Inflatable kayak springs a leak in the Mekong
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2008
1
42
54
Trip End
Aug 20, 2008
Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Friday, July 25, 2008
Kristina and Nicole had recently been on this kayak trip and told us to "definitely get the red kayak, because it is the only one that won't flip when we go through the rapids." Easy enough, we insist on the red kayak from our guide. Lauren and I are in a double, and our first hour is relaxing and uneventful. The Mekong moves VERY quickly so you barely need to even paddle to get anywhere - perfect. We stop at another waterfall to swim and have lunch and then continue for a long afternoon of kayaking (about 4 hours)....the most crucial part of the lunch was when Lauren found a young mother putting sunscreen on her kids and successfully begged some from her, while I remained sunscreenless despite Lauren's attempts to get me to apply some. Given the recent weather conditions (rain, rain and more rain) sunscreen was not high on the priority list, but this day just happened to be absolutely beautiful and the sun was shining down on us in our little red kayak in the middle of the Mekong all day resulting in very interesting sunburn lines on our shins and arms.
As soon as we set out from lunch, we hear a loud hissing noise and start seeing bubbles....perfect, our kayak (which was inflatable, not plastic) is sinking. Our guide reassures us that it is only one section and that it is "ok, very good, no problem." Our kayak has about 6 inches of water in it, which we are sitting in...my end of the kayak is almost completely submerged, and when Lauren paddled in the front, we went in a complete circle immediately. We endured this for 30-minutes before we asked our guide to switch. One can only endure so much awkward back pain, 360 spins, and concern over the upcoming Class III rapids that were we supposed to go over. He was pretty far ahead of us and having a hard time understanding what we were asking, so I finally just yelled...."Come here, we are taking your kayak!"
Our new kayak was like a little slice of heaven, we felt like we were flying over the water and immediately this adventure became very fun again. Our guide gave us zero instructions for the upcoming "rapids" and kept going behind us. I told him about 6 times to get his ass in front of us so that we could follow him. When we finally got to the "rapids", I thought it was a joke...I made bigger waves in the bathtub at home than these rapids were making. Still confused over the rapids, we paddled for 2 more hours until we got back to town going through a few more "rapids" along the way - which actually added some more adventure to the excursion. Being pretty tired from the day, we had a quick dinner (i.e. we were in and out of the restaurant within 25 minutes), bought some movies for $1 and watched Platoon being falling asleep. Bringing the laptop was one of the best ideas, particularly because we've been able to buy DVDs for so cheap. So, we've gotten in the habit of getting a movie about the next country on our itinerary...we feel very cultured doing this.
