Arrived in Vang Vieng not feeling too great, again thats what a bottle of tiger whisky will do to you, so day one was pretty uneventful. Vang vieng is a very strange place; situated on the Nam Song river, it is a backpacker orientated town famous for limestone caves and water sports/activities, specifically tubing. The town itself is basically a one street town, with this lined by bars guesthouses and restaurants with low sitting sofas where people seem content to sit and watch the reruns of friends, family guy, the simpsons and movies for hours on end (to clarify, each bar chooses one program and plays it continiously, one friends, one simpsons, one films etc). I was told one 'traveller' has been here for 6 weeks (he's not really a traveller is he, he doesn't go anywhere). My first day was pretty uneventful, due to the stomach hangover limiting my actions severly.
Day two: My shower smells very strongly of the obviously very recent paintjob, which hasn't dried in the heat.
(and why am i still singing slipknot in the shower)
I recon i spotted the 6 week guy:- when your in one of the restaurants for breakfast and theres someone in there, looking very confortable, eating tons and laughing outloud manically along with the laughter track on friends, i recon its a fair bet that they've been there for a while. Plus he had bad hair, worse than the davey bowl cut!
Anyway, excluding those asides, i rented out a bike and rode the 7km to the PhouCam caves. Didn't count on these roads being quite soo bumpy, next time i think i'll opt for the bike with gears, as opposed to the old grannies bike (my buts pretty sore now). Arrived at the cave to be strongly disappointed by the 'crystal clear blue lagoon', which i had read was at the bottom of the cave entrance. It was a stagnant, bug infested marsh basically. Wasn't gonna swim in there. The cave dissappointed too, where i paid two little kids who are acting as guides to show me inside. THey pointed at the wall after about two minutes in 'buddha' they said. Buddha? where the fucks Buddha? all i see is a cave wall! So that was the end of that cave.
Funnily enough, i was pretty much convinced now that the 'caves of vang vieng' were in fact, shit, and i wasn't too keen on splashing out to see any more of them, as this was supposed to be one of the best caves.
Some people i met at this 'cave' said they thought their was a lagoon further on, and that they were going on the hunt for that. Having decided i wasn't going to see any more shitty holes in walls with dirty puddles outside (my opinion of the last cave; it was hot, i was sweaty and tired, ok!) i had suddenly freed up a large portion of my day, so i decided i'd join them. Off they scooted, with me bumping along behind them at breakneck tortoise speed (i really should have rented a scooter).
Arriving at the destination intended i was pleasantly surprised to find that the previous cave i had seen was in fact not the one i had thought it was, and that this was the cave entrance i had originally sought out. Feeling pretty stupid about my blasphemy of the caves here, i continued on, to be greated by a lush, crystal celar blue pond like clearing complete with a rope swing and lounging area. The lagoon had indeed earned my praise, an excellent way to cool off in the hot sun! The cave itself was fantastic too; access is via a steep 200m (appartenly) scrambling up very very steep rocks, a tiring journey in itself. The huge gaping entrance to the cave dwindles into smaller, yet no less impressive tunnels and passageways the further you go inside, and some of the guys were going for ages and said it seemingly went on forever. I hasten to add that once you get past the main entrance the cave is pitch black. If you visit, don't go alone, be very careful as its rather slippery, and take a very powerful torch, or rent one, its worth it!
At the meal in the evening with those i met at the lagoon, it was decided that tubing was the activity for the day following and i also let it slip that it might just happen to be my birthday the same day (oops, how clumbsy of me).
Tubing in Laos, by the way, is a fantastic way to spend your 22nd birthday, in fact i believe you'd be hard pressed to find a better celebration. For those of you unfamilar with the concept, it is this:- floating down the river in a rubber tube (those donut ones), stopping off at bars along the way to drink beer lao and free lao lao, whilst partaking in some much required japery in the form of ziplines and rope swings. Started at 11 in the morning, with arrived at the end point (a mere 2km downstream) at 8pm in the evening all rather drunk. Fantastic day! The guys even got me a donut for a cake (its a tube see!) .Nothing more needed.
We met an hour later, when drinking continued with some much required eating. Moving from bar to bar, we proceeded to get more and more wasted, drinking lao lao whisky buckets we kept getting for free, lao lao shots, beer lao and playing drinking games with the friends we had made during the day (it wasn't only my birthday).
Forgot to mention earlier that all of these restaurants and bars in town have a 'happy' menu, which them proceeded to come out and orders were made (corrin, for you i'll explain: happy means drugs; weed, opium and mushrooms in various items of food, shakes and just pure drugs!). People got more wasted , some left and we moved on bars. We left the final bar about 3:30am, deciding that the fact that their was only four of us left, one being asleep and one being awake only when he was being sick on himself meant it was time to leave. During this time at the bar we had drunk numerous whisky buckets, poured more lao lao into the buckets whilst drinking them, downed whisky buckets with the bar staff, and even eaten fried crickets, which i couldn't get enough of.
Cue Comic book guy voice:-
'Best Birthday ever'
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