Tubing in Vang Vieng over ?

[farmerfloyd]

Is a lot like Boise Idaho in the 80s. Had a wide 4ft deep river coming thru town and in summer everybody floated the river from about 8 miles above Boise and it got so big that they had school bus loads on weekends for $3. take you up there and not haft to go get your car.
Was about 4 bridges over river and they had a special june date for river
Festival and you got rotten tomatoas etc and thru at people on rafts, Still goes on today with Forest Service raft with a big water pump which would clear the bridge before they got hit with tomatos. Great fun still today
During week hot after work get girl to float river with, I had a rubber canoe and you put your legs between her legs and I had longer legs so I got all the fun and the water that came over side got heated and warmer then floating a hugh tube 6 ft tall. Great memories.
Rent a girl to float river with and you get the picture, great for Thailand or Laos.

[terry57]

That "new" crowd was what was there before the drunk tubing crowd moved in, and was always there, just eclipsed

Yep this is true, the adventurous travelers are always at the cutting edge way before the masses of Backpackers arrive.

In earlier times Backpackers would of been drawn to Vang Vien for the natural beauty, The caving and the river, as more stinky fuk ups arrived the locals upped the Anti with mass tubing, free shots and Ganja. Add Ganja to the mix and Backpackers ain't going anywhere, in the social media age any place that is the In thing is plastered over Facebook and ends up fuked.

In 88 I was living in Tong Nai Pan on Koh Phan-gan, no electric, no phones and 30 baht a night huts on the Beach. To get there was a dangerous trek over the mountain and only a few travelers made that journey.

It truly was a Paradise.

10 minutes around the corner was Had-Rin and the Full moon party. It took quite a few years before that bay morphed into a launching pad for the Full Moon Party and the fire twirling wankers made it home and started blasting out Techno and trance music all foking night.

Anyway, I had my best time there before that shit kicked off so I'm very happy and realize all things must change.

Very hard to find new places these days, most have been discovered unless one goes to inner Mongolia.

Back to Vang Vien, it will return back to what it should be and that's a mellow place for Stinky's to hang out.

Nothing would of changed if not for all those stupid fokers dying. The locals fuked the golden goose chasing the almighty tourist dollar.

Tough shit innit.

[Phuketrichard]

Is a lot like Boise Idaho in the 80s. Had a wide 4ft deep river coming thru town and in summer everybody floated the river from about 8 miles above Boise and it got so big that they had school bus loads on weekends for $3. take you up there and not haft to go get your car.
Was about 4 bridges over river and they had a special june date for river
Festival and you got rotten tomatoas etc and thru at people on rafts, Still goes on today with Forest Service raft with a big water pump which would clear the bridge before they got hit with tomatos. Great fun still today
During week hot after work get girl to float river with, I had a rubber canoe and you put your legs between her legs and I had longer legs so I got all the fun and the water that came over side got heated and warmer then floating a hugh tube 6 ft tall. Great memories.
Rent a girl to float river with and you get the picture, great for Thailand or Laos.

Doubt they had many tourist fucked up on hash, opium, mushrooms AND alcohol going down the river

[terry57]

^

Yep, its always the piss and drugs that bring these places unstuck.

A shame really, if there was no deaths the stinky's could still be having fun getting wasted floating down that river.

No harm done unless it was you or your kid that died.

[Scottish Gary]

I was there last October and there was no tubing. Just loads of gormless backpackers wandering about calling each other ''man'' and wondering what the fuck they were going to do now.

[9999]

Hopefully the backpackers fuck off altogether as it's a great spot even with them hanging around.

[Phuketrichard]

am heading up there next month after a visit to the plain of jars and will report back

[Fluke]

Can you speak English ? please.

[Phuketrichard]

am here now, ok, its raining
BUT it seems dead and only a few companies are offering tubing and all the bars that were outside town on the river are closed
Unlike the rest of Laos, seems to be lots of young kids ( don't know what else to call them :-) ) walking around

Also seems they now close all restaurants/bars at 10 pm. No more heavy bass all night!!!!

Entered at Chiang Khong an drove to Luang Prabang, Phonsavan and now Vang Vieng. Talking with hotel owners along the way and its really slow with few tourists about

BUT as i arrived at the ferry and needed to wait 2 hours for the car ferry saw more than 200 westerners crossing over, all headed to take the boat down to Luang Prabang

[9999]

Entered at Chiang Khong an drove to Luang Prabang, Phonsavan and now Vang Vieng.

Nice ... I really want to do that trip ... how is the road? How far is it from the crossing to Luang Prabang (driving time)? VV is about 4 hours from Luang Prabang and the same from Vientiane.

Thinking a round trip, Chiangmai > Chiang Kong > Luang Prabang > Vang Vieng > Vientiane > Loei > Chiang Mai

Wonder how we'd go with a 2 year old kid.

I recommend checking out the organic farm near where the tubing used to launch, upstream from town a few k's.

[Phuketrichard]

road is good EXCEPT for 70 kms from Udom Maxi to LP where its potholed asphalt

We went from LP to Phonsavan in 5 hours an than to VV in 5 hours ( breaks an food stops) 3 hours of so VV to Vientiane only 150 kms
NOTE if ur kid or wife gets car sick they will on this trip, :-)

all of Laos is up an down and down and around

VV is nice as it so dam cheap an not the hordes of drunk kids as all the music and bars shut down at 10 pm!!! Still not much, (read NOTHING) to do, but look at the scenery an one night is plenty

Met 3 American bikers yesterday at the turn off from Phonsavan that did the trip u describe

PS; just read ur vv thread,
last year was up here an all the rests offered o an hash, mushrooms.
ALL GONE now,
the government has really cracked down

WE are at the Domon gh on the river, ( same view as ur photo) 400 baht for double air con room ( one king bed, one single) with river view
ask fr a room away from the rest side unless u want stay awake till the music shits down at 10

Today off to Vientiane,
cross back into Thailand and head to Surin before my trip thru Cambodia!!!

[9999]

Still not much, (read NOTHING) to do, but look at the scenery an one night is plenty

we stayed last time for 5 nights, after planning just two. Nothing to do is great! Opium helped pass the time away ... didn't have a kid at the time.

[Phuketrichard]

agree with "o" the days would go by in a daze but cant get it now... the town is dead and many places are closing down for lack of business

[9999]

^ still, getting hold of 'O' should not be an issue. For the reasons you state, it should be cheaper now!

[steevee]

still fairly easy to get ganja? what's the going rate? I'll be visiting for a few days this month

[9999]

very easy. 300 - 500 bt for 10 gms of very nice bud ask the tuk tuk guys

[gaysexbyproxy]

Vang Vieng is a dull place, period. Skip it.

[the dogcatcher]

Sounds like the place has gone to shit..... don't say I told you so earlier in this thread.

[Phuketrichard]

VV is scenically a beautiful area and will soon see more and more tourists,