When eating at an organic farm on the river the other day, we read this on the front page of the menu. “Mr. T inadvertently started the tubing craze in Vang Vieng”. Apparently in an attempt to give his workers something fun to do, he bought them inner tubes and they would float down the beautiful Nam Song river. A few weeks later every guest house in Vang Vieng was shuttling up backpackers to join in the fun. (much to Mr. T’s dismay) There are now bars and clubs on the sides of the river beckoning you with blarring music and drugs to come and eat and hang out at their bar.

We did feel bad for Mr. T. whose quiet farm is now the beginning of a high traffic fun zone. But mere days later we joined the craze and rented some tubes ourselves. We started early before the bars were open to avoid the drunk and high co-eds. They throw out water bottles so you can be pulled in to the bar and we did not want to risk a concussion, so we zipped passed the clubs. Apparently no one actually tubes the entire 3 km down, we did not see one other person out in the water past the bars. I think they must tube to a bar and then take a tuk tuk back.

We wanted to tube the entire thing and we had the BEST time. I could not believe how amazingly beautiful it was. There were rice fields and mountains on every side. It also was the perfect speed. We never had to paddle, we just sat back and relaxed.

ready to hit the river!

all 3 guys zipped down the river before I knew what was happening! they are so fast at everything!

the awesomest and probably the most dangerous slide in the world. we of course wanted to go soo bad, but sadly it was closed for repairs.

handsome and fun-loving Peytonbar along the river

about 2 km down river and all alone on the Nam Song (well there were 3 very loud monkey’s..I mean guys following me)

All of these photos were taken with my phone since I did not want to risk the life of my fancy camera. As I was uploading them I found this hidden picture in my phone memory. Taken less than 2 months ago, Trek nursing on a hike in the mountains of Hawaii. I miss our sweet little guy. He would have loved the tubing.

I also just came across this story that was posted on the Niemann Pick Disease foundation site. It meant so much to me that they honored Trek with such a beautiful post about his life.

National Niemann Pick Disease Foundation-Trek Atlas Ingram