Slow boat or Speed Boat!?

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The flight proved to be well worth the extra money! Okay so it was delayed again (every single flight we have taken has been delayed) but it was soooo much better then riding on a sweaty bus for multiple hours at a time. I am not sure what time we arrived in the capital, Vientiane but we didn't stay there long (everyone we have talked to says that it is not worth it). So we took a tuk-tuk to the local bus station to get on one of the most famous laos bus rides to Vang Vieng. I thought the buses in the other countries were rough... these ones are ancient, rusted down, huge windowed buses you think of in hippy town movies. They are packed from top to bottom literally with loads and loads of peoples farming equipment, vegetables, boxes and boxes stacked in the aisles that you have to climb over to get to your seat, and the roof is overflowing with stuff. It is quite the sight😊 (I hear some people have to ride the top of the bus when it is full... Luckily that wasn't Adele and I)! The ride seemed pretty short after meeting 2 Irish guys who managed to talk our ear off the whole way to Vang Vieng. We arrived in this small city in the dark, so we chose our guest house by the place with the most lights crossing over the tarmac which used to be an old landing strip!
We were up early the next morning to try and get a quick fill in of the city before taking off again to Luang Prabang (we are on a bit of a tight schedule trying to get to Huay Xai (sp)). We strolled down to the river, emerged ourselves in some rice fields and took the foot path to the caves before turning around realizing we didn't have enough time in order to catch the next random bus passing by to LP. Made it just in time for the bus and were the only foreigners again. This seems to be the trend for us! Should have taken some medicine for the motion sickness of circling up and down and around the mountains... learn for next time because I am sure there will be a next time in the mountains again! 6 1/2 hours later and we made it to Luang Prabang! We were welcomed by 'Mama' to stay in her GH. This woman is so cute, kind, and hospitable I would recommend her GH to anyone. Starving of course, we went down to the riverfront which is a 2 min walk from our GH to have the best apple-coconut shakes (since then we have had 2 a day for 3 days). Checked out the night market at night and made arrangments to go to the Pak Ou cave and the Kuang si waterfalls the following day.
Yesterday, we were on the slow boat river excursion for about an hour north of LP to see the cave filled with thousands of gold-leafed buddha statues. Stopped at a few villages and were back in the city to get on the minivan to our next destination the huge waterfalls. The falls were stunning and the scenery was beautiful. We got to relax and swim for about 2 hours. We were jumping off the falls and climbing the trees to jump into the fresh cold water which was to die for after a sweltering day in the sun! A day in the sun always proves to be exhausting so we were in bed pretty early!
Today was another eventful day where Adele and I took it upon ourselves to go exploring on the leisure bikes. We biked for about 18km to get to a different set of waterfalls (a very recent tourist attraction). It was a painful ride in the midafternoon sun, dripping with sweat but we were rewarded with a day of fun touring around the falls, being the first foreigners to go swimming in the man-made 'pool', tubing down a waterfall, and ziplining over the water (and breaking it too...oops). The ride home was EZ-PZ thankfully😊 Another night at the market to do some 'browsing' and tomorrow we are off on a 2 day slow boat up to the north. Jos.... what on earth were you thinking taking the speed boat. There are 2 options of going north...1 being the 7 hour speed boat which jams as many people and there bags as possible into this little tiny boat that goes flying down the river (they have to wear helmets and a lifevest) or the slow boat which takes 2 days. We spoke to a Canadian who now lives and has a touring company here who informed us and warned us of all the accidents people are not aware of due to these speed boats... he was telling us sometimes people in the slow boat see dead people in the water?!?!!? Whhhhhhaaaaaattt!?!? No thank you! So in short, the slow boat was our first choice after hearing about the horrors of option 1!
We ar eon our way to do the Gibbon Experience which is ziplining throughout the jungle and living in a tree house for 2 nights! Should be a truly amazing experience from what we have been told!
A comment would be nice!!!!!!
Talk to everyone soon!

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