The Vacation from our Vacation

We are in Vang Vien now, a small touristy town in Laos know for it's tubing excursions and bars playing Friends episodes nonstop. So many of the people we meet have been here 5 or 6 days already, and I can see why. It's easy to get sucked into a coconut-shake-in-a-hammock-over-looking-the-river coma after a long hard day of floating in a intertube between bank side bars. Bars which feature bucket sized cocktails and sky high zip line and swing jumps that could only be legal in Laos and only attempted by the bucket-fully inebriated. Yesterday we indulged fully in hedonistic tubing, and after a little dutch courage (or a lot), I was swinging and zipping like the rest of them.
We manage to meet nothing but English speakers- Brits, Irish, Aussies, Canadians, but oddly scant few Americans. They have all been great fun to hang out with, in and out of giant mud volley ball courts. This by far has been the most ridiculous thing we have done so far, but we are certainly have fun. I consider it a reward for our 31 logged hours of bus/train time thus far. It is yet to be seen, but we just might decide to go on an organized trek of the emerald countryside and pop into some of the many caves that dot the surrounding area. That is, if we can shake this pleasure coma, which, with plans to get an hour long massage this afternoon, shows no signs of letting up. And honestly I have no problem with that.