Vang Vieng: Yet Another Comparison with Waterworld

Okay, to be fair Vang Vieng, tubing capital of Laos, DOES have a lot in common with Kevin Costner's "Waterworld." If you're from Texas and think you "know" drunken tubing, you don't. In Vang Vieng, you have to take a shot (free) just to cross a bridge, and liquor comes in those types of buckets children use to build sand castles. Oh, and there's lots of drugs around. And slides...

Let's begin.

For starters, both Vang Vieng and Waterworld resemble funner versions of Shantytowns full of swings and ziplines. However, I'm guessing Waterworld didn't offer free shots whenever you cross a bridge or liquor by the bucket.

Buckets. Cost $1.25. Hangover. Duh.

In both Vang Vieng and Waterworld, rafts are essential. However, in Vang Vieng, the rafts are crammed with drunken  twenty-somethings on the path to Pukedom, whereas Waterworld rafters were trying to, you know, survive...

Minutes before the flood, a nice Australian couple was enjoying fried rice at this very spot

This dude could have fit into either world quite nicely. He listened to awful Metal music, drank out of a liquor bottle filled with snakes, and took out his aggression on others. Plus, I think he had been in the sun for a bit too long.

Waterworld DID have that weird sludge they tried to dip Costner in during the first scene. But they didn't have mud wrestling--that would have been plum old silly.

In the end, in both Vang Vieng and Waterworld, when I saw the beautiful mountains in the distance, I knew I had reached the end, and said to myself, "I'll never go on THAT ride again."