A water cave, rope swing, and picturesque bus trip

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The last entry I wrote we were waiting for the rain to clear to go tubing. We went to some booking places to see where to rent a tube but they all seemed closed. Apparently you couldn't rent them because the water was too high. We all knew that you still could but we were convinced by a tour operator to go on a kayaking trip instead. We (Yamil, Daniel, Johannes, and I...the people I went climbing with) headed off in a jumbo to get north of town. We put our double kayaks into the Nam Song River and headed off. After a couple of Km we reached a village where we stopped and hiked past thatched roofed houses and through a rice paddy to get to the water cave.

It is an appropriate name for a cave that is mostly filled with water, especially in the wet season. In the dry season you can tube through the cave but the water was too high for tubes. You put a battery around your neck with a headlamp so you can see and swim holding onto a rope into an opening that is about the size of you head. Then you swim through the cave (holding onto the rope for dear life) and just look around at the amazing limestone that is just overhead. Hanging down from the ceiling a couple of inches are tiny threads made by some insect to catch its prey. The only negative was that my headlamp kept going out... After about 5 minutes the current was getting too strong so we just let go of the ropes and floated back out of the cave. It was by far one of the coolest things I've ever done.

From there we got back into our kayaks, through some class 3 rapids, and paddled down the river. Surrounding the river are massive limestone mountains that take your breath away. After another 10 km or so (with a couple of missions to tip the other boat here and there) we made it to the tubing section of the river. Whatever the tour booking person told us about the tubing being closed was dead wrong.

Vang Vieng tubing is an experience that is utterly unique. There are bars lined up on either side of the river packed with people. Each bar has a massive rope swing, some have slides, mud puddles, volleyball...you name it and they have it. The idea is that you float from bar to bar and they throw an inner tube at you on a rope and pull you into shore where you spend time at each place. We only had time to stop at one bar but it had the biggest rope swing of them all. You climb up about 10 m on a wooden platform and then grab onto a trapeze bar and hurdle yourself towards the river at dizzying speeds only to let go, fly through the air, and land into the river. Then a guy throws you the rope and pulls you to shore (there's a fast current) and you do it all over again. Just a crazy place full of all kinds of people from around the world.

We reluctantly paddled the last 4 km back to town and went to dinner. We were all pretty tired from a long day but it was one of our last nights in Vang Vieng so we went out to another bar afterwards for a couple of drinks. Its not too hard to convince yourself to go anywhere that has hammocks next to a river and buckets (yes literally buckets) of drinks for a couple of dollars.

That night, at about 1:00 when they were shutting things down an Aussie guy named Ritchie came and sat with us and we got to talking. Turns out, like many Aussies, he had worked as a ski instructor in Western Canada amongst his travels everywhere. I ended up having one of the best conversations of my life with him until about 4:30 in the morning. We talked about the world and poverty and religion and everything in between. You meet the most interesting people in weird places.

The next morning the Germans headed south to Vientiane. Yamil really wanted to go tubing again but I knew my body couldn't handle it. I had missed the set bus to Luang Prabang but was told I could catch one coming from Vientiane if I waited by the side of the road. As I was walking there I saw a bus drive by and thought "good there must be regular buses". Well after 3 hours of waiting at a roadside stand a bus finally came. Not the happiest part of my travels but what can you do.

The bus to Luang Prabang is only about 250 km but takes 7 hours. That's because the road is about as curved as any I've been on. You go up and down through gorgeous green valleys with limestone mountains and tiny villages and fields dotted throughout. I was the only westerner on the bus and it wasn't too busy so I got my own seat. After a beautiful sunset the last part of the journey was in the dark.

I got to Luang Prabang at about 10:30 right when the night market was closing down. Unlike Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang is dead at 11:00. Even the guesthouses are boarded up for the night. I found a place and went right to bed. I was trying to meet up with Alex and Chantelle, who I knew were in Luang Prabang, but I at 6 am the power went out so I couldn't check my e-mail to see where we were going to meet. The power was out from 6 am to 6 pm. Rather than do anything I decided to hop from cafe to cafe along the "main drag" and hope the girls would walk by. After 4 or 5 hours and having finished off two of my books that I had started, I was going to go grab another book from my guesthouse and head to another cafe when I ran into the girls walking down the street (Luang Prabang is really not a big place so we were bound to run into each other). We had a great little reunion over a beerlao and set a place to meet at the night market.

Luang Prabang's night market is, hands down, the best I have been to. The colours, the handicrafts, the paintings...they all are of great quality and the stalls are just about every colour you can think of. The girls had to buy extra bags and even ship some things home because of all that they bought. If my mom and Rachelle were here they would probably just pass out from shopping overload. On one of the side street you can get the best cheap food ever. You get a bowl for 5,000 kip (about 50 cents US) and you can pile it as high as you want with whatever vegetables and noodles they have. That plus a $1 large beerlao is a pretty good meal.

Yamil had taken a bus up that day (he stayed to go tubing the day I took the bus) and the four of us found a bar to have a drink. Unfortunately everything in Luang Prabang closes at 11:30 except for one place...the bowling alley. Its a little ways out of town so we took a jumbo. The bowling alley is the place where all of the tourists in LP go after the rest of the town shuts down. It was insane. Just a huge party...in a bowling alley...in Laos. I even bowled decently, although thats not really the point. Part of the reason we wer going out was because the girls were leaving for Chiang Mai, Thailand the next day (its pretty easy to find an "excuse" to go out here).

This morning we had breakfast with the girls and said goodbye and Yamil and I walked around to a couple of wats (temples). There are 32 here in Luang Prabang. The whole city is a UNESCO world heritage site and is regularly voted one of the top cities to visit in the world. I am thrilled to be spending the next couple of days here (as long as I don't spend all of my money at the market which is tempting). Less than a week until I am back in Canada...what a strange feeling that is.

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