We woke up this morning luckily in time for the tour but maybe not much time for breakfast. Plus also we had a power cut so the shower was freezing. So we headed out to where the tour started and quickly grabbed a cheese sandwich and a pancake from a nearby stall. We ate our food as we waited for the tour to start. A tuk tuk arrived and we hopped on along with another couple from Israel. It was just the 4 of us doing the tour.

The driver took us through some beautiful villages and mountains and we were dropped at the riverside. We were given a waterproof bag, life jacket and an ore each and we had a quick crash course in how to kayak. We saw another group of people on a different tour doing exactly the same, except they had helmets, we pointed this out to the tour guide and he just waved it off and said we didn't need them. … maybe they were doing a more dangerous tour…..or maybe they paid the extra 10,000 kip. We had a good look at our kayak which had no red stains on which re-assured us a little. We asked the guide whether people often fall in the river and he shock his head, but didn't really seem to understand.

So we strapped our flip-flops and water proof bag on and set off down the river in a double person kayak. We travelled a few km's across a couple of light rapids and then he shouted to us to pull up on the side of the river. We followed him and pulled up next to him, then turned round and saw the Israel couple going floating down the river. We resisted the urge to wave them goodbye and watched the guide run after them then get in the river up to his waist to pull them in further down stream.

We then went for a little walk through lots of lovely villages and paddy fields and finally came to a little hut where we rested for a while. Our guide then explained the river was unfortunately too high to tube into the cave and pointed to a rope which we would have pulled along. We saw a couple of guides from the other group (with the helmets) pulling themselves along towards it but they came back saying it was too deep too.

So we headed for another short walk towards another cave, our flip-flops getting caught in the mud many times along the way. We arrived outside two caves and they said the cave on the left was better but too slippy so we had to go to the one on the right. I dread to thing what the other one was like as we were sliding all over the place in this one as if we were ice-skating. We waited for a while and our tour guide spoke to the other tour group and came back with 2 head torches between 4 of us. The other group had a head torch each and helmets, we really did pick the wrong tour. Finally after he must have seen the shock look on our faces he came back with another 2 which barely worked, so much better.

We then headed into the cave that had a big Buddha at the start. We had to peddle through water in some sections about a foot and a half deep. We were slipping all over the place until we realised the best way was just to leave your feet on the floor and slide yourself along by pulling yourself along on the rocks. We then got to a section where the water went up to your waist. Rachel decided she didn't fancy going any further so I went on my own following the people with helmets. After a while walking through the water I got to a wooden ramp and started going up a bit. However half way up the right side of the plank stopped, thankfully the guide warned me otherwise I would have gone for a nice swim. So I had to balance the rest of the way up. Then I slide the remainder of the way on the mud before getting to a big opening, very impressive. I then turned back and followed everyone back towards Rachel who had been waiting loyally for me……… oh no I remember now she had seen the guide come out quickly grabbed his hand a legged it towards the exit, abandoning me. I followed behind with one of the other guides who slipped and then I had to give him a hand to get up and out - free of charge. On the way out I had a chat to some people from the other group and found out they were doing exactly the same tour as us. Not only did they have helmets on, some of them got to share kayaks with tour guides, great, would we ever get down the river alive. We finally got back out into the sun where Rachel and me were reunited.

We then headed back to a little hut and had a lunch of egg fried rice, chicken kebabs and baguette. At this point I asked the tour guide whether the Rapids had different grades, he said the ones we had been on were about a grade 3 and some of them further down were a grade 7…….. still no helmet???

We headed back towards the kayaks and on the way stopped to take some pictures of some amazing butterflies. We then got to a cave called the elephant cave which was a small cave with a Buddha in it and a Rock that looked like an elephant, apparently totally natural. We then climbed back into the kayak and headed down stream across a couple of small rapids.

Finally we came to the big one, our tour guide shouted a few commands which we didn't hear then he shot off down the rapids. With no where else to go we followed him. We bumped over the first wave, then hit the second wave which covered us, but we were ok, then the third wave appeared and through our kayak over the top of us. We swam out from under it and clung to each other, watching our kayak float away. Thankfully the tour guide grabbed hold of us and bought it back to us. I climbed aboard and was back to safety. Rachel then tried pulling herself up on my side of the kayak, which nearly sent it flying again. She worked her way to her side and tried pulling her self in, I tried helping but she couldn't get in. She somehow managed to get one foot and one arm in our kayak and one foot and one arm in the tour guides kayak and we floated down river. I resisted the urge to get me camera out and take a photo. The tour guide finally leapt onto our kayak and grabbed her by her life jacket collar and pulled her in. He then told us off for not holding on to the kayak when we went over, in fairness to him we hadn't left a deposit so he did have a lot more to loose if he lost his kayak then if he lost us. The Israeli's made it through in 1 piece.

We then floated down a while and Rachel explained to me that she can't even pull herself out of a swimming pool. I think that before we do anything like this again she needs to practise this a bit. We then reached another fairly big rapid, we approached it head on and got through the first wave, the second wave splashed over us but didn't turn us, we crashed through the third wave, and then cruised by the rest. Yippee we made it through in one piece what a thrill.

We carried on down a bit passing a few small ones before the final big rapid. We followed our guide down again got through the first few wave then bang it hit us side on and we were over again. This time though we managed to get in a lot quicker, but Rachel still needed to be dragged back on board. We then floated down a bit further and so where the tubing started and past a few bars before mooring up on one. We sat relaxing there for a while watching people play mud tug a war, sliding down wooden dodgy looking slides into the river, giant diving boards and people being dragged down the river.

We then headed back off towards the finish. The guide finally turned round and pointed towards the side and said to moor up there, but didn't really point to anywhere in particular, he then rowed back up the river. We looked over our shoulders and saw the Israeli's further up had overturned - at least when we overturned it was in the rapids. We rowed towards the bank where we thought we were supposed to stop. There was a load of kids one with a giant fishing net, screaming at us. We assumed it was the wrong place and pushed back out, then we collided with another boat moored on the side. We clung to the other boat for a while but the river was too strong and spun us round and we floated down a bit. By this point the guide was back and moored where the little ****** I mean kids were and we had to peddle against the current (most exercise we had all week) back to the place and had the kids screaming again.

We got ashore and had a laugh with the Israeli's before heading back to our little hut for a shower, thankfully we had hot water again and could get a good scrub and wash our filthy muddy clothes. We then headed to the guesthouse bar, which was a balcony over the river and watched the sunset over the mountains. Then headed out for some more grub, some Friend's episodes and the most amazing coffee shake ever, before we headed back to our hut for a nap.