Mud, Caves and Inflatable tubes


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Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng
September 24th 2010
Published: September 24th 2010
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safe bridgesafe bridgesafe bridge

a bunch of the shoddy ones are closed and undrwater for a few months
It is a complex, long winded and messy process that makes a tiny village into a travel mecca. Sometimes it destroys whatever was nice about the destination and other times it is the best thing to happen to the locals since whatever revolution was last. Vang Vieng is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. At first glance one may look at the crowds of drunk tourists and immediately declare the town a hell hole but here i think the locals really get a kick out of it. As for the town itself, there are 100 guests houses but everything is clustered in with local homes, schools and livestock. For the most part those who live here aren't displaced by their towns' popularity on the tourist trail.

Vang Vieng has LOADS of attractions, piles of charm and a cooler climate than most of Southeast Asia. For kilometers in every direction from town there are Karst mountains dotting the landscape that house dozens of caves, shrines and springs. One can walk, bike, drive or kayak to any number of the caves and it makes a perfect day trip. Yesterday we walked 1.5 Km to a nearby karst and visited a cave that used to be used by Yunnanese from ancient china when they would maraud in the area. It was pretty built up inside with paths made of concrete but there were tons of stalactites and neat chambers. We went past the first sign that said do not enter but stopped at the second one which seemed to guard an actually dangerous cavernous darkness; you've gotta push past where most tourists go for some real fun but recklessness must have some limits.

Today we rented mountain bikes (knockoff Trek 800's made in china) to do 15km loop that passes by many caves, villages and shrines. The bikes looked alright and i tested them out before paying for anything but they were loaded up with all the crappy gear that any Walmart bike would end up with to make it look valuable... still gotta take what you can get. Within 3 km i had a flat tire from 2 busted spots in my rear wheel but thankfully there were little bicycle/motorbike repair shops all along the trail. Our soft drinks cost more than the repair job and the total was still only CAD $2.75! Continuing onward we entered into a rice paddy valley completely surrounded by limestone Karsts and misty clouds. With monsoon in full swing the roads were sloppy and we slobbered in mud practically from the get go which elated the part of us that wants to jump in every puddle you see. We reached the cave in good time and made the 200m rocky accent to the opening. The first sight of the mouth of Kou Pham makes your jaw drop; it is the cave in your wildest dreams and worst nightmares. There is no path through that is visible but light chimes in from so many directions unseen that it seems to be aglow. Every cavern is dripping with hard water from the invisible ceiling. making each chamber so slippery that each step could be our last. The only guide in is spray paint arrows and with a few minutes they are gone and you are on your own to find your way in the darkness; even with our flashlight we could only see a meter or so in any direction. We wandered up, down and deeper, determined to find the point at which we could continue no further... which we did. A mess of holes, stags, mini-lakes and slopes of sheer limestone signaled the end to our push. For the most part as long as we kept our steps slow and steady there was no real danger except hitting your head on a black stalactite but the black depths caused us to turn around.

This was when we realized there was no more light from the source and we were with no guide except our memory of the route we took to guide us back... however no worries, we exited with no problems and saw a gigantic spider! We had only entered 50m or so past where light seeps into the caverns and once it was visible we had our guide out. In less than 1/3 the time it took us to descend, we were safely back on the ground and hopped on our bikes back to town.

You could spend months here just to see all the caves but the other attraction that takes up the days is tubing... and not with a boat like home. This is sort of a spring-break-meets-lazy-river type of deal. You rent a Tube and get driven 4 km downriver to the launch and float back to town. Sounds boring enough... but all along the river there are makeshift bars with giant rope swings that launch you to a 7m drop into Song river, huge water slides, mud volleyball courts, and piles of drunken antics. Personally we took it easy as we didn't feel like being shit-faced and floating down a river but for most folks, its a drinking competition and the cheapest biggest drinks are buckets of local whiskey and pop. ('bout $3 a liter bucket) Its a silly affair but a hilarious way to spend a day. The problem seems to be that lots of folks come here and then just tube every day then get a job at one of the bars that runs tubing and they never see any of the country. Don't worry... we have our tickets to leave tomorrow morning.

All in all this is a love it or leave it town. We love a good party so this is great but damned if i would spend the rest of our Lao trip here. Tomorrow we go further north to Luang Prabang... sort of the last frontier before the really mountainous and really rural Lao takes over. Now all the bus trips are short but take 10 times as long as they are all mountain switchbacks but its good exercise for the buttocks.


What are you all doing for Hallowe'en? (we will be with you in evil spirit!)
Love to you all....
Jenna and Brian


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accent
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the mouth
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our guide
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light = life
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last light
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jenna and reclining buddha
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no! not down there
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cave spider
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its weird in here
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drip drip drip drip drip
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natural lingas
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first glimpse of light
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i like the cut of his jib


27th September 2010

Caves
Wow! Great caving! Halloween? We might get the three neighbour children dropping in but then again, maybe not. They didn't come last year. Just back from an art show in the old Brick Works in Toronto. Neat place but I don't like the drive to Toronto. Meanwhile, back on the farm, the donkey and goats are doing fine as are some rats that seem to want to eat the goat's grain. Just collected 4 kittens that I hope will make a dent in the rat population as soon as the four of them get a bit bigger. (6:23 in the morning and some coyotes are howling. There seem to be more of them this year or else they are just more vocal.)

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