Surviving the super man swing and conquering the slide of death

Our second day in Vang Vien, we saw a couple who we had met in Luang Probang and decided to join up for the famous tubing experience, one of the most well know things to backpackers in Laos. It was actually a lot of fun!  
As soon as we got on our tubes and started floating down the river, there were objects on strings flying at us form all directions as different people tried to drag us into their bars. We skipped most of them, stopping at a few only long enough to eat some free peanuts until we got to the one with the superman swing.
We'd heard many horror stories about these swings of people hitting the bottom or trees poking out of the water. But after we watched a few others do it, we figured it was safe enough and gave it a whirl. 
It was awesome! I felt like I was flying! We ended up staying there for quite awhile, going on the swing several more times.
Our next stop was the famous 'slide of death'! I survived death, but I could see how some didn't. The giant, deathly slide was made of tile. It had water running down it to make you fly faster and a jump at the end to launch you into the air before hitting the water. All was fine and dandy. Until you hit the water. As soon as you hit, you had the wind knocked completely out of you. Then as soon as your head was out of the water, the guy would throw a tube at you, trying to ring you in, but usually just bouncing it off the top of your head leaving you even more stunned. But after you got back on the dock and could breathe again, you forgot about the pain and were ready to do the whole thing all over again! 
To get your deposit for the tube back, you had to have it back by 5 and it took about 2 hours to float back down the river to the end.
The float back down was a chill and a bit bumpy; occasionally scraping rocks at the bottom or crashing into trees, but it was very beautiful! 
We got back with 15 mins to spare. We returned our tubes, showered up and met up with the couple again and 2 boys from Japan that we had met earlier for dinner at a nice little restraint near the river. A nice way to end a day on the river.