Between Swells: In the tube but not surfing

We began our Laos trip in Vientiane where we did nothing but eat, sleep and workout. Vietnam is Wall Street and Laos is downtown Tofino so it was nice to have a bit of a cool down. The capital Vientiane is simple but full of good cuisine and nice people. We killed a few days at a nice hotel Douang Deuane, had some great food and went to the gym a couple of times. Our big excitement was bowling with the locals one night.

We were warned and prepped that it was going to be a gong show in Vang Vieng and indeed it was. Other than the spectacular scenery and the samurai teriyaki burger from Whopping restaurant, the main purpose of going here is to party like a rockstar while floating down a river and stopping at bars along the way. When it is all over r&r is spent in one of the many restaurants that plays either Friends or Family Guy non stop. It is a riot. You pick up your tube and are tuk tuked about 3km up stream where you show up to the first of many bars along the river. Bass, beers and bikinis all around and everybody is having a blast. Spend an hour playing musical chairs, beer pong and sliding down one of the first of many water slides and then tube 50 meters to the next bar.

Bar twos water feature was a trapeze swing into the river from a platform about 6 meters up. With liquid courage well on its way, I joined the line-up to give it a go. Three people in front of me was a girl clearly hammered, who made her way to the edge, went for the swing but slips from the beginning 6 meters (18 feet) up and face planted into the water. She was out of commission for about ten minutes, lucky to be conscious and scared all of us after a good chuckle. The swing itself was tons of fun but due to lack of safety, where I landed was only about 4 feet deep and I have a cut and bruise on my foot to prove it. Onto the next one!

Next bars had volleyball, dance parties, slides, zip lines and swings oh my! I did one more zip line and trapeze swing into deeper water and Laura did one of the zip lines. Too much fun. By this time we had already spent 4 hours living it up. The strange whiskey starting makings its appearance. First was the centipedes in the bottle, then the snakes. Not appealing but a few shots made their way around.

We made our way to our last stop which had a mega slide and a zip line high up. 6 hours of partying we made our way back on the tubes for a 40 minute float down river, singing and dark out, back into town. Fun was had by all. We ate another Samuri burger and hit the hay.

The Samurai burger I have put in top 5 burgers of my life. Worth the trip kind of burger. The owner is a friendly Japanese fellow who takes his food seriously. The burger is fit for a king or a samurai but did me just fine. So fine we ate it two nights in a row and possibly three.

Off to Luang Prabang tomorrow for more normal adventures of hiking and biking.

Little Notes:

Vientiane -
Where we stayed: Douang Deuane Hotel - yummy buffet breakfast, nice staff and good water pressure
Where to drink: Khop Chai Deu (across from Joma bakery) - best gin & tonic. Great atmosphere.
Where to eat: Scandinavian Bakery - cheap and delicious sandwiches. Best banana shake on the market
Where to put your sweat on: Sengdara Fitness Centre - great pool, friendly people and good tunes

View from our room