The concept of Tubing in “the” Vang Vieng
Vang Vieng is a concept. A concept made into a town. A cluster of bars that plague a small block consisting of the town center play the series “Friends” almost 24 hours per day. One episode after the next. You can also order a “happy” meal (nothing to do with McDonalds).
Its most famous concept is however its tubing experience. 6 bars spread over 50 meters and separated by the Mekong River host every single day hundreds of hippies at around 1pm. Everyone goes into the first bar where they are usually mellow, sunbathe, drink while watching acrobatics from enthusiasts jumping into the river from a rope dangling in a tree. Slowly, people start moving to the second bar where the concept of tubing is introduced. To get to the second bar, you use a tube to float down the river where the current pushes you towards the next bar, where helpers are waiting to pull you up. At the second bar, after a couple of drinks, people have loosened up and they are usually no longer sitting but mostly standing and swaying to the music. And on we go to the next bar. At the third bar, everyone is dancing, intoxicated, drunk, happy, hugging everyone around and expressing their love for this world and its people. Of course, the more drunk, the more tubing gets difficult, but in a way, i guess also more fun.
In the words of a hippy “The river is best when on mushrooms!”
In the 4th bar, there is a lot of making out. People rarely make it to the 5th or 6th bar. I didn’t.
I felt like I got a glimpse of what it might have been like in the 60s.
Although not my kind of thing, it was very interesting to see the tubing experience.
But, don’t leave your friends drunk and alone. I had to pick up a drunk guy from the streets and drop him at his hotel and had to give up my bed for a drunk girl. And sometimes, these "people loving hippies" do not treat the Laotians with respect. They insult them.
Sometimes, I fail to come to grip with the selfishness of people, but, at the same time, there is kindness right on the other side.
Its most famous concept is however its tubing experience. 6 bars spread over 50 meters and separated by the Mekong River host every single day hundreds of hippies at around 1pm. Everyone goes into the first bar where they are usually mellow, sunbathe, drink while watching acrobatics from enthusiasts jumping into the river from a rope dangling in a tree. Slowly, people start moving to the second bar where the concept of tubing is introduced. To get to the second bar, you use a tube to float down the river where the current pushes you towards the next bar, where helpers are waiting to pull you up. At the second bar, after a couple of drinks, people have loosened up and they are usually no longer sitting but mostly standing and swaying to the music. And on we go to the next bar. At the third bar, everyone is dancing, intoxicated, drunk, happy, hugging everyone around and expressing their love for this world and its people. Of course, the more drunk, the more tubing gets difficult, but in a way, i guess also more fun.
In the words of a hippy “The river is best when on mushrooms!”
In the 4th bar, there is a lot of making out. People rarely make it to the 5th or 6th bar. I didn’t.
I felt like I got a glimpse of what it might have been like in the 60s.
Although not my kind of thing, it was very interesting to see the tubing experience.
But, don’t leave your friends drunk and alone. I had to pick up a drunk guy from the streets and drop him at his hotel and had to give up my bed for a drunk girl. And sometimes, these "people loving hippies" do not treat the Laotians with respect. They insult them.
Sometimes, I fail to come to grip with the selfishness of people, but, at the same time, there is kindness right on the other side.
posted by manu at 8:04 PM
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