The “thing to do” in Vang Vieng is to go tubing. The normal tubing is renting a tire tube and floating down the river, drinking and stopping at bars along the way. However, this was not something we were interested in, but tubing sounded fun! So, we decided to take on cave tubing. Stacey found a tour that took you to tube this in the morning, eat lunch, look at the Elephant Cave Temple and then go kayaking down the same route of the tubing.
This is the cave that we tubed through. You go through by pulling yourself along on to this string that goes through the cave. The water is crazy cold and I didn’t like being able to really see the water because I don’t especially love underwater creatures.
The photos inside the cave aren’t impeccable, but it still gives you an idea of how it looked inside of there! As it turns out, the only part of it that really freaked me out was walking through the cave in the pitch black!
After a lunch of BBQ chicken & rice we walked down this path to the elephant cave temple. It was a really beautiful area and there’s zip-lining available there as well.
This is the Buddha inside of the cave. It’s’s a smaller statue, but still beautiful. The thing that this cave is known for is the elephant-shaped rock inside of it.
Since I love elephants, I was extra-intruiged by this cave. There’s a photo of the elephant, I can definitely see it, but I wouldn’t have named an entire cave temple after it.
The next part of our day was kayaking down the river. Neither of us had ever kayaked (but I don’t know that I can actually say that I have). So, we got our kayak and paddles and ended up having a guide ride with us because we watched new kayakers spinning in circles, and didn’t want to look like those guys.
Stacey got a little paddling in, but essentially our guide did most of the work.
About 45 seconds into paddling down the river our guide pulls our kayak over to drink at the first bar. Everyone else in our group seemed eager to stop, but we were not. So, we told our guide that we hadn’t brought any money with us to buy a drink, that it was extremely cold and raining, so he sent us back with another guide and we got to take in the views as floated down the river.
I think if I go back to Vang Vieng, I would give the traditional tubing a shot, but do it wisely, of course. The views are incredible and that alone would be worth floating for. The nature is, after all, what I came to Vang Vieng for.
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