Last night we booked the trip for today, so we were up early this morning for it. We grabbed a quick breakfast and I picked up one of the waterproof phone pouches they have everywhere. Shane didn't want one, which is something he came to regret later!
We headed off in one of Laos large tuk tuks, with a group of Koreans and a Laos guy who was really friendly and spoke really good English. All of them were really funny and made the day loads of fun!
We started with a walk to the water cave, which is like a smaller version of the cave in Thakhek, except instead of a boat we tubed through it in a rubber ring! There was a rope running through the cave that we used to pull ourselves through before turning around and heading back to the beginning, with a quick stop to look inside one of the dry parts of the cave. This was so much fun and one of our favourite things we have done.
We headed back to land and stopped here to have lunch. As we had been in the water I had my phone in my new pouch and Shane had his with the rest of the stuff in our dry bag. However, the bag had leaked and everything inside wasn't so dry, including Shane's phone which hasn't turned on since! It has spent some time in the sun and is now in a bag of rice, which actually cost more than my pouch which would have stopped it happening!
After we had our lunch we headed back to the tuk tuk, stopping in a small open cave which has a rock formation which looks like and elephant, leading to its name, the elephant cave. Back in the tuk tuk we headed to the point in the river where Vang Vieng's famous tubing starts. We stopped here for a couple of drinks and some drinking games with the guys on our tour before heading down the river in kayaks instead of tubes. This was lovely as Vang Vieng is possibly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We floated down, mostly using the current, looking at the mountains that tower over you on every side. It was really peaceful and relaxing, especially as Shane did most of the work! At the end point we got out and back into the tuk tuk with the two Koreans who were also going to somewhere called the blue lagoon. We spent over an hour sat waiting for others to arrive but eventually they did and we headed off. The blue lagoon is pretty much what the name suggest, a section of turquoise coloured river, with rope swings and jumps in the trees around it. We spent an hour here, me paddling and Shane having a swim whilst watching everyone braving the jumps.
This was the last part of our trip so we went back to the hostel to shower and change before grabbing some food at he Irish bar next door. After eating we went for a bit of a walk and found a bakery where we sat and has the most amazing chocolate brownie!
We still have two more days here, but both of us feel that the trip covered pretty much everything we wanted from Vang Vieng. We looked at doing the ziplining or tubing tomorrow or possibly heading back for a day at the blue lagoon, but it was so expensive! Instead we are going to have a couple of days to explore and chill out, with a plan to go out for a few drinks tomorrow night.