Special Report - Nat on... Tubing in Vang Vieng

In the first of a number of guest blogs Nat will be looking at hard hitting topics and discussing them with gusto.

Having expected to find a huge mass of drunken gap yars (what must a group of them be called, I wonder...an 'annoyance' perhaps) we were pleasantly surprised to find a small town with a mild sprinkling of regular traveller types (standard baggy elephant trousers, half a shaved head, massive backpacks and a no sign of a shower had in at least 4 days), some small restaurants and a few weird bars showing repeats of Friends (these shall henceforth be known as the 'Magalufs').

I wanted to find out why the 'party town' had decided to take a nap. I wanted answers. I wanted to launch an investigation, quiz some locals, tap into their thoughts and opinions, gain a rich insight into what happened and why. I intended to do all this but was tired from a morning mountain biking so instead I just googled it. 

Turns out that things just got a bit out of hand in Vang Vieng. The popular tourist activity of 'tubing' (hire a big rubber ring and drift down the river) which started as a pretty tame way of getting down the river, started to attract the drunkards. The more drunkards that came, the more bars would open along the river. The drunkards had a thirst for lashings of Beer Lao and local whiskey which were served to them in buckets. The drunkards were also partial to a generous helping of mind bending drugs, fluorescent face paint and vests saying 'Tubing in Laos' (informative). So basically people drifted down the river getting completely shitfaced. 

A typical tubing scene

Sounds ok so far? The Laotians sensed this was getting very popular with the Aussies and Western tourists so added in huge platforms to jump off and zip wires to add more to the tubing experience. It's easiest to describe what then ensued this with a simple equation:

Drugs + booze = mad drunkards + low tides + jumping off zip wires and platforms = death

Once people starting dying (numbers rumoured to be around 12 in 2012), the government thought it might be time to address this. Bar owners thought they could get away with a few helpful signs.....

Then within what I gather was only a few months, zip lines were taken down, bars were shut down and literally dismantled and I imagine the sales of fluorescent face paint have been the worse hit. There are apparently only three bars left and they are only open as the owners have some 'special contacts' who allow them to still operate.

Sadly people now think there's no reason to go to Vang Vieng which explains the sleepiness of the town. But there's loads to see and do - gorgeous waterfalls and caves, trekking in the mountains, hot air ballooning and where else can you catch up on all those episodes of Friends?

See you next time folks. Stay classy ( I know I know, I need a more original sign off, will work on it.)