Vang Vieng, Laos

Vang Vieng is a small town conveniently located halfway between Vientiane and Luang Prabang, in Northern Laos. It's in a beautiful location, with caves and cycling draws, but has become a fixture on the backpacker trail for its special take on tubing (mom, that's sitting on a big inner-tube and floating down a river; often beer is involved). The river there is pretty clean, and flows between mountains, villages... and bars. About a dozen bars, with bass beats throbbing, mud volleyball, crazy zip-line and trapeze style swings out over the water, and cheap whiskey buckets, line the first two kilometers of the trip. As you float by, they throw out ropes and haul you in for the party.

I was prepared to look down my nose at all, but I have to say that it was a GREAT party.

We spent two days in town, and the highlight was really where we stayed... a gorgeous little guest house just on the outskirts of all the action. Based on a recommendation from some girls we'd met farther south, we splurged on the $10 dollar bungalows down and across the river from the guest house proper. Our place was BIG -- we felt like we should have been subletting the extra bed! -- and we had our own bathroom and hot water and hammock. A minor detraction came in the form of the dessicated tarantula corpse that we found in the bathroom. I mean, what, exactly, lives up in the rafters that was going around killing tarantulas? But it all faded into the background when it came to location. Just look at where we were: