Vang Vieng is like a town plopped down in the middle of Laos from some other country. You don’t really feel like you’re in Laos. The small town itself is mostly made up of accommodation, restaurants, and tour companies for the pleasure of tourists. This is the place you may have heard of where most of the restaurants play DVDs of “Friends” all day and night, with pillowed wicker platforms where you can lie or sit watching TV all day while drinking and eating. This weirdness really is true. We didn’t participate, though when we did go out to eat (mostly Indian food) we could sometimes hear as many as four different episodes of the sitcom around us.

Another oddity of Vang Vieng is the popularity of inner-tubing down the river. You pay 40,000 Kip and get a big inner tube and a tuk-tuk ride up the river a few kilometers and dropped off. You can simply tube down the mostly tranquil river or there are several river-side bars set up along the way, with volleyball and different kinds of trapeze swings into the river.

We decided to give it a go, and it was hilariously fun even without getting drunk like most all of the “kids” out there (and safer). We didn’t bring the camera, of course, but I do regret not having a picture of Dave climbing up the bamboo platforms and swinging way out over the river and jumping in. He was great! We even played a bit of volleyball. But we soon left the party scene and drifted quietly down the river to town. It was a really great way to enjoy the beauty of the mountains and forest around us.