. Another that is opened for you to crawl along is a couple of hundred meters long, is bigger then the majority of tunnels (but is still only about 75cm tall and wide and after crawling through the small section of the tunnel, you come out with a glossy shine on your skin courtesy of the instant sweat brought on from the heat of the tunnels.

Also interesting and disturbing at the same time were the traps and methods the Vietnamese used against their enemies which involved sharpened bamboo pits, hidden spike wheels and some other barbaric contraptions. The ventilation of the tunnels also impressed me, with the Vietnamese using termite mounds to disguise their ventilation holes, and also making chimney like tunnels that made the smoke raise far from where they were actually cooking. They even used to rub American soldiers clothes around the entries to the tunnels so the sniffer dogs would not pick up a foreign scent and think that there were Americans around, not Vietnamese, clever little fellas they were. I capped off the tour with what every good tour should finish with, shooting a few rounds of an M-16 at some targets on the open air shooting range.

That night was nice and relaxed, a couple of Americans I met on the tour (Jen & Jen) and also two Irish (Ian and Marian who I met in Laos) went for a couple of 30p beers on the little plastic table and chair set ups on the road side in town. These little set ups are everywhere and not only provide the cheapest beer in town, they are also much more enjoyable then the bars where beers were four times the price. You could sit there and people watch for hours, meet both locals and other travellers, enjoy cheap beer and food and just lap up the Vietnamese culture.

The next day I boarded a bus to Mui Ne, about a five hour bus ride away from the chaos of Siagon. I hadn’t heard many people go to Mui Ne, but I read it was a chilled out beach town that gets some small waves. That was all I had to hear, beach, chilled and waves.

The bus pulled up at a rather nice hotel and straight away was hussled inside and showed rooms, which were nice, but just a standard hotel style room. I wanted a little shack/bungalow that had water views, and this concrete jungle with not even a glimpse of the water wasn’t my cup of tea. So I literally crossed the road, went into the first little place I found and it was perfect. $8 a night for my own room with big bed, view out my window to the beach (which was only about 25m from my door as well) my own bathroom and wooden shack style walls.

Not wasting any time, I dumped my bag and headed down to the beach. Greeted by a Caribbean fella (Didier) who was smiling and super keen to chat with everyone, he ordered me a tea (like a mojito without the bicardi and some ginger, amazing!) and got chatting about where I was from and what I was doing etc and he told me about himself and how he came there for a holiday and ended up opening a kite boarding school. He then introduced me to Jordie who was another Australian (the first I think I have met since China) and we started chatting just about everything and anything and ended up grabbing a few beers and playing some pool. Turned out Jordie was writing an article for a new surfing magazine coming out and he had no photographer and wasn’t sure what he was going to do, so I put my hand up and assumed the role as his photographer, which was really good fun, challenging at times due to no zoom lens and having to stand in the water to shoot while avoiding the rain and waves, but was wicked fun.

I don’t really need to go on day by day of Mui Ne as it was all nearly the same thing, get up, swim or surf, eat, swim or surf, eat, maybe swim or surf depending on waves and then finish the night with some food, beers and pool. Sounds repetitive but it was just what I wanted, no need to have to do anything except chill, and getting back on a board after more then two years was hard, but still just as much fun as always! Planned to stay there three days, I think I ended up staying nearly a week and loved it. Weather wasn’t perfect but got some sun and got some rain, didn’t matter still loved the place.

Only down side to Mui Ne was their Red Dunes, which when you google image them, they look stunning! So I got up early one morning, got on my motorbike and rode there for sunset. I got there, it was cloudy so sunrise was shite, but to rub salt into the wounds, the dunes were extremely sub par. The photos of them were either taken years and years ago, or photoshopped to the max, or simply not those dunes. So pretty disappointed, the start of my one day seeing touristy stuff was not off to a good one, and it put me in a sour mood, so I just decided to skip the 20km ride to the White Dunes as I couldn’t be disappointed again and then have to ride a long way back to town. Unfortunately I was informed later that the white dunes were actually pretty impressive, oh well I’ll survive!

So a week passed in Mui Ne and decided it was time to make a move up north, so Jordie and I booked an overnight bus to Nha Trang, an overnight bus north of Mui Ne, but still on the coast so still time to get some sun and some time in the water, although there was no chance of waves here.

Spent day one exploring the beach, getting some sun and taking some shots and then got some amazing dinner and played pool, which had become a bit of a ritual and then retired to bed pretty early as the bus rides aren’t the most relaxing.

The next day we caught up with Sean, Kai and Danni, three Californians that we met in Mui Ne and we chilled with them, just caught up on bits and pieces I’d been putting off for a while, explored some more and relaxed at the beach. No sights to see here, just time to relax which is nice for a change. So far Vietnam had been pretty relaxed, until our third and final night in Nha Trang.

We all went out for dinner and then the others went to the pub for a few drinks while I went out and took some photos at night. I only took a few as I didn’t feel that comfortable walking around with big camera and tripod by myself in the dark as there is a lot of chatter about men (yep men) being mugged by kamikaze hookers, who ride up and steal whatever you have on them, some just ride and snatch, some pick pocket and some may even pull a knife on you.

So after snapping a few shots, I took my camera back to the hotel and met up with the others at the Red Apple and started what would turn out to be a pretty messy night. The night in bullet point went a little like this:

• Casual drinks at Red Apple with just the 5 of us

• Moved to another table and the group grows to 12+

• Tequila suicides and flaming Sambucas are ordered.

• Happy hour ending soon so every orders more then enough drinks

• Move to Oasis(?) another bar, play some pool and the cut some serious shapes on the dance floor that had no one on there until we showed up, Dj loved us

• Jordie and Sean have their way with the stripper pole

• Moved onto Ice Bar, which is a bar in a giant freezer pretty much and the furniture is made from blocks of ice. Order some hectic strong cocktails that we had never heard of before

• Free shots so made the most of them.

• Caused havoc in Ice Bar for a while

• Vietnamese guy comes in and says if the guys get nude for a minute they get free shots (cause everyone really needed it)

• Jordie and Sean are chased around by the Vietnamese guy who is smacking them with a rolled up newspaper. And then swaps the newspaper for a ice cold bottle of vodka.

• After the shots and dressing again, move down to Sailing Club, a big bar on the beach.

• Bouncer kindly points us away, no idea why

• Go onto the beach, Jordie attempting to run while undressing while hammered resulted in a few comical tumbles.

• Swimming in the water

• Some annoying Australia girl coming over and telling everyone to get out cause its to dangerous as rips are strong at this time, and then hammering in the fact she was Australian so she knows everything about the surf. Except she didn’t let us get a word in to realize she was talking to two Australians who I guarantee spent more time in the water then her (she wasn’t the most beach looking girl). And more to the point, everyone was in shin deep water in pretty much a bay with not even a ripple, so there was no rips, she was just one of the many giving Australians a bad name abroad.

• Walk home from beach, Sean taking one of the cyclos for a ride.

• Retire to bed, ready for an early wake up as we had a whole day boat tour planned the next day.

It was a fun night!

Our last day in Nha Trang and we did a boat tour which took us around a few island and to one of the most depressing aquariums I have ever seen in my life. The tanks were tanks, maybe a rock or two in there but that’s about it, some faded wallpaper on the back of the tanks with some rocks and coral on there. No much stimulation for the poor incarcerated animals.

Next stop was an area for snorkeling, but we heard the snorkeling was lame, so we decided to throw ourselves off the top of the boat into the crystal clear water instead (and really I think this was what the three of us boys were most looking forward to all day). Ate some nice local cuisine and chatted to the others on the boat.

Next stop was another island, this one had nothing on it but was a pretty nice island. We just lazed in the sun and swam and chilled. Then after we got back on the boat and the crew put on a bit of a show and played some songs and got people from the crowd up onto the stage to sing some songs from their countries which was a good laugh. Then it was some more swimming in the ocean and a floating bar, so we jumped, swam, floated in tubes and drank some weird fruity wine concoction before boarding the boat again and setting sail back to the mainland, just in time to get our next overnight bus up to Hoi An.

Tasty snack in markets in Siagon

Chu Chi Tunnels

Little bit of traffic - Siagon

View from my room in Mui Ne

Beach out front in Mui Ne

Jordie getting some airtime

Red Dunes in Mui Ne

Red Dunes in Mui Ne

Sunrise over the beach in Mui Ne

Drying fish in Mui Ne

Jordie carving - Mui Ne

Artist shot - Mui Ne

Nha Trang

Roadside barber - Nha Trang

Nha Trang

Flowers - Nha Trang

Local fisherman - Nha Trang

Moon over Nha Trang Beach

Turtle - Nha Trang

Floating bar - Nha Trang

The crew chilling on island just off Nha Trang

Beers and plastic chairs - Siagon

Nude in the Ice Bar - Nha Trang

Sean taking cycle for a ride - Nha Trang

Crew on the boat trip - Nha Trang

Boat jumping - Nha Trang

Inside the Chu Chi Tunnels

Cambodian Summary – Siem Reap, Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh (26 August – 4 September)

So I got a little preoccupied in Cambodia updating everything that I forgot to write anything, so this will be a summary (as best I can remember) of Camdoia so may be a long one and will have a few more photos then normal.

After 37 hours and three buses, we finally made it to Siem Reap late at night and exhausted! Not to mention the sleeper leg of the bus we were given beds just big enough for one person, but actually had to fit two in there, so sharing with a stranger was interesting, and luckily I didn’t get a fat Cambodia fella, but I got a 6ft tall Canadian who when folded up into the bed, didn’t allow much room for myself, but I survived, but was exhausted so pretty much went straight to bed upon arrival in Siem Riep and ready for the next day.

Jonny, Emma and I took a walk around the town of Siem Reap after a nice sleep in, went shopping in the market there and got on some bikes and went riding around the town and up to Angkor Wat for sunset.

Angkor Wat at sunset was pretty impressive. The lake around the temple was still, reflections of the blue sky and the temple provided some amazing photos and then the light on the temple as the sunset was truly magnificent.

That night we chilled ate some interesting food, got fish pedicures (where the fish eat your feet, which tickles like hell at first and then once you are used to it actually feels really nice!) and got a semi early night as we planned to go to Angkor Wat for sunrise.

Sunrise didn’t happen, we got up early and it was pissing down with rain, so we went back to bed and slept till 11 and by then the sun was out and we got in a tuk tuk and headed back to explore more of the temples.

Angkor is the world’s largest sacred temple, spread over an area of more than 400 square kilometers and takes days to see every temple in the area. It is also one of the Wonder of the World. The most famous is Angkor Wat, which is seen on the Combodian Riel notes and also on their flag. The temple itself is pretty impressive and unlike many other temples I have seen. We spent a fair bit of time here even though we had seen a fair amount of it the previous day at sunset, but it was worth a second visit.

After we visited another two temples Angkor Thom and unfortunately I forget the other ones name, impressive but completely different look to that of Angkor Wat. Angkor Thom was like an open air maze of walls with carving and etches all along, and Buddha faces at the top of most of the pillars and at the tops of all the structures. The second was more like a set of ruins covered in moss, which gave you the feeling of being in the jungle somewhere, and also had crazy carving on all the walls.

The last temple we visited was Ta Prohm, made famous from the Tomb Raider film. I think this temple was up there as my favourite. Although not as big as the others, it has not been fixed up (although they were starting to fix some of it up while we were there). There were large stones that used to be part of the walls lying in piles covered in moss, sections of the temple fallen and crumbled and lying there untouched, and most impressive were the trees that are hundreds and thousands of years old growing over the buildings. Some were growing over the walls around the temple, some were growing on the walls of the temple itself, and some had even grown through the temple and broken through the roofs reaching for the sky. It felt very authentic and untouched, and looked really amazing!

Our final day in Siem Reap we shopped a bit more and just relaxed before a bus ride to Sihanoukville, which was another interesting bus trip. Dark roads, no streetlights, a big bus and rain, not a good mix for anywhere in the world, but Cambodian bus drivers are by far the craziest I have ever seen. We hurtled down the black roads at speeds of 100-120km/h, turning corners where you could barely even see there was a corner, and then the most eventful and terrifying part of the trip, launching off a speed bump going at least 100kms. The driver was maintaining his three figure speeds when all of a sudden the bus launches into the air, front wheels definitely lifting off the asphalt, and everyone lifting out of their chairs, and then lands with an all mighty crash as the front of the bus smashes into the road. The driver I think must of done this many times as he had no troubles controlling the bus as it landed from its flight. An hour or so later we change bus, surprise surprise, the other bus is screwed from its jumping antics. Luckily the second bus made it there although due to the drivers Daytona style driving, we were nearly two hours early and arrived at 5am instead of 7, which made finding accommodation a little harder as everywhere was closed. All was good we found somewhere and got a few hours shut eye before waking to explore Sihanoukville.

I didn’t know what to expect from Sihanoukville, all I knew that there was a beach and that was about it. When I rose in the morning, I went for a wander and quickly learned that the town was up and coming, but seemed that it was trying to develop too quickly. Building were spurting up everywhere, but the basic things like an actual road were missing, some buildings were small thatched roof huts that had tried updating quickly and cheaply, which made them loose a bit of their authenticity and charm. One local also told us that the town is going one of two ways, upmarket, clean and very touristy, or the complete opposite, still touristy but more of a red light style town, as apparently prostitution there is a big problem. If it goes the seedy way, it will be a shame as it does have some potential to be nice.

In saying all that though, the beaches are pretty nice. The first day I got a motorbike and went for a ride around the area and checked out some of the smaller quieter beaches and they were really nice. Clean beaches and water with no one there. The main beach though where all the bars and restaurants are though is clean, but you are constantly hassled by kids selling necklaces and bracelets, men selling sunglasses or women trying to cut your toe nails, which really does get a punish when you are trying to relax.

The food there is amazing! The three of us had dinner on the beach, literally two meters from the waters edge, and our dinners, consisting off BBQ meats and fish, salad and beers, and it cost US$3 each. And the mornings had the same deal, cheap eats on the waters edge, amazing!

One day in Sihanoukville we did a day tour out to some of the islands nearby which I had heard were amazing. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best, and our first stop was a little bay to go snorkelling, but the water was cloudy and really couldn’t see anything, so first stop wasn’t successful. The second stop was Bamboo Island, a pretty nice beach with not much there but clear blue water and white sand. We swam around and chilled there for a bit, ate a nice barracuda lunch and then a storm came in and we had to cut out trip short. The boat ride back was pretty sketchy. The boat we were in wasn’t the most stable of vessels. Powered by a makeshift motor from a car and a long pipe with a tiny propeller, there wasn’t much power to get us through the rough conditions, we felt like a sitting duck in the middle of the ocean. The waves were big and rocking the boat, the driver was driving parallel to the waves so the waves were hitting the boat side on and at times nearly tipping the boat. One poor Dutch girl was in tears and I think genuinely thought we were going to die. After an hour or so of a semi stressful boat trip we made it back to land safe and sound!

The rest of the time on Sihanoukville was spent trying to relax in between getting haggled by the kids on the beach to buy their bracelets etc, it was a shame the weather wasn’t all the amazing.

Last stop in Cambodia was Phnom Penh, a city with not many sights and beautiful attractions, but with a rich and dark history.

Day one we chilled as we got in late and had an early night in our sweatbox of a room! Day two was more productive; visiting S21 and the Killing Fields.

S21, now know as The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison by the Khmer Rouge communist regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979.

From the outside, it paints a pretty grim picture with barbwire and razor wire lining anywhere prisoners could possibly escape, and big grey, uninviting buildings inside. Once inside the complex, it only gets grimmer. There are many different kinds of rooms in S21, single person cells approximately 1m wide by 2m long, group cells containing more than 40 people lying in rows, head to toe and chained to each other, torture cells and solitary confinement cells that are about 75cm by 75cm, and the prisoners have to stand in them. And to make matters even more uncomfortable and unreasonable, the prisoners were giving an ammunition box and a plastic bottle and this was it, no pillows or blankets, just these two things. The bottle to pee in, the box to poop in, luxurious huh?

The things that happened here were barbaric and upsetting that people could do this to each other, and what makes it even worse they were Cambodians doing it to other Cambodians. There were even bloodstains in some of the cells! I could go on and on about this place as although it was extremely upsetting, disturbing and grim, it was extremely interesting and eye opening.

So we decided to continue the light hearted day and head to the Killing Fields after S21. The Killing Fields lived up to their name, with prisoners of S21 normally finding themselves here to meet their end. What used to be a Chinese cemetery became a cemetery for the victims of the Khmer Rouge with thousands of thousand of bodies buried here after being killing inhumanly. The soldiers didn’t want to waste bullets to

Kill the prisoners so they killed them using anything from a stone to an axe to a hammer to even using the sharps sides of palm trees to cut throats. The way they killed babies was easily the most disturbing fact I heard, they would either swing them against a tree while their mother watched, or one would throw the baby into the air while another soldier caught it on the bayonet at the end of his gun, then they would toss the babies into a mass grave nearby. It is sick and how people could physically do it still amazes me.

There were mass graves everywhere, not just in Phnom Penh, but they litter the whole of Cambodia and more are still appearing now. At the Killing Fields we visited, there were certain parts of the ground where you could see cloth, bones and even teeth still coming up from the ground. After a couple of hours here we decided that that was enough of grim Cambodia history for the day and ventured down to the night markets for a feed then a few beers and a nice chilled night, as Jonny and Em had to leave at midnight to go to Bangkok.

After saying my goodbyes to Jonny and Em, which was hard as I had spent over two weeks with them and they were really great people to travel with, I headed to my room, packed my bag and grabbed some sleep.

My last day in Cambodia, alone for the first time in weeks, I headed to one of the temples in the city which was beautiful, except half of it is not opened to vistors and they don’t tell you this until you get inside. And then I headed to the Russian market to pick up a few more bits and pieces before boarding my bus to Ho Chi Minh, a six or so hour bus ride away. 

Tasty treats, Siem Reap

Sunset at Angkor Wat, Siem Reap

Sunset atAngkor Wat, Siem Reap 

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap

Monkey in Angkor, Siem Reap

Baby monkey in Angkor, Siem Reap

Angkor, Siem Reap

Angkor, Siem Reap

Ta Prohm, Angkor, Siem Reap 

Ta Prohm, Angkor, Siem Reap

Bamboo Island,  Sihanoukville

Dog on Bamboo Island,  Sihanoukville

Teeth coming up from the ground at Killing Fields, Phnom Penh

S21, Phnom Penh

Sunset in Phnom Penh

Little baby gecko, Phnom Penh

Flower, Phnom Penh

Temple, Phnom Penh 

Temple, Phnom Penh

Chilling on the beach, Sihanoukville

Sunset, Sihanoukville

Special Jonny

Tasty treat

Vang Veing – Successfully shaving 10 years of people lives (August 22-25)

We left Luang Prabang excited for the 6 hour mini bus ride to Vang Veing, know for its tubing antics that involves getting an inner tube from car or truck wheel, jumping in a river that has a strong current, floating down the river and stopping off at bars along the way to drink, dance and do rope swings and crazy slides, sounds safe? We didn’t even make it there before we were risking our lives.

A few hours from Luang Prabang, and we hit a stop in the road with a long line of traffic and we were told there had been a landslide, which for this time of year was normal, and we had passed several that had been cleared, so we weren’t too worried, until Jonny and I decided to go to see the extent of the slide. A 20 minute walk along the line of stationary traffic and we faced the landlside, which literally looked like half of the mountain was missing. An area about 25meters high and about 100meters long had slid from the rain and had taken out a large section of the road, along with some electricity poles and any hope of getting across in our van.

We waited around for several hours waiting to hear what was going on, and we heard mixed reports; three hours, by 5pm and then that the slide had actually happened several days ago, and days later we had clarification that the slide had actually happened several days before we got there.

Frustrated, extremely hot and ready to go insane, we had to do something, and along with the other 100 backpackers in the same situation, we decided to get our bags from our van, and follow in the footsteps of some people we saw scaling up the side of the slide and walking along the top to get to the other side.

Loaded with close to 30kgs of luggage, and some rain drops starting to fall, it was looking grim, but we had no choice, so we gathered a crew and scaled the muddy, slippery path up, sweating like mad, which made our feet even slipperier and made it to the top without anyone falling or getting lost along the way, then the rest was easier, although still felt slightly unsafe, walking across the top of a land slide and seeing the tractors below working to clear it all and seeing how big it really was, but we made it! Next problem was now finding someway to get to Vang Veing from the middle of nowhere!

Groups of backpackers were huddled all over the road trying to figure out what to do next, and we managed to find someone who was willing to take us there, for a price of course, which we managed to bargain down a bit to approximately £5 for a 2 hours ride, the catch, it was in the back of a little tipper style truck. So 14 of us piled our bags and bodies into the back of the truck, and were on our way.

Sounds pretty average, but in the end was a lot of fun. Jonny had a bottle of whisky so that got passed around the back of the truck, everyone was in high spirits and having a laugh and getting to know each other. Then we made a stop along the way and loaded up with some Beerlaos and snacks and were back on the road, up and down winding mountain roads and witnessing some of the most amazing scenery I have ever seen in my life! It was so mountainous, green, and just beautiful, and taking it in from the back of the truck was even better as there was nothing to disturb the view.

A couple of bumpy hours later and we finally made it to Vang Veing, found a guesthouse, showered and washed the caked on mud off our bodies and went for a bite. Within two steps of the front of our guesthouse we were met by a girl with a tray of shots, handing them out for free, so we indulged and went in, got some dinner and beers and met some more randoms and chilled for a few hours. The girls left and Jonny and I decided to go for a wander and see what else was going on, and ended up in one of the clubs for a few hours partying and dancing the night away.

First day tubing and we were pumped! All ready with our waterproof bags and money for the day, we hired our tubes and got a ride to the river, ready for a day or carnage. First bar kicked off with some casual beers, then quickly moved to beer pong and a bucket. Then next bar more buckets and dancing and the first of the rope swings. Swimming from the balcony of the bar into the water, brilliant fun. Next bar, the first slide which was fun but a little tame, still more buckets again of course and at this point everyone is well and truly merry! And I forgot to mention the way you get to these bars is you sit in your tube, float down the river and then guys in the bars throw bottles with ropes on them to you, you catch them and they pull you in to the bar.

The highlight of the day came from one of the later bars, that has a slide, funny enough called ‘The Death Slide’ which is a tiled slide, about 25meters long and at the end it shoot up like a ski jump, and is amazing fun! So we brought a bucket, got our stamp to let us use the slide, drank the bucket and climbed the stairs to the top, and from the top it looked even bigger. Girls and guys were all sliding down it, so we jumped on and had a go and it was soooo sweet! We were controlled at the start just sliding down like normal, but after gaining some more courage, head first sliding was happening, and then final slide for the day I decided to try a flip off the slide and luckily for me it worked out just as planned and got cheers and claps from all the spectators on the dock watching. So I left on a high note before I ended up hurting myself.

The final bar for the day, had another rope swing and probably the most dangerous thing I had seen that day, a big blow up rectangle that one person sat on the end and other people jumped on the other end and launched the person into the air and into the water. One of the girls we met got on the end and three of us decided to launch here, so we jumped and launched her but all smashed ourselves, knees jolted, hitting ribs and jaws, wasn’t really worth it, so that was the last of that activity. So we moved onto the rope swing and that soon claimed another one of us as a victim. Em swung off the swing all fine but when getting out of the water stepped on a tree stump it pierced her foot causing a mean wound on her foot and toe. So we decided we’d call it a day for the tubing and go home, wash up and get ready for partying that night. The night got pretty messy and to sum it up, we ate, drank, danced and woke up pretty dusty the next day, but decided to back it up and go tubing again.

A little dusty to start, but as soon as you get off the raft to the first bar, your head is tipped back and some shots are thrown straight down your throat, which I think actually sorted me out for the start of day two. Tubing also was much the same; drinking, dancing, rope swings and slides into the river, floating around getting hammered. I randomly ran into Becky and Ky who I met in Xi’an and hung out and partied with them a fair bit, which was good fun! It was another highly enjoyable day, but the main difference was the tube home.

We decided to tube the whole way back to town that many people do, and was told it was easy and took about 40 minutes. As we all enjoyed floating in our tubes, we decided this sounds like a delightful thing to do, so we had about 6 of us, floating down the river (it was also dark by now) and we were laughing having a merry old time until we ran into some people who were not as chilled as us. They were hammered drunk, sharing a tube and freaking about where we were going. Luckily they didn’t rub off on us too much, and when we adopted a couple of other people tubing back to town, we had a nice posse floating back to town signing some tunes, not worrying about what creatures could be below the murky waters or in the dark river banks, and in the end we ended up exactly where we wanted, although at times we thought the drunk Australian’s that were panicking were going to die, but the crew made it to town safe and sound.

Our last night was nothing massive but was a fun night. We had dinner in a chilled little roadside kitchen where the menu was very limited but the food was amazing! Then moved onto a shisha bar from some shisha, a few buckets and a game of 8’s that really got everyone sauced right back up. We then moved onto another bar just to sit back and chill, ordered a few more drinks and chatted with Ky and Becky who popped by and then as we were leaving, we saw a separate hand written menu that sold all kind of interesting treats like happy garlic bread, opium pancakes, bags of mushrooms and opium and then just in case you have a chronic smoking habit, they also sold 1kg bags of weed.  We thought against it and headed back home for a semi decent nights sleep. As the next 30+ hours was going to be spent on buses to Cambodia…not fun! And with the track record with buses in Laos it doesn’t look good!

The landslide

Landslide

Muddy feet after the trek over the slide

View from the back of the truck

Cow

Night out at Oh La La

Frisbee game at Bar One

Muddy lad

In the back of the truck on our way to Vang Vieng

The tubing river

Day one on the river

Me, Jonny, Aiden and Ally

Beer pong

Buckets

Bar Two

Horrid scenery

Tubing

Q Bar

Mud wrestling

Twilight tubing

Me, Jonny and Em in the back of the truck