River Tubing - Very popular

Description
One of the most popular pastimes in Vang Vieng is to hire an enormous tyre inner tube, be driven a couple of kilometres upstream, and launched into the water. The river generally flows at a slow but steady pace, and the idea is to relax and absorb the scenery as you float back to Vang Vieng.

This 'sport' can be practised in a number of places in Laos, but nowhere is the view as spectacular as here with karst limestone mountains lining the route. Caves are well sign-posted and it's easy to take a break from tubing and go exploring. A number of enterprising people have set up bamboo bars along the river's banks, where you can stop for a beer and further chill out.

These bars have flourished and have now become an attraction in themselves, with tubers spending the whole afternoon relaxing riverside. Now equipped with music, volleyball, rattanball and petanque courts and selling food, the bars are diversifying. The most significant addition to the bars in recent years are the rope swing and cable arrangements which now criss-cross the upper reaches of the Nam Song where there are deep pools. Going by various names, the swings and cables are free to customers of the bars, who spend the afternoon pitching themselves into the river from the swings and cables. .

Inner tubes and transport upstream to the launching place is a part of a co-operative Village Development Group arrangement. The co-operative building is found in town where the old market was. Daily tube rental until 6pm and tuk-tuk transport to the put-in point at the Organic Farm costs 35,000 kip. Agents around town charge up to $6 for the same service. Dry bags can be rented for $1.

Do be careful while tubing and jumping from great heights into the river. Several people have died on the river whilst tubing. While the pace is generally slow, in the dry season tubes can get caught on rocks, and in the wet season the river speeds up and there are deep patches and a current. Make sure you're a confident swimmer and tell your friends where you're going.