Vang Vieng

Well this time we managed somehow to get up early, the alarm went off at 7 and we got up! We both felt terrible and made a deal not to let each other drink Lao vodka again! It tasted ok last night but didn’t taste so good this morning! Anyway we went and had some breakfast at the Aussie Bar and we were very disappointed in the Aussie bars bacon and eggs! Anyway from there we tried to get a Tuk Tuk to some caves we had looked up in our book and the guide said it should only cost us about 30000 kip but when we asked a driver how much he said 150000 kip so we kept walking and another told us the same so we were about to give up on the idea when we went into a travel agent and he told us 150000 was ok and that he would wait there for us for 4 hours and bring us home again! This sounded reasonable because to do one of there tours was going to cost us a lot more. So off we went still feeling very seedy! We arrived and had to walk cross a rickety bamboo bridge only to be told we had to pay to walk across it at the other side! Was cheap but quite funny! Then we were greeted by a local Lao man who started to follow us so we assumed he was our guide! Hehe! We went first into Tham Xang ‘Elephant Cave’ a very small cave with a large Buddha statue and an elephant shaped stalactite which gives the cave its name! Was actually pretty cool looking elephant. From there the local man lead us through a little village and some fields and into another big cave, Tham Hoi that was very dark. We had to get head lights before we entered! We soon realized we were not prepared for this adventure. I had sandals on and big baggy Ali Baba pants that were just not good for caving and Rudi slid around with his crocs on trying to carry his camera and tripod! Anyway in the end after Rudi and I slipping and sliding everywhere and me falling in a small stream of water the guide started holding our hands and helping us and carrying all our stuff for us! We walked for about 2 hours into this pitch black cave through streams of water over big and small rocks, through mud pits where we got bogged and through tiny openings that Rudi honestly nearly could not fit through as he was too tall and couldn’t crouch little enough! It was really really hot in there too and we were sweating terribly and because we were feeling seedy already we both thought we were going to throw up. Just when we were about to say we wanted to go back we heard water running and he told us that we could go for a swim. We got to a small pond in the pitch black cave and we set our lights up so we could see a tiny bit and stripped down to our bathers and headed in. Felt so cold at the start because we were so hot but was actually really beautiful after you got used to it The water was so clear and quite deep in parts. It really was beautiful and worth the horrible hike in! We wished we could have stayed longer but swam around for about 15minutes and then headed back! We made it out and it was already time we had to go back to the Tuk Tuk so we missed out on two other nearby caves we wanted to visit! We headed back to town and had some lunch then we set out to go tubing down the river. We paid for our tube hire and got in another Tuk Tuk that drove about 10 of us about 5km up the river. We walked down to the river and jumped in our tubes. The river and all of Vang Vieng is absolutely stunning! Beautiful, huge limestone cliffs along the magnificent river! You can see the cliffs from anywhere in town! Anyway so we jumped in our tubes and headed down the river. There were bars everywhere on the side of the river and they all yell at you to get you to come over. If you say yes they throw you a rope and pull you in! We had decided we weren’t drinking today as we felt sick so we just went for the float! At these bars there is music blaring and most have these massive swings and flying foxes and slides that you can jump off and they are really quite scary! One guy on the flying fox when you hit the knot in the middle of the river did about 4 somersaults then did a back whacker into the river! We stuck to our good old tyre tube! It took us about 2 ½ hours of floating and a fair bit of paddling down the river to reach the end. Was very relaxing and quite fun in parts where there were little rapids so you went quite fast! The river is quite low at the moment so in parts you bum ram the rocks! That was not fun! It got cold by the end of the trip as the sun was starting to go down! We passed many drunk people in the bars and on the river and one young girl was talking to another boy on the river and asked where he was from….he told her to guess. She said America…no but close…her next guess cracked us up….Canadia! We were in hysterics for ages! We then saw her pull about 8 cans of beer up from a plastic bag in the water! Think she had already had a few! Anyway we came back and took some photos of the sunset! It unfortunately wasn’t as nice as the sunset we had seen from the car yesterday where the sky was a very deep pink. We then walked back into town to book a trip for tomorrow and we decided on a kayaking trip and some cave tubing! We then decided on a hot air balloon ride! Hopefully we will still be around to tell you about it tomorrow. Next stop dinner and fruit juice…no more Lao vodka! While we ate dinner Avatar was playing on about 5 big screen Tvs in the little restaurant! We headed back via a few shops and now getting ready for bed coz tomorrow is a 6oclcok start for our big day! Wish us luck!