Vang Vieng is nestled in the middle of mountains and is beautiful... It so looks like home it's unsettling. We must be acclimatising to the temperatures now, as the airconditioner in the units make us head for blankets and duvet covers when it hits 16 degrees.. (ha, watched the news the other morning and saw Wellington had a high of 12)... On our orientation walk around the town (which is something that is done for every city / town we arrive in) we were taken to where the tubes begin... Tubing is big here... You hire a tube jump into the river and float down.. seems harmless enough, BUT... along both sides of the river are bars, with staff whose sole function is to throw you lines which you hold onto, so they pull you in... It's just a pub crawl in the water... Many of the bars have built flying foxes, so you fall into the river from a height of about 6meters, but most of the patrons are feeling no pain by then, which is lucky cause I didn't think the river was that deep... at the end, a group of children help you out of the water and also help you return the tube which if you don't you forfeit your deposit... Most of the children though just help themselves to your tube and keep the deposit...(entreprenuial little tykes)... And in any event if your sober enough to stop them, you win... simple really.. There are also restaurants along the riverside, and they all have tables designed for you to recline on whilst either watching the tubes float down the river, or else Friends or the Family Guy on DVD... Yep, West meets East... Every restaurant in town plays those two shows, so if you've missed an episode you'll be able to catch up at one cafe or another... There are also bars on the river not accessible by tubes, you have to walk over a rickety bamboo bridge but they open at 11.30pm... One of the bars "Rock" has an understanding with the local police.. They openly ingest drugs there and as our tour leader said within the compound your safe, but the minute you leave you get arrested if the police see you have been taking drugs.. in which case your on your own... Fair enough... There are many others to enjoy there though, and all of them have hammocks to rest in whilst your drinking or as Nye (our tour leader says) chillaxing...
We then wandered into a massage palour for a full body traditional Laos massage with oil... I won't go into detail too much, but when I was told to roll over onto my back, they really mean't full body... hmmm now as for Dudu, she had a Fafafine (spelling might be off, but in essence it's a male wanting to become a female without the operation yet).. She had opted for a back and shoulders massage... Needless to say that I had my suspicions as to the gender of her massuse but it was definately confirmed when I had to roll over onto my back... "It" was alive and I thought the attraction was supposed to be for men... But as Dudu was saying, her mojo's finally working and she has manly shoulders anyway... She also had an acrylic nail left behind in her back too...
Dudu and I decided that the tubes weren't for us, so we went and booked a day trip that incorporated caving (4) treking (1.5hrs) and then kayaking back to town (2hours).. Fantastic day..
We took the day trip the next morning, which began at 9.30...
We began with the caves, 3 different ones (but oddly enough, each of them had buddahs inside) pitch black and so we were given torches to use... To start them you had to connect the two wires just like one would have to do if you were stealing a car... (not that either one of us has ever tried it, and don't you either Kent!!) Our guide was singing the entire way... At the third cave Dudu had an adventure... She managed to slip and get caught... Stalagtites come down, and stalagmites go up... Well Dudu got a stalagmite up her bottom.... I got a sore stomach (cause laughing hurts) and then I got sore legs trying to keep ahead of her so she wouldn't hit me for laughing.. Then we stopped for lunch.. BBQ... Gorgeous.. then a 1km hike to the next cave, which apppropriately was called water cave... To enter you had to get onto a tube, there was about 6inches of clearance between your body and the top of the cave entrance, so it was hilarious ducking your head, then dropping your body into the middle of the tube and then almost sitting up to get your legs in... Pitch black again, and only the security of a rope to help you through... It ends in a cavern with a deep pool that you can swim in, however it had rained the night before so the water levels were much higher than the guide was happy with and he wouldn't let us go too far in... Still he then said let go of the rope.. Woo hoo, I now know what a pinball feels like... the current took us out to the entrance and Michelle got too enthusiastic, and managed to tip herself out... Just too funny... Must do that again...
After the cave it was a walk to the Hmong Village... When we passed they were making new poles for a new bridge... They weave them, make them into big repositories, position them into the river and then fill them with stones, and then cement... (how it hardens is beyond me but apparently it works) labour intensive though and everyone contributes..
We then headed off for the kayaks... Dudu and I again paired up, but we were much better this time around... Only a couple of minor hiccups... a major one for the aussie couple...on our first encounter with rapids, they judiciously managed to turn their kayak sideways and proceeded to tip out... She hit her head on the rocks, and he couldn't turn the boat right side up, so one of the guides had to leap in to correct / save them.... Dudu and I spent a great deal of time splashing all other boats who came near... It was fun, right up till the time Dudu went silent... I turned forward to find a wall of bamboo moving at light speed towards us... (ok, we were heading for the immobile bamboo) Since I was steering i had two choices, either try to turn us, in which case, I'd have given Dudu concussion and given her two recent experiences re: back and butt, figured head not good... or I could go right over / through it.. so we did.. Fabulous, the last sight I saw was the look of abject horror on the guides face as we disappeared through the growth... Current was alot faster this side of the river, and i managed to spot a relatively sparse growth pattern further down the river so headed back towards the rest of the group through that undergrowth... no harm no foul good fun really... One of the guides got a little too cocky and stood up to splash everyone with his oar.... He had a great time, right up to when he hit the water and had to swim to catch up with his kayak.... We kayaked right through the tubes and all was going incredibly well, until I got distracted by two wee naked boys (2 or 3yrs old) absolutely frolicking in the water... So innocent, so lovely so dangerous.. Dudu went silent again... As you can guess a quiet Dudu is a dangerous Dudu... Ok, so there was a bridge, and ok, so there was limited space between struts and ok, dead eye Tutu managed to hit the struts and not the gap... Well I thought it was funny, but then I wasn't the one in front who hit it head (sorry about the pun) on... Sorry Dudu.... xoxoxo
Down town for dinner, a quiet beer, and then bed... Well that was the plan, but we ended up laughing about all the adventures we've had on our trip... Dudu thinks I should have said that the bridge moved, because an elephant was chasing a tiger, and the weight of the elephant on the bamboo bridge caused the struts to move... I think she's taking the mickey out of my monkey story which is true... Bless...
Tutu and Dudu :o)
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