I never imagined I’d experience the sensation of floating in the sky while on a river, but in Vang Vieng in central Laos, I did. Arching my back on an inner tube while lifting my feet out of the silky Nam Song, the air still and the day quiet, I looked up into a cloudless sky and felt as if I were hovering in midair, completely weightless.

Right then I wondered why tubing is so underappreciated in the pantheon of water activities: It’s cheap, meditative and arguably more connected to its environment than kayaking or rafting, for the tuber must submit to the will of the current.

What’s more, tubing is why Vang Vieng emerged on the international tourist map. This small town between the capital, Vientiane, and the Unesco Heritage town of Luang Prabang was little more than a farming settlement two decades ago, set in a valley bordered by striking karst formations. Most houses didn’t receive electricity until the late 1990s, and the roads were largely mud tracks.

Tubing, according to local lore, took off when Thanongsi Sorangkoun, the founder of the riverside Organic Farm Vang Vieng north of town, gave a volunteer a tube to go down the river (Mr. T., as most people call him, neither denied nor confirmed the story when I asked him). Entrepreneurs saw an opportunity, and by 2001 a small industry had blossomed, with half a dozen operators offering tubes that adventurers could ride down about five miles of river.