1/2
Got up early and hopped on a tuk tuk to the bus station.  Our tuk tuk picked up Alex and Nikola on the way--yay!  We got off at a building with 5 vans parked side to side, with luggage being thrown on top of each.  Cristina was there too.  Unfortunately I got placed in a different Van than my friends, so I had to spend the 5 hour ride watching Supernatural in my lap.  We got to Vang Vien around 4pm.  It was hot.  We ignored the tuk tuk drivers asking for business and tried to walk to town, but didn't have a really good map--thank you Lonely Planet.  So Cristina and I relented and grabbed on--while Alex and Nikola toughed it out.  Having been soured a bit by the hostel march we did in Luang Prabang, I took the first hostel that looked good.  Cristana kept going, but it turned out she didn't make it far, and was at a place across the street, that was owned by the same people.  We walked around for a bit.  Vang Vien is very touristy.  It looks like a tropical French Quarter that was built by the guy in charge of sitcom syndication.  Every bar had tvs blasting episodes of either Friends or Family Guy nonstop--I had read about this before and heard that you can sit in one bar and watch an episode of Friends, but simultaneously hear 2 other episodes in the distance.  This was the complete ironclad truth.  We plopped down in one of the few bars that didn't play sitcoms, but had the same menu as those that did.  It had a row of tables that overlooked the river;  this means great view, but wall of mosquitos!  Luckily they lit up some incense and quickly the problem went away.  I ordered a "glass" of "Lao Whiskey" from the menu.  It cost about 25 cents.  I figured it would be no different than ordering a shot of Whiskey from a bar.  Instead it was probably half a bottle of whiskey in a glass and it was as rough as moonshine.  Cristina and I shared it--having to mix it with various juices--and got completely wasted.  We sat there for 3 hours drinking and chatting.   Eventually tiredness sat in and we went off to sleep.

1/3
Got up late and switched rooms in my hotel to one that was 1 dollar more per night, but had a bathroom.  I wandered around for most of the day.  I walked across a rickety bamboo bridge into the horizon and found a cool hilltop to climb--you had to pay to climb it though, but cool views.  Then I treked further away, follwing some signs towards a "cave with a natural swimming pool".  I walked for a while and didn't find anything.  My water was getting low too, so I asked some people on bicycles and decided I should probably come back another day.  I went back and rested in my room for a bit and then suddenly it was dinner time.  I walked down the road for a bit and bumped into Alex and Nikola!  It was their last night in Vang Vien.  They didn't like it too much, feeling it was too touristy, but they did the tubing and thought it was worth it.  Vang Vien is famous for the tubing route, which lets you float down the river and end up in town.  There are tons of bars on the banks of the river that sell mixed drinks by the bucket.  I went back to the food joint from the previous night with Alex and Nikola and ordered Lao Lap, a dish of meat mixed with spices served with sticky rice in a little woven basket.  My taste was very diminished due to my allergies, but it tasted amazing.  As we were finishing up our meal Cristina randomly walked in--we called her over and hung out for the rest of the night.

1/4  -1/5
Cristina and I finally managed to do the tubing today.  Now I know why there are so many people hobbling around Vang Vien in bandages and crutches.  The first bar on the river has a rope swing that doesn't leave a lot of room for error.  Also, there was a bungee cable that was attached to the swing that was used to pull it back to the platform that sometimes people got caught up on.  Later someone told me a few weeks ago it had gotten snagged on a girl's neck!  She was ok, but it was a scary moment for her.
Cristina and I just stayed for one drink then got in the water.  Most people don't actually make it all the way into town.  Instead they get caught up at the bars, lose track of time, and have to take an overpriced tuk tuk back because the tubing place charges a ridiculous fine if you bring your tube back late--a nice money-making scheme, no?  I seemed to be either more buyant or aerodynamic, or Cristna had a spectral black hole with her, because I started to drift way ahead of her.  I looked back and saw her getting out at a bar, probably to pee, but I couldn't wait, so I left her.  I floated for a while and stopped at one more bar--falsely listed as "Last Bar".  Then I floated the rest of the way to town.  It was relaxing and a lot of fun--absolutely worth the 6 dollars that it cost.  The water had gotten a bit colder as the sun went down, so I was glad I had hurried my pace a bit.  I got out and walked my tube back then turned around and there was Jo!  She and Luke had literally just arrived in town and she was on her way to an internet cafe to email me!  We couldn't believe how many times we had bumped into eachother when we needed to find eachother!  Jo and I walked back towards my place to wait for Cristina, but bumped into her along the way!  She had taken a tuk tuk back.
The four of us met up at Cristina's hostel to go to dinner.  We made friends with 2 Korean girls and a Brittish guy, who joined us.  We went to, you guessed it, the same place.  My review of the Lap was so convincing that half the table ordered it.  We also ordered another glass of Lao Whiskey and mixed it with Lime juice.   After dinner we went to some of the island bars to see what the fuss was about.  There was a group of people in costume.  They all kinda had this zombie look going on--blood and tattered clothes, but they also were covered with some neon green paint splatters, so, rave zombies?  The guys in the group had superhero clothes on, in addition to the neon zombie attire, superman, batman, and spiderman.  When the cotton eyed joe song came on, we all did webslinger movements instead of the traditional do-se-do.
I got up early the next day and treked on my own back to that cave I failed to reach on my first attempt.  There was this sudden transition in environment as I walked there, from sucky dry sahara like climate to jurrassic parks and fields.  I was certain the cave would be guarded by velociraptors.  After a lengthy stroll through archaic wilderness I made it to the gave and was told by the Velociraptor guard that I just missed the tour to the lake and would have to take the wimpier tour.  It was still incredibly cool.  Our guide pointed out lots of cool rock formations.  He was a bit too excited about the phallic looking rock, however.  After the cave I got back to town, booked my bus ticket back to Vientiane.  I got back to my hotel and found a goodbye note from Cristina, who had found a bus for Pakse.  Seems like she would have enough of buses at this point, having traveled almost non stop on them for the last week.  I went to dinner with Luke and Jo at a different place this time, but technically the menu was identical to our usual place.  They were playing friends.  Seinfeld would have been better, but friends was ok.