More adventures on the river

Hello again

Check the gormy eyes!

I've been travelling for exactly 3 months today - it feels a lot longer!

I'm now in Vientienne which is the capital of Laos. It's quite strange being in a city again. Anyway, to the last few days:

Saturday 6th September, Vang Vieng, Laos

Today we got up about lunch time and decided after doing nothing for the last 3 days it was about time we did something constructive, so we went tubing. Unfortunately Mascha had an eye infection so she couldn't join us.

we all piled into a tuk tuk and it took us about 3km outside Vang Vieng. We were left at the riverside with 4 bright pink inflatable tubes. The river looked very very fast but we eventually wedged ourselves into our tubes and we were off! About 2 minutes later Hamish and Mark were pulled into the side of the river by a little old lady holding a big long stick who sold them some Beer Lao. Peter and I managed to stop a little further down and get some beers. It was a strange experience floating along the river while surrounded by the most amazing scenery. About half way down the river we noticed some people jumping and diving off a cliff into the river. So of course we had to stop and join them. It was much higher than the waterfall jump. Hamish and Peter jumped straight away and Mark refused to jump until I had. I eventually jumped and boy was it scary.

Cliff Jumping

It was another half hour before we got back to Vang Vieng and I completely missed the sign that said STOP TUBING and sailed on by. I was chased along the river bank and eventually pulled in. We had a fairly quiet and early night as we'd booked a kayaking trip for the following day.

Sunday 7th September, Vang Vieng, Laos

I woke up this morning and I couldn't open my right eye. Hamish turned up at the door and his eye was all swollen too. Mascha was feeling a lot better. Hamish decided not to go kayaking. I was planning to go until I realised I'd lost my money belt. Luckily it turned up - I'd left it at the kayaking place!

Hamish, Peter and Mark on the boat

We were taken in a tuk tuk down the river a bit further than we'd been the day before and dropped off with the kayaks. Mascha and Peter went together and I went with Mark. About 1/2 an hour down the river we stopped to see some caves.

We were each given a large inflated tube and we had to walk through a village, through some rice fields 'til we reached a large pool with caves at the far side. We all got into our tubes and paddled across to the caves. Once inside we had to pull ourselves along with a rope until we reached a little shore at the far side of the cave. We were all given a little candle to carry. We then had to crawl through a very low part of the cave. We started off crawling like commandos, but eventually we found it easier just to roll along. We got to the end and we could stand up - by this time we were covered from head to toe in mud! We then crawled under some stalagmites and waded across a pool into a river. We walked along the river for a bit before Mark decided to start pelting everyone with mud. Another group trying to get out of the cave wasn't too impressed. We then had to crawl through lots of narrows bits of the cave, sliding along on our bottoms and crawling on our hands and knees trying not to bang our heads. We eventually got back to the river and we had to crawl through the river on our hands and knees as there wasn't enough room to stand up. The second cave involved no crawling whatsoever, we didn't even need a torch, but we did see a stalagmite shaped like an elephant. It was then back on the kayaks for a bit before we stopped at the vineyard to try some Mulberry tea and fruit wine. We also stopped at the cliff jump again (check out the piccie of me leaping off the cliff), before getting back to Vang Vieng. In the evening we were invited for beer and Lao Lao whisky at the kayaking place. Needless to say after a whole bottle of whisky between 10 of us the night degenerated fairly quickly. We were eventually asked to leave the pub by a policeman carrying an AK47.

Me, Mascha, Peter, Hamish and Mark

Monday 8th September

Today we got the bus to Vientienne. Fairly uneventful day.

Tueday 9th September

Today we had to say farewell to Mark who is travelling back to England - bye Mark!

Until the next time

Hilary

The tree we jumped out of

Waterfall