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Published: December 1st 2006
Kate's questionable wet spot.
It was caused by her wet bikini, we swear. She has great control of her bladder.Vang Vieng seems to be a backpackers haven. There are tons. And for the first time on our trip it is filled with dudes. Not couples and chicks, but dudes. That being said, I think it has a fraternal feel to it. The town in and of itself is quite small and seems to have more tourists than Laos, but it is beautiful. The scenery is lush, it is how I would imagine Vietnam would look without the napalm.
Anyway, we decided to do a kayaking trip down the Song River. When we got to the tourist office in the morning there were a few dodgy-looking people and I thought possibly Moria and I had signed up for the remedial trip. Luckily most of the dodgy-looking people were going tubing. Unfortunately, one was on our trip. Tom the Dutchman made me feel bad for the Dutch. He was quite disagreeable, arrogant and uninteresting. Every time he spoke Moria cringed a little. Our guide was Pan and he is a dreamy kayak instructor. Then we stopped at the Organic Farm - more on that later - to pick up Putu and Tomas. Putu was a lovely gal from Canada working in
Moria in our first cave.
She loves fire and was therefore psyched by the candle-as-lighting. She was NOT psyched about being next to her enemy. Cambodia to prevent child sex tourism. Tomas (Moria's secret crush) is a travelling Swede and very nice.
We got in our kayak and headed down the river. Since it is the dry season the rapids weren't quite rapids but that didn't prevent us from capsizing within the first ten minutes of our journey. Our skills left much to be desired. We were the slow kids. Our first stop was for a short trek to a cave. We hiked up a very steep hill and came to a breathtaking landscape overlooking a huge valley and a massive tree that must've had 10 bee hives on it. We stopped there to catch our breath and saw a woman who was maybe 4'10" and 90 pounds carrying a 60 kilo bag of sticky rice on her back. I had no gear and was dripping with sweat by the time we summitted and she didn't seem to have any problems whatsoever. She was amazing. Then we hiked down to the cave and learned that it was a storehouse for rice and that the cave is their transportation hub. We walked through it with candle light. It was a very weird sensation to be
Moria crawling through a tiny space
and emerging as a tigress. This tiny space made poor Putu cry. led through the dark with only a candle, but luckily we survived. Next up was a delightful lunch cooked by Pan's assitant Lo during our hike and then we headed back in the water.
Putu and Tomas thought they were being helpful by giving us their kayak because it was inflatable and most likely thought it would speed us up. Boy were they wrong. For the first five minutes in it all we could do was go in circles. I couldn't stop laughing. Then Moria and I got into a tiff about our paddling skills and whose form was better. I am still sticking with me. Pan had to kayak upstream to instruct us on what strokes to make. That helped a little but we were still the slow kids. Then we stopped at the Organic Farm. It was started in 1998 and they have great volunteering and education programs and make a mean hibiscus tea and mulberry shake. Then it was back to the river, but this time we had the added challenge of weaving through drunken tubers. We did manage.
Then we had our second cave. It was crazy. The cave was full of water and
Moria on the swing.
Her thigh is black and blue from "graceful" landings. we had to wade up to our chests through it. Walking through the dark was weird the first time. This was a bizarre feeling as we were walking in the dark through murky water with no idea of where we were placing our feet. The cave was full of red clay and being the graceful person that I am I slipped down a very slippery slope and red clay was all over my back. It wasn't pretty, but nothing was broken. Then we got back on the river and went for our first jumps in the river. The platform was about 8 meters high and they had you hold onto a acrobatic bar and then you jump off into the water. I did it, but I didn't like it. Moria was much braver and did it tandem with Putu. Then we pushed on and finished our kayaking on a high note. Then we bid farewell to our dear Pan and headed back to our room to get ready for the funk party.
I must say we funked it out. It was our first dance party of the trip and we were the funkiest of the funky bunch and made
The group
Tom is in red. quite the impression with our smooth moves on the dance floor. My favorite part of the funk party was when a chick was singing along to the music saying "do you love music" because Moria and I are deaf we thought she was just asking a question and so we just responded "yes, we love music." She thought we were weird and walked away. The dance party was a hoot and we even had to have a sit in to get them to play some more funk and the owners of the bar wanted to put on some pop tunes. I think they only gave us our way because they didn't want to hear "we want the funk" anymore.
We went tubing yesterday. This is an activity where you ride an innertube down the song river, buy beer from vendors with coolers on the side of the river and so some swing jumping. Since there are no chicks here, we were quite a hit. A guy from the northside of Dublin befriended us and we floated down the river with him. Our first stop had the scariest swing and of course we had to do it. Moria went first
Kate, a few Irishmen, and more cute kids.
The end of our tubing adventure. Notice that it's pitch-black. It took a while. and she jumped straight away and got quite a nasty bruise from the fall. I watched a few boys go and decided I had to just do it. Once I got up there I freaked out. A lovely Aussie talked me down and coached me through the jump. My facial expressions of sheer terror were enjoyed so much by the crowd that I got a round of applause when I headed back in. That was nice. We continued floating, had some more beers and got to the point where we first jumped yesterday. This is where the story gets a bit dodgy, so moms maybe you shouldn't read anymore. So we decided to do the jump again but this time together. Now that I had had a few more beers I was fine walking up but once I got there I chickened out and made Moria go by herself. Then I realized that I didn't want to have to walk back down the scary bamboo ladder and jumping was my only option. I didn't like it, but I did it. Then after a few more beers I was full of courage and we went up to do it again. This wasn't the best idea as beer and rope swings don't really go together. We jumped off at different times, bashed our bodies into eachother and let go straight away that we hit the water with a lot of force. I knocked the wind out of myself. I was more concerned about catching my breath than if my bikini was on and let's just say my fellow tubers know me a bit better now. We met up with an obnoxious boy from Blackrock, Dublin who claims to have played for Leinster Rugby. He was obnoxious but bought us beer. We floated down the river. John tried to woo Moria while the rugger tried to woo me. Neither were successful. Then we met my friend who made me jump off and headed to dinner with them. I think the reason why we liked them so was because they had girlfriends and were just being themselves. There were no lines or moves dropped. We liked that. After dinner we decided to keep on partying. This was a bad idea for me. I should have gone home. But I love a party so I stayed out. The highlight for me was when I joined a group of Israelis and told them that they are hated just as much as Americans are. Moria liked it best when I almost fell out of our bamboo bungalow in slow motion as the Beerlao had severely affected my motor skills. She also enjoyed it when I drunkenly eating a chocolate pancake and more chocolate was on my face than in my belly. You can guess that today was spent lounging around watching the film classics
Princess Diaries 2 and
White Chicks. I must say,
White Chicks is really amusing if you haven't seen it.
Tomorrow we push on to Luang Prabang for our 3 day trek.
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tess
non-member comment
I'm sorry but I'm confused.... Are you in Laos or in college? And if you are in college, what is the name of this school because I am applying. Hands down this is your best entry yet. Ketty, I most likely could have done withouth the shot of your undercarriage but hey, it really added to the story. Laos seems like the place to be. I'm moving, NYC sucks. More kayaking! More stories about Kate doing jazz splits! xoxo