This entry wasn't going to make it to the blog because it was meant to be a routine day but after the day I'd had, my usual randomness shone through and I felt I had to share it with everyone.

The day started off relatively normal, I got up and did what I always do in a new town, I walked the streets to see what was there. I went Temple visiting this morning and sat down at the market for a nice cool Mango shake. I was then approached by one of the touts who asked me if I wanted to go and visit the Pak Ou Caves. I had thought about it and it was on my list of things to do and I know tours can be quite expensive on your own so I said yes since he was only charging 50,000 kip. I got onto the truck with a nice French Couple who had been sat there waiting for a while for him to get some more people interested in the trip.

I understand now why things cost so much, we seemed to be travelling on the road for ages, I don't really think I thought about how far away Pak Ou actually was. We made it through the thick jungle and the dirt track roads to Pak Ou where the driver told us he would be back in about an hour and a half to collect us. After being left to it (effectively) in the middle of a town where not many people speak English, there was I with this French couple scrambling over the banks of the river touting for a boat ride to the caves. A guy strolled casually over and said he would take us to the caves for 20,000 kip so we said yes. The boat we got into was like a motorised canoe, all slats and an engine at the back. It was a very quick journey and I was glad since I fell off of my seat and nearly over the side...my luck of falling off of boats coming through!

The caves themselves are wonderful, in the side of a rock face with thousands of Buddah statues inside. There are two sets, an upper (which involved A LOT of stairs) and the smaller lower set, both containing Buddah statues and murals. After climbing the stairs we were told by a lady at the top that we needed to pay 5,000 kip for a flash light to see the caves. I refused and promptly broke out my personal attack alarm and used the light attached. (Thanks Hannah!) It was when we got to the bottom caves that things started to get unlucky.

The weather decided to take a turn for the worse, a thunderstorm was coming, we could hear it, but just couldn't see it yet. All of the women working at the Caves came into the small cave for cover and thought the 3 of us were slightly crazy for attempting the journey back when it was raining. We were running out of time and had to get back to the transport, besides it was only a little bit of rain...

No sooner had we set foot on that little boat and set off across the Mekong did the heavens well and truly take revenge for our stupidity. It absolutely hammered down. However, being optimistic, all of us decided it's alright it's only a small journey...that was until the boat broke down less than a third of the way across the river. The driver was frantically trying to start the engine but it just wasn't responsive. I started to worry at this point because my bag is not waterproof and I had forgotten to bring any liners. So my genius plan was to wear my rucksack on my front with my Sarong over my head and over my bag like some sort of tent.

This did not work. The rain was so heavy that it soaked the Sarong within a matter of seconds and I couldn't see for it streaming down my face. Thinking that was it and everything was just going to get ruined as we were stuck, I looked up and there was the French guy frantically paddling the boat with the only oar in the canoe. The two of us cheering him on as we made it to the shore. The French couple of course had already paid the boat driver so in the pouring rain after I slipped and almost ate the sand I had to negotiate my change. We made it to the transport on time to see the locals laughing at us walking through. I said hello to the driver and he just looked at us and I said yes we went swimming in the Mekong...he just laughed and we got under way back to Luang Prabang.

The story of my luck has not yet ended for today. Thus the journey back to Luang Prabang. The winding dirt track from earlier had now become a log flume with all of the recent rain and it was almost like riding a rollercoaster at Alton Towers as we curved round those seemingly too small bends. However, it was not the road that almost made us crash...it was the driver as he stopped sharply and swerved to avoid running over a dog. The dog just standing there looking some what un fazed almost with an 'am I bothered?' expression on it's face as the 3 of us shrieked from the back and hit our heads on the ceiling.

After the events of the day, I decided on one thing, in a Nick Frost and Simon Pegg style I just said 'pub?' where I dried off playing pool with 'John' from Germany and two other French guys. My luck is getting better...usually I would have been in that water.