From Mayhem to Mellow: Tubing in Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is surrounded by spectacular scenery.

There was a time when Vang Vieng, Laos was famous. Well . . . infamous, really. The kind of place that caused parents around the world to wake in a cold sweat wondering if their backpacking children were about to make international headlines.

Back in the early 2000s, Vang Vieng became the stop on the Banana Pancake Trail for young travelers who wanted to mix cheap beer, reckless abandon, and gravity-defying swings over a river.

The main activity? Tubing.

Tubing on a slow flowing river, cutting through a stunning karst landscape.

Which sounds safe enough. In fact, it sounds idyllic. Float gently down the Nam Song River. Wave at the passing water buffalo. Watch the limestone cliffs drift by.

Except, of course, that’s not how it worked in Vang Vieng.

What actually happened was this: You got a tube. You started floating. And every couple hundred meters, someone in a riverside bar would toss you a rope, haul you in, and hand you a bucket filled with something that is a little bit fruity and a lot alcoholic.

Repeat this process at every bar.

Add in a few rickety rope swings and zip lines, some slides, and perhaps a "happy shake" (let’s just say the ingredients were enhanced), and by the end of the day, you were lucky if you remembered your own name.

Unsurprisingly, a tragic pattern developed. People got drunk. They swung. They fell into the river.

They didn't always come back up. By 2011, quite a few young tourists had died at Vang Vieng.

Eventually, the Lao government — which up to that point had adopted a laissez-faire policy toward stupidity— realized that “tourist death trap” wasn’t the kind of brand image they wanted. In 2012, they shut it down. Bars closed. Swings and slides came down. The tubing scene went from wild party to quiet paddle.

And Vang Vieng? It changed.

Today, the town has rebranded. It’s the land of rock climbing, hot air ballooning, hiking, and kayaking. Backpackers still come, but now they actually get up before noon. You’re more likely to meet someone comparing trekking routes than someone trying to figure out where they lost their pants.

A family hike to a waterfall

After our hammock-therapy on Don Khon, we were ready for some activity. But not too much.

The bar scene is gone from Vang Vieng, but the river is still there, and now there is surplus of inner tubes. So we took an inner tube ride through a cave (super fun for my claustrophobic wife!) (in 2015, it was 120,000 kip per person for the cave tubing adventure). And you can still tube down the river, you just don’t have bars everywhere and the rope swings are gone. In 2015, it was 55,000 kip to rent a tube plus a refundable 60,000 kip deposit (you lose some/all of your deposit for damage or late return).

Daughter 3 tubing on the Nam Song

If you are looking for a party, it would suck.

If you are looking for a lazy day with your family: perfection.

Because travel changes from time to time, even in the same place.