We are in Vientiane right now, wasting a couple of hours catching up with emails, etc, before we get our transfer over the border to the town of Nong Khai. We spent the last couple of days in Vang Vieng (VV), a town that is famous for innertubing, caving, and smoking weed. I'd heard before from other travellers that VV is really only a good place to visit if all you want to do is smoke and drink, maybe while simultaneously tubing down the river. While I can't dispute that this is certainly the draw for many of the backpackers that find their way to VV, Elizabeth and I had a great and relaxing visit to VV, and I would recommend a stop here to anyone who is travelling through Laos. After the sleepy sophistication of Luang Prabang, VV is little more than a ramshackle set-up along the Nam Xong River, but the stunning beauty of the landscape and the many possibilities to innertube, kayak, go caving, climbing, etc. make it a fun stop off on the backpacker trail, and also offers something a little "different" from other towns in Southeast Asia.

First, the area around VV is absolutely gorgeous. As Elizabeth and I spent the afternoon placidly floating down the river on our innertubes, we were surrounded be towering limestone karsts (cliffs) that looked like something right out of an ancient Asian scroll painting. We lounged back on our tubes, soaking in the sun and watching dragonflies buzz around, occasionally landing on our knees.

The stretch of river around VV set up for tubing is dotted with small riverside establishments where locals have set up rope swings and cables for jumping into the river, and also offer many beers to those floating by. Imagine lots and lots of young white travellers drinking, listening to reggae, and jumping off swings and cables into the river. Kind of surreal and almost what I would imagine a Vietnam War era BBQ to be like- of course, minus the war, but the beer, sun, SE Asia vista, river, etc.