19/11/09 Vientiane to Vang Vieng

We woke early to pack for our bus to Vang Vieng in Northern Laos. The journey was only four hours and not too bad at all. We arrived in the town at about lunchtime at a hotel and bungalow complex outside of the main town. Phil checked a bungalow there and it was pretty nice but we decided to have a look in the town as we had been told there were some cheap bungalows on the river. We spent about an hour in the town trying to find another room but decided to go back to where we had started as it was only about a ten minute walk into town and would be much quieter over night. We booked into a nice but cheap room and went to the ajoining resturant overlooking the Nam Son river and the jagged limestone karsts beyond. It was quite misty over the hills but the view was lovely anyway. We ate some food there and watched the world go by in little boats on the river. We went to our room and relaxed. Liz dozed while Phil watched a film called Death Race. Then we went into town to see what it had to offer. Vang Vieng is a small town full of young backpackers coming to tube on huge inner tubes down the Nam Son river which has many bars along it that people call into to have a drink and party all the way along. We saw loads of really drunk people staggering around holding onto small buckets filled with cocktails, still wet from the experience. We had decided we wanted to go kayaking to see the river and also see some of the areas many caves. We found a tour that tubed you through a cave then kayaked down the river stopping in the bar area en route which sounded like good fun. Phils cake dar went off again and we had drinks and Phil had cake in a nice cafe on one of the main streets. We then walked on a bit further and saw many resturants playing Friends and Family Guy on a continuous loop for all the hungover people to sit and watch. We stopped to have a beer in one of the bars that looked nice and relaxed with cushions and low tables to sit at. We sat next to a guy,Mark, we had seen in an internet cafe the day before in Vientiane so stopped with him for a while chatting. A while turned into many drinks, some nice pizza and a few buckets of cocktails. Aftr that bar closed we left to make our way to the bucket bar along the river . On the way Liz and Mark had pancakes which were more like thin pizzas but yummy. The bucket bar was closed so we ended up in another called Jaidees where we had one more drink before walking back to go to bed.

20/11/9 Vang Vieng

We met up with the other peple on the kayak tour at 9.30 by the tour office where Phiol got us some bacon rolls from a street vendor. There were 7 of us, Lucy and John an English couple of documentary producers who had worked on some great programmes, Tom and Emer who had met travelling and Josh a teacher from South Africa. We all got on really well and chatted away on the way to the first cave Thamnam cave. We walked though a few fields to the place to see the cave. There was a river running through the cave and we got into inner tubes and floated along a fixed line to see the inside of the cave. It was only a few feet high and we pulled ourselves along looking around the darkness with our head torches to see the walls and roof of it. We spent about an hour in there before coming back out the same way we had gone in feeling pretty cold having been submerged for a while in the cold water. When we got out of the water our guides served us lunch of kebabs, rice and bread which was pretty good. We had all dried offf a little bit by the time we left to visit the next cave a few minutes walk away. This cave was called the Elephant cave as it had a natural rock formation inside that looked like a standing elephant. There was a Buddhist shrine inside and a reclining Buddha statue too. After a little time there we went back to the bus to drive to where we would get into the kayaks for the journey back into Vang Vieng. The river was really shallow but fast flowing and we made a flotilla of six kayaks with all the couples in double kayaks. We all rowed down the river looking at the life along the riverbanks and managed to successfully row through some pretty little rapids. We were close to the bar area along the river when our guide told us to stay to the left so we went to the left of the river in our kayak. We noticed all the others staying over to the right so we went to join them there. Unfotunately we got into a stong current that took us straight into a tree which capsized our kayak. Phil got out of the water really quickly but realised he had lost his prescription glasses in the river but at least all our cameras were in the dry bag safe!!!! It took ages for Liz to get out as she couldn't put her feet down to jump out as the river was so strong. Oh dear what a disaster !! We got out after a few minutes at a hut where we could get drinks. Liz was freezing so stood by the big bonfire they had there to try and dry off a bit. From where we were we could see all the first bars along the tubing route. There were hundreds of people in the first bar dancing, drinking and partying. There were several huge rope swings into the river which people were jumping off really acrobatically. The music was pumping and people were clambering on their tubes and floating along to the next bar where the staff would through out a rope to pull them in. It looked like a really good laugh.We stayed at thebar for ages watching the activities along the stretch of water with all the busiest bars, then set off for an hours row back ot town. Our route took us past many more bars all with their own features, slides, swings, hammocks, decks and cushioned areas that all looked really nice. It took us all over an hour to row back to town so it must take hours to tube back only floating with the current. We got out of the kayaks back in town after a great day and went to our room to change. We made loose plans with the others to meet for a drink later on. Once back in the room Liz couldn't find her watch anywhere. She spent over an hour pulling the room to pieces while Phil was dozing only to find it stuck in the mosquito net above the bed. We relaxed for a while then went into town where we spotted Tom and Emer in one of the bars. We sat with them for a while eating some good burgers then went with TOm to meet his friends in the Ooh La La bar. There was a pool competition there and we all signed up to play killer. Liz managed to pot a ball on the first two rounds while the boys all lost lives. She stayed in for another two rounds and won a cocktail bucket for being the last girl!!! Phil made it right to the last two but the other guy potted a ball and won much to Phils frustration. Phil won a bottle of vodka for coming second which we put into two buckets for us all to share. Emer had come back by then and we all went to Jaidees bar for another drink before bed. It was about 1 am when we finally made it to bed.

21/11/09 Vang Vieng

We had a really lazy morning in the room unable to get any enthusiasm for tubing after a night on the pop the night before. We only surfaced at about 11am and headed for an Irish bar in town where we had spotted a sign for pie and mash before. When the pie arrived it looked bad with really pale gravy and grey mash but it was really delicious and we were both glad we'd had it. After eating we went on the internet for a while and finally managed to catch up with Richard to say Happy Birthday. We spoke to all the family which was great but its never long enough really. After that we went back to the room to change for the evening but ended up watching all the Lethal Weapon films back to back on our TV. It had been a fantastically lazy day.

22/11/9 Vang Vieng

We decided to hire bikes and explore the area around Vang Vieng which has many caves , so we hired a couple of shoppers and started out. We called in to use the ATM which was closed and had to cycle to the only other one in the town which thankfully worked. We crossed a bamboo bridge where we had to pay a toll and got to the other side where there was a small village. The people were living in the traditional style and we stopped to watch some cows crossing a small stream. We cycled on a short distance where Phil stopped to take a video of some people working in a field but he was bumped out of the way by the cows...hilarious !!! If its not Liz cocking up the videoing the cows are saboutaging it. We cycled on for about 40 more minutes and pulled into a juice bar to have a drink. It was a bamboo shack in the middle of nowhere raising money for the local children. While we were having our drinks a local man was trying to catch a big snake he had seen in the nearby pond. He didn't catch it but we spent a while watching hoping to see it ourselves. We cycled onto our first cave called Tham Phu Kham cave , parked the bikes then took a guided tour of the cave. The guide took us through the dark cave with headlamps on through some narrow ways to ther back of it where the unguided groups wouldn't get to. Some crafty tourists tagged to the back of our tour but we lost them somewhere deep in the cave!! It was all very impressive with high ceilings and many stalagtites and some really sparkly rock. We spent almost an hour exploring then clambered down the steep stairway to the bottom where there is a pool of blue water to swim in. A few people were lazing around the area in the sunshine and swimming in the pool. It was really relaxed there and the opposite to the tubing mayhem along the river. There were a few swings on an overhanging tree which people were using then jumping in the water. We watched for a while then set off again to see another cave nearer to Vang Vieng. Phils Oakleys broke in the same place as Lizzies had before so we aren't having too much luck with glasses. We crossed over the bridge again after a lovely cycle through the fields and villages. Two local children hitched a lift on the back of our bikes which was quite funny. Back in the town we followed signs for Vang Vieng resort through which was another cave called Tham Jang. We rode to the gates and were told we would have to pay to take our bikes through only the few meters we would be allowed to take them inside so we left them outside the resort and walked. We crossed a bridge passing the main building of the resort which was in a bad state of repair. It was 4.30pm and the cave closed at 5pm but we were able to buy tickets. We climbed some steep stairs and went inside the cave which was lit up and illuminated. We walked out to a viewing area overlooking the town of Vang Vieng which was a good view but then the guard came and told us to make our way out. We had only been in there for about ten minutes so we ignored him and made sure we saw every inch of the cave. When we came out at 4.55pm another load of tourists were climbing the stairs to visit the cave and we thought how pissed off we would be if we were told it was closing after we had paid for tickets !! After the cave we rode back to the hire shop celebrating a puncture free day. We got ready for the evening and went into town for a quick meal and a drink. Phil wasn't feeling too good so after a bit of shopping we went back to the hotel to bed.