Feb 12:
When we woke up, our aim for the day was to go tubing. We left the guesthouse and walked down to our usual spot for breakfast. This time, we both treated ourselves to the deluxe breakfast. Included was 2 eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, onions, mushrooms, tomato, baguette and a tea or coffee. After we ate, we sat for a while as daniel was refreshing my memory of how to play the card game "blackjack". I was always the type to never suggest a card game and would prefer to converse instead, although this could have been down to my laziness to learn how to play again. I'm glad we did though as i surprisingly enjoyed it. We must have lost track of time because when we next looked at the clock, it was 13:30. Apparently it's best to go tubing earlier because if you're back before 18:00, you get all your deposit back, to appose to if you're back passed 18:00, you get only a small amount or nothing back. So, we decided to save the tubing for tomorrow and debated the other options of motives for the day.
We decided to check out a cave that was only around a 20 minute walk from the guesthouse so we settled the bill and began walking south along the main road. As we were walking we passed lots of restaurants and houses owned by locals. Women would be peeling vegetables at bulk while sat at the foot of their doors, while the kids would find fun in picking leaves off bushes or chucking pebbles accross the road. This brought to mind how lucky children living in a first world country are, barely pubescent yet swiping the screens of their ipads and fiddling the sticks of their games consoles, these children in vang vieng have no luxuries to play with, yet their faces still bold and beaming with happiness playing in dirt.
We looked out for signs posting the cave "*****************" it wasn't very easily sign posted but we managed to take the right turning off the main road and on a rubbly footpath surrounded by fields and grass. There was trees on the side that were shedding leaves so quickly, it was weird seeing one, after another and another large, deceased leaf fall from the tree. Like tree snow. We continued walking down the rubbly road, keeping our eyes peeled for directions. Soon enough we ended up at a blue lagoon, it wasn't that crystal clear kind of lagoon you would imagine but a more deeper, royal colour. We dipped our feet inside for refreshment. We noticed that there were bushes lining the edge of the small shore, they were the plants that close inwards once you touch them. Imagine our excitement! Like 5 year old children petting a kitten for the first time.
There were no signs saying "ENTRANCE" but we gathered that we should walk to the nimble bamboo bridge as there was a man with a sheltered desk/stall. Once we crossed we were greeted by the man who didn't look like your typical lao, he looked almost carribean. It cost us 15,00k each for the entry (£1.11 exactly). On paying, he gave us two head lamps to stick on our heads whilst inside. As we were walking down to the entrance i spotted a boy following us with his dog, turns out he was our tour guide, without introducing himself (he couldn't understand a word of english). We arrived at the entrance, it was a fairly small opening with plenty of large and smaller rocks. The side of the mountain had a zebra type pattern horizontally. It must be down to the minerals or metals within the rock.
The tour guide gestured us to go inside so off we went. It was very dark inside and had to turn the head light in every direction to see what rock to step on, step over, or potentially slip off. After clambering down, we came to a lagoon. I asked him how deep it was to which he politely smiled, but couldn't answer me. We went back the way we came in and he lead us into another small opening of the cave. We had to bend down a bit, these caves weren't meant for westerners. We were regretting the decision to wear flip flops in the morning, although we assumed it was a cave that you could walk into and look up in awe of the limestone architecture. Flip flops or not, we didn't slip or slide off anything while we continued through dark tunnels. We came across a rock that resembled the image of Jesus Christ. We managed to get to see a lot of the caves for the price we paid and we were finished around 30 minutes later.
The weather was very hot today so we began to make our way back to town with the thought of an ice cold fruit shake encouraging us. En route, we witnessed a hot air balloon taking flight. It looked so picturesque, with the sun an hour away from setting behind the emerald green backdrop of mountains; i seized the moment and got some amazing photos of it.
When we got back into town, we spotted a bar that was offering space cakes. To our delight we took a seat and observed the menu that was handed to us by a young girl sporting skinny jeans with a rack of braces on her teeth. I was shocked. We both were. The last two pages of the menu offered a few of the following: happy tea, opium tea, mushroom tea, mushroom pizza, opium garlic bread, happy shake, opium shake, joint of weed, joint of opium as well as bulk. It was like being in a cafe somewhere in the depths of south america. There was also a toddler playing in the restaurant, must be the child of the owner. We ordered a banana shake as requested to see the size of the bag of weed that was on offer. It was a big bag, worth about 80/100 quid back home. For 250,000kip, equal to £18.50- an offer which would have been rude to decline. We discreetly exchanged the money and the woman smiled and said "kop chai" which is thank you.
We went back to the guesthouse for a smoke. The weed that we had just got was like a thai/skunk/cheese/englishbreakfast tea blend. And at first it didn't really do much to me. After gaining an appetite, we headed out to find somewhere for dinner. It's so hard deciding where to eat in laos as there are too many of the same thing.
We ended up in the cafe that plays friends on repeat for the "falang" to enjoy while they eat. This is a place that me and Dan had described as a place where couples go to die. The relationship has gotten so dull that they sit in front of the TV whilst in Laos and eat their food in silence. We got a comfy booth at the back and oggled the menu.
I ordered a spicy soup called "tom yam" with chicken, which comes with rice. It was packed with lemongrass and chillis and would do the job if i had a cold. After eating and having a lay down we paid the bill and left to go to one of the beloved roti stalls. I opted for coconut and chocolate and dan got banana and chocolate. They're sooooo tastyyyyy. We went back to the guesthouse to read out books and sleep.