Tubing Down The Mekong River

(Picture by Raniera Rewiri)

Firstly let me say that this was a really big deal for me, I have a great fear of water. I mean I literally hear the jaws music as soon as the water gets past my waist but the whole point of travelling is to step outside of your comfort zone and in my case I fucking jumped outside it.
We were told that out of the original 10 bars along the river only 2 were still open, so we decided to have an early lunch about 10am and then drink for 4 hours and hit the water around 2pm. Now 4 hours of pre drinking before floating down one of the biggest rivers in the world in nothing but an inner tube is never a good idea but when is Rome right?

There is only one place in Vang Vieng where you can book the tubing so we had sussed that out the day before had our breakfast/lunch and several beers and ciders and ventured out to get our inner tubes. The day before we had also bought matching vests for the day, yeah thats right matching vest because we are the coolest cats in Laos, Jake and Ranz went all out and got tubing shorts too.

The tuk tuk to the river is included in the price of the inner tube rental and providing you bring the inner tube back you get your deposit back. Now you'd be mistaken to think there is any form of safety here no rules not regulation nobody in a life jacket just in case (you can hire one with the inner tube but whats the point when you sign a declaration form basically saying is you die it's not the companies fault) GO TRAVELLING THEY SAID IT WILL BE FUN THEY SAID!!!

And fun it was I have literally not had this much fun in water since I had to save a brick from drowning in my PJs when I was 11 (growing up British right there) Once in the water the first bar is not too far away you can hear the music from Cambodia, oh by the way if you miss the last stop thats where you will end up fucking Cambodia. We stopped at the first bar a few blokes are there throwing ropes into the water to pull you in. We headed straight to the bar and ordered our drinks, a bucket of G&T for me yes since travelling I have become the biggest G&T drinker in the world.

There were plenty of activities at the first bar, beer pong, musical inner tubes, volley ball , etc. Chances to win free drinks and shots and basically anything and everything to have a great time, there were plenty of people dancing away and genuinely loving life. I am not sure how long we stayed in the first bar for but we eventually ventured back into the river considerably more pissed than we were at the start. The second bar was a bit away but this was where you got to literally take in what you were actually doing, being surrounded by the most amazing scenery on an inner tube on the Mekong River this is an experience I will never forget and I will cherish this for the rest of my life.

The second bar had less activities there was a basketball court which was slippy as fook a fair few of us went down a few times on there, this bar was just all about drinking and dancing. Now drinking I can do better than anyone but dancing just isn't my thing I am white for a start, but I shook my arse with the best of them. It started to rain at this bar but that just added to the fun. D broke one of the wooden beds shaking his arse to Justin Bieber I think living the dream right there.

Then the fun and games really started it was getting late and starting to get dark and we still had 3 kilometres left of the river to navigate before it got too dark. But being extremely pissed none of us seemed to care of the dangers and ventured back into the river. It was genuinely a laugh a minute we'd taken drinks for the journey so we all had a beer or three, some were tubing in groups some were going solo, some couldn't stay in there tube for love nor money. It all made for a great times.

D had found a huge stick and was in the middle of the river shouting in his best Gandalf voice "YOU SHALL NOT PASS" at anyone who would listen. We all managed to get to the end just as it was too dark to see. We ventured back into town for food and more drinks some of us went the distance some of us didn't I will not mention any names.

This was one of the best days I have had not only while travelling but in my life, stepping right out of your comfort zone is well worth it in my opinion.

Thanks for reading

Richard :)