Tubing!

I finally felt well enough to make a successful attempt at tubing yesterday. It's a pretty crazy time, basically you head to the river in the early afternoon to start the day of insanity. Basically there's three main bars that everyone hits up, all within sight of each other. So you don't really need a tube, all you have to do is jump in the river and swim about a minute to the next bar. Or you can use the zunga (rope swing), your choice. With every bar the zunga gets way more intense, ending with a huge zip line that rockets you into the water. Since I've heard (and seen evidence of) a ton of horror stories about people that hurt themselves on these unregulated adrenaline tools, I decided to skip them. Usually the party wraps up around six or seven pm and everyone heads back to town to keep the party going at the bars there.

After that wild day and the stomach bug that keeps lingering around, (oh yeah and the late night bed bug wake up call) I am right out of it. I'm taking it pretty easy in one of the lounging bars here. Lots of them have big screen TV's that play episodes of Family Guy and Friends. Since I think Friends is one of the worst sitcoms every filmed, I chose Family Guy. Although since finding a place that plays South Park last night, I may have to change the venue soon. All in all Vang Vieng has been fun but the stomach bug I've had and the rude bedbug problem have soured my experience a little and I'm thinking it's going to be time to move on tomorrow. Yesterday was my last hurrah for partying, I've decided. After going hard in Thailand and Cambodia for so long, I'm worn out from living the life of a high-functioning alcoholic. I've had my fill of partying lately, and I'm not too into it anymore. It's time to tone it down for a while, the only foreseeable party being Halong Bay in Vietnam, which is over a month away. Plenty of time to allow my liver to heal from the beating I've given it.