Jumping into a rubber ring and drifting the 4km / 2.5 miles through lush jungle, emerald green paddy fields and looking up at the serene karst hills is hard to beat.
Whilst the vibe for tubing in Vang Vieng may have changed over the years from tractor-style tires and booming bars to tubes / kayaks and more regulation, its still super fun and a must if anyone is travelling through this picture-perfect part of Laos.
A few basic tips:
#1 The vibe pre 2012 was a very different one. Vang Vien itself was a full blown party town that seemed to revolve around all night raves and people stoned AF watching episodes of Friends on beanbags. What came with that was an experience where you drifted down the river on old tractor tires off your face as you swang from ropes in the jungle canopy headfirst into the rushing water below. Now, whilst this was indeed great fun, it also came with accidents – which for anyone who did experiencing the old school tubing, this would have came as no surprise – and wasn’t exactly sustainable for what is a very conservative country. The changes now have closed the rave bars and made the drifting down the river more safe.
#2 The town of Vang Vien itself is not worth spending much time in. Get yourself to the tubing or hikes in the nearby stunning countryside.
#3 For the tubing itself, it’s hard to get wrong. You’ve got two main companies offering it – they’ll pick you up and drop you off / take you back depending on which one you go with.
One of the most adventurous and genuinely off-the-beaten-track journeys I’ve ever done was travelling through northern Burma from Myitkyina to Mandalay, using a patchwork of river boats, trains and buses. Even by Myanmar standards, this felt remote – slow travel through places that, at the time, had barely registered on the tourism map. As travel becomes increasingly streamlined and predictable, experiences like this are becoming rare. Northern Burma offered something that’s now almost extinct: the feeling of moving through a place on its own terms, rather than on a tourist conveyor belt.
When you include the breathtaking views of the mountains, the chance to see the real local villages along the mighty Irrawaddy River, and the old echoes of the former colonial past, this is a truly a truly Wow travel experience and one that can easily be combined with a 2 weeks itinerary for the highlights of Burma.
I’ve listed more detailed tips below, but three key ones:
1. Is it dangerous? The north, like many other parts of Burma, has seen continued trouble in the the form of various low-level uprisings through to full-blown sustained armed conflict in the three states you’ll be passing through (Kachin, Shan and Sagaing). The danger level varies depending on the latest with the state of the country. As of 2026, it isn’t safe to visit. But things can change quickly.
2. The route can change. The ferry ride from Bhamo and Katha to Mandalay is one that seems to be consistently fine, but the bus / ferry route from Myitkyina to Bhamo seems often to be closed off. Obviously you need to check into this before you set off (I asked locals even in Yangon who were able to answer me very quickly), but even if you get stuck when you arrive you have options of the train from Myitkyina to Katha and exclude Bhamo, or just simply to fly.
3. Enjoy while you can! This part of Burma is still largely untouched by the growing tourism wave that has hit the 4 key tourist destinations in the rest of the country (Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake). Enjoy it while you can!
Mandalay itself isn’t that attractive as its basically a classically rapidly sprawling Asian city, with all of the noise, concrete and mess that tends to go with this. Also, surprisingly, the Mandalay Palace which you’d think would be the central attraction is also a bit dull.
But, the areas around Mandalay make it very much worth checking out. I’ve listed below some more general tips, but in particular be sure to check out:
Mandalay Hill – when walking around Mandalay, it can feel a bit like one sprawling road after another and the sides of the Palace are LONG so take a while to look around. Instead, if near the Palace, head up Mandalay Hill for great views over the whole city and Palace, and some smaller temples and pagodas on the way up the nice covered stairway.
Mingun Paya – take a short boat ride up river to this rather unusual site. It’s unusual in the sense that 1. It was, at the time, supposed to be the world’s largest stupa. Only “supposed to be”, because the King who sanctioned its construction died with only 1/3rd completed. 2. Now it is basically the world’s largest pile of bricks. 3. It has large crack down its side from an earthquake in 1838. 4. Right next to it is the Mingun Bell which at 90 tonnes has been at various times in history the world’s largest bell. Not enough for you? Its a nice boat trip.
U-Bein Bridge -the world’s longest teak bridge and a route used regularly by the nearby locals and monks. The cool thing is that the water level varied dramatically through the year so, in wet season you see various buildings largely underwater, whereas in dry season you see the buildings from a strangely high bridge.
The Maha Aungmye Bonzan Monastery within the former royal capital of Inwa. The monastery itself is a stunning yellow, but its also fun to get a horse cart / cycle around the overall site.
4000 Buddhist temples scattered across a wide plain in central Burma that is pushed up on 2 sides by the Irrawaddy River and described by Marco Polo as “one of the finest sites in the world”. Bagan rightly claims its title as the highlight of a trip to Burma, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the top temple sites in the world.
But, as with giant temple complexes of such fame, my key tip is not to get dragged into the mass tourism of the place. Instead, try and give yourself an experience that feels more wonder and adventure rather than latest site to tick off on the tourist trail.
To do this, give yourself at least a day to head off on a bike and simply get lost amongst the wonder of it all. Your guide / hotel can give you the directions for where will have the fewest fellow tourists at the time of year – usually the Central and South Plains. This will allow you to enjoy Bagan for what it was like before Burma started to really open up and make you still dumfounded that even with so much variety in so concentrated a place, some temples the size of cathedrals simply have numbers rather than a name.
Getting that feeling of wonder by having some of these temples largely to yourself is what makes this such a memorable experience.
Chiang Mai is a good spot to spend a day or so checking out the temples and markets, or a bit longer if you take one of the famous cooking courses. But the highlight is heading out into the mountains and jungle on a 3 day trek that will let you stay with some of the the hill-tribe villages, interact with the elephants and go rafting down the rivers.
The only problem is that these treks have now turned into a bit of an industry and the market is full of companies that provide the “standard package”. This most likely won’t meet your idea of adventure and, worse, may be keeping the elephants in very poor conditions.
I did this trek years ago when awareness of the treatment wasn’t so clear and it wasn’t quite so commercialised as it is now, and have since returned to do it in 2024 without the elephants. My take is:
- There are companies out there that focus on the well-being of the elephants. They tend to be the ones that lean more towards a multi-day trek. If you are prepared to do thorough research, you can get closer to the genuinely “authentic” experience with a provider that cares for the animals.
- Chiang Mai as a city is great and the surrounding activities cool. But the Chiang Rai / Tha Ton areas to the north are simply better for mountains and wilderness. Consider making the effort for the extra push up there and I’ve written a review on a great Chiang Rai overnight trek into the nearby hills (wow factor ⭐️⭐️) and Mopeds along the Thai / Laos border near Chiang Rai (wow factor ⭐️⭐️⭐️) which was super cool.
A truly sobering experience and a must for any visit to Cambodia (even though this a very brief review). The horrors of what went on here during the Khmer Rouge’s control from 1975-79 are something that we all should be made aware of. In addition to visiting the Killing Fields themselves, I also recommend the Genocide Museum and either reading First they Killed my Father, or watching the Killing Fields movie. Simple recommendations, but really added to my understanding and deepened the experience.
Just outside of Krabi Town you have the wide ranging hill temple complex of Wat Tham Seua. It’s worth checking out for the views for miles around after what is a gruelling steep 1,237 step climb to the top of the impossibly sharp limestone karst formation. It also has some nearby monkeys to play with and some pounding waterfalls that you can jump around in.
It’s worth a visit if you are passing through Krabi, which many do as it is a central transport hub when travelling from the east to west coast of Thailand. But I wouldn’t prioritise this over time nearby in Railay climbing or kayaking around the limestone cliffs by the beach, nor over Thailand’s southern islands, such as Koh Samui and Koh Panghan on the east and Koh Phi-Phi and Phuket on the west.
