In the tubing- Vang Vieng

What was once thought as a watersport reserved for weekends at the river (or Lake Mead in my case) is Vang Vieng's tourism cash cow.

Thousands of young travelers head to Vang Vieng in Northern Laos every month to shed their baggy pants, backpacks, and Birkenstocks for nothing but a bathing suit, tank top, some shades, and a plastic pouch around their necks (for money, toilet paper, and sunscreen). Some were daring enough to bring cameras, but after our boat capsizing incident, we were not.

Bright colors are mandatory. We don't complain about that! :)

Ross and I, along with the new gang we accumulated on the sloooow (2 day long) boat from Thailand into Laos, got our Beerlao goggles on and bought our "In the Tubing" tank tops (or vests, as British Faye affectionately called them) and got ready for the festivities.

Laos doesn't realize that "In the tubing" is not a grammatically correct sentence.

Typical day of tubing:

9- Wake up and get ready

10- Have breakfast of fried eggs and toast

11:30-12- Stand in line at tube rental place and hop in a tuk tuk to the beginning of the river

Q Bar with the group..Ross and I are next to the guy in the pink shorts (Anthony)

12-5:30- Drink at various bars lining the river. When done drinking at one bar, hop into the river inside your tube and float to the next one. When you get to the next appealing bar, a kind man will throw you a line so he can reel you in to the bottom of the stairs. Also, zip-lining, rope swinging, and high-diving ensue.

6- Tubes must be back or you don't get your deposit back. 

6:30- Nap. Or, keep drinking.

All in all, tubing was amazing. Our philosophy in terms of how much tubing we could manage was "one day on, one day off" (it can be pretttty intense, folks!) but there were some people who had been doing it for 2 weeks! These people are what you'd call alcoholics. 

Many people along the ride enjoyed body paint, a few consumed illegal substances, and a lot of people congratulated Ross on his mustache.

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We have been in Laos now for about 10 days (beautiful Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and currently relaxing in the capital of Vientiene). We leave tonight for 4000 Islands, where we will be spending my birthday weekend and hoping to spot a rare freshwater dolphin. 

In other news, it's officially one month  until we are leaving on a jet plane back to the states!  At this point in the game, we are definitely hitting our stride but we still can't wait for Christmas dinner.