TUBING, STORM, AND SEX IN THE HOSTEL!!

Tubing in Vang Vieng was one of our main itinerary in this Laos&Thailand Trip, traveled in April 2012 

Vang Vieng experience continued. Still at the now-non-existing Spicy Lao Backpacker Hostel, with the classic story of living in a dorm room. The tubing and the storm follow. Wait, what really happened?? Read on, guys…!

The tube rental numbered our hands according our tube numbers

Earthquake and the Oh God! Yess! Yess! Oh..  

So we got our good night sleep after the ‘happy tragedy’. Being kind of a light sleeper, I was woken up by the bed that moved… It took me quite a while to realize that it was actually…people having sex!! Fudge!! I heard whispering noises like ooh, ahh and gasping, both female and male voices with the bed moving back and forth and making creaking noise. Turns out, they were doing it on the bed next to mine! Our beds were only separated by this bamboo plaited divider but they were attached to each other. So any significant move on makes on one of the beds will poke the other bed.

On the right is my bed. And the couple's bed is on the right, not pictured here

It was a really awkward moment and annoying because I wanted to rest well! But how do you stop it? I can't imagine susshing them like I would to noisy people at the cinema, though it would be super funny now that I think about it. So all I did was close my eyes, think of sex-unrelated thoughts and try to fall asleep! Until I heard a relieved sigh and whispering.. Finally! Gaaahh..

Later in the morning we were lazing around with our eyes so puffy. I asked the girls whether they knew about the ‘love bed’ or not. Turns out, Mumun felt the shakes too. And worse (or maybe better), she was ready to run because she thought it was an earthquake! Hahahaa… Too bad she realized soon enough it was actually people humpin’ so she didn’t get up and run. It would be really funny if she did run.. LOL.

Eagle's Nest, where the 'earthquake' happened.
Picture courtesy of Vindhya

I had read about this kind of story beforehand. When traveling quite a long time, say months or weeks, some people can’t hold the urge especially when they meet someone attractive, doesn’t even matter that they’re doing it in a dorm room because they can’t afford a private room or another minute to hold. LOL…

Tubing in Vang Vieng

This is it. The main attraction of Vang Vieng. It’s where people go on tubes following the stream on a river that goes through Vang Vieng. That’s it? Well, bars are built along the river, so many of them! Some bars not only provide alcoholic drinks but also games like slides and swings from which you jump right into the river, or simply spots to hangout. The bar guys would give you a bracelet for each shot of drink, so you can sort of tell the level of someone’s (un)sobriety from the number of bracelets they’re wearing.

Start tubing here.

Shabby bars along the river

Jump in from the half bridge!

I read articles about tourists got killed in the river. Not from tubing, but mostly out of doing stupid things like jumping from the swing or sliding when drunk, slipped and drowned or hit something hard like a rock. If getting drunk and being careless is cool, I’m glad I’m not cool like dat ;)

The tubing itself was fun, in the way that you only need to do a little rowing with your hands, watch people hangout at the bars, have brief chats with other people in tubes that pass by, watch (and watch out for) others that kayak pass by you, and try not to get your tubes stuck between rocks. The people at the bars would throw ropes at you, hoping you’ll grab them and stop by their bars. We weren’t interested, so we just said ‘no, thank you’ and tubed on. Man, life felt so easy…

Mumun enjoying the time of her life...

A healthier choice: kayaking.

According to Adam and what I’ve read on the net, majority of the bars along the river are now closed for the security reason. Hm, I wonder how that affects the economy of the people. I agree that life threat isn’t worth all the partying and drinking, but I can’t help wonder, would Vang Vieng still be attractive to so many tourists if partying is now not as free as it used to be?

* Tube rental: LAK 55,000 until 8pm. 

* Overtime charge: LAK 20,000. 

* Any damage would be on your own risk. It's stated in the rental note.
* Tubing after dark is not encouraged.

The storm that tore down Spicy Lao and got us back to Sunset Homestay

I’m not sure if Sunset homestay still exists or not, but it saved us from being roof-less and kept us dry. Say what? Like I mentioned before, we were “transferred” here on our first night in Vang Vieng due to double booking at the Spicy Lao. And then on the 3^rd night, there was the biggest storm in Vang Vieng – according to the locals– that tore down Spicy Lao.

Fruit salad. Picture courtesy of Vindhya

Picture courtesy of Vindhya

We were eating at a vegetarian diner downtown when it started to rain and then turned to storm and water was flooding the streets and in the restaurant a little bit. Around midnight the rain got lighter and we wanted to rest so badly, so we decided to go through the rain in our jackets. We walked back to the hostel and found that everyone was taking shelter in the concrete building where the hostel owner’s family live.

Everything got wet, and the whole hostel rooms was a mess. Even some of the stuff in our lockers got wet. The house was crowded, so the hostel owner offered us another night at Sunset Homestay again. We thought it was a good idea and gathered our stuff quickly and moved.

Hanging and laying almost all of our stuff to get them dry at the Sunset Homestay.

In the spacious room of Sunset Homestay we laid all of our stuff and turned on the fan to help dry them quick. Only the next morning we could hang them dry outside. There was sunshine after the rain after all…  *singing*

Uci and I were supposed to go on a balloon ride, but it had to be cancelled due to the rain in the very early morning. I was so disappointed cos I wanted to go on the balloon ride so badly :-(

Sadly we had to pass this chance :(

We got our money back but we couldn’t reschedule the ride because we were leaving for Luang Prabang that noon. Oh well, maybe it’s a sign that I should take the balloon ride in my next Indochine trip! *wink*

Next on Laos is Luang Prabang, the opposite of Vang Vieng in terms of ambience :-D