The journey from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng was a slightly nervous one not only because it was mountainous and the Lao roads and vehicles aren't the best but also because up until a few years ago the road was still littered with insurgents and was possibly dangerous. But we made it safe and sound and settled into our guest house. After a quick walk around you suddenly learnt that there isnt much night life (as with the majority of Laos) but there were a lot of bars and restuarnats with TV's in them so you could watch famliy guy or friends or...nope wait that was it! So people had to find other ways to occupy their time which resulted in the happy shake or the space pizza where they add a little something extra into your dinner (i.e. weed or mushrooms) to make the never ending series of Friends seem a bit more entertaining. One night whilst we were watching family guy the bloke sittiungh at the table next to us suddenly stood up and fell flat on his face smacking his head off our table on the way down...ouch! A Lao man came over and rubbed his face with tiger balm (which woke him up very quickly) and they got him food and water which seemed to make him ok again as he explained to us that he'd had a happy shake earlier on. Five minutes later his mate comes over and asks how he was after he hit his head and the guy couldnt remember a thing he was so out of it!
Our first full day here it rained...a lot so we postponed the tour that we were due to do until the following day when we hoped the weather would be better, the following morning it had reduced down to a light drizzle so we set off.
First port of call were the local caves, the one where you have to sit on a big rubber tube and pull yourself through on a rope was flooded due to the previous days downpour so we went to another one. They gave us head lamps which were attached to huge batteries that you wore over your shoulder and we set off. At this point half of the group had life jackets and half (including me and Si) did not, this was where the guide announced that the floor was very slippery on the way into the cave and if you had a life jacket you would need it to protect your back if you fell over! So we asked if we could go back and get our life jackets we were told no we didn't need them???? Anyways after much discussion around the campfire (on which a local was cooking the bat he had caught earlier that morning) we headed up the hill and soon discovered what they meant by slippery! The rain had made the mud almost impassable up the hill but we did it and thinking that was what he meant by it was slippery we relaxed a bit...until we turned the corner and saw a pile of huge jagged rocks covered in the same slippery mud that we had to scramble over, then on the other side we had to scramble down into the cave which was even more muddy! Luckily nobody fell over or fell down the huge holes that were all over the floor and got stuck! Once inside the guide showed us the graffiti on the walls left by the locals. During the revolution the locals used to hide in here from bombs and after they had been in here for almost 5 years they left their names as a momento of thier time there. The guide also told us the cave was once full of snakes and spiders and bats but because people were in there so often now they no longer lived there. The stalagmites and stalagtites were beautiful though and when you hit them they made a sound like a bongo drum so they could be played like an instrument.
The second cave was a bit easier to scale as it was just open fronted and at ground level and there was a temple with a buddha's footprint in it and a rock shaped like an elephant (hence the name the elephant cave). After this it was lunch and then onto tubing.
By the time we got into the tubes (just massive rubber rings) it was still raining and the river was going very fast, so we were all a bit nrevous but once in it was so much fun! As you go down there are 5 or so bars that you can stop at and have a beer. These bars also have ropeswings that you can use to launch yourself into the water. They were so high and you hit the water with a smack and of course Si was the first up on all of them and tested all of them about 20 times (and he has the bruises on his legs to prove it!) I on the other hand was a little more reserved as i dont like heights and they looked verrrrrrrry high but after a few beer lao i was feeling brave and made it up to the top of the tower, only to look down and decide i couldn't do it, but after tears, lots of shaking and lots and lots of persuasion from Si i did it and I was so proud of myself! But once was more than enough and I declined the request to go again. That evening we went out for a drink with the girls who were in our tour group and had a few drinks and a giggle, but we were so tired we had to go home early (all that paddling tires you out!).
The following morning we set off for Vientiane, the capital of Laos. All was going smoothly until the smell of smoke suddenly became apparent and we noticed that the airconditioner was puffing out black smoke above our heads, but stop the bus...no way just put on the extractor fan and all is well. Until 5 mintues later when somebody shouts "FIRE!" so everyone jumps up but nobody moves to get off the bus until we tell them to hurry up! Finally when we're off and we're sure he's going to call for another bus he disconnects the airconditioner and throws water all over the unit then its back on and onwards to vientiane! As we're there safe now the journey continued without combusting totally...but it could only happen in Laos!