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Published: January 31st 2010
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We woke up dehydrated with massive headaches and sever bruising and muscle tears everywhere. My back had one big bruise from shoulder to shoulder and Jacinta had bruising on top of bruises. Marte had a massive black bruise right across her bum and legs from jumping of the tower and we were all sore in our own little way. We meet up with everyone again and had to organise our trip up to Luang Prabang. Feeling bad that we haven’t seen Vang Vieang we all agreed to hire a tuk tuk driver for half a day to see the caves and lagoons, yep that's right there is more to do than just tube. It was great to see the real Lao as we drove through the limestone mountains. Our driver was Steve who spoke very good English, he lived in Minnesota USA for awhile and once he started talking he didn’t shut up, even so he was funny and very kind. The lagoon was very blue from the nutrients in the water and full of fish. We decided to go up in the cave first and have a look inside it went in a long way and with massive rocks and
boulders it was hard to find your way through. With our caving over in 45min we finished off with a quick swim. Our next destination was unclear as we told the driver to just take us to whatever was nice. He ended up taking us to a cave temple were a budda statue sat and then we walked 1km through a village to another cave where a river came out the base of a limestone mountain. It took awhile for us to decide whether we wanted to go tubing in this underground cave because the water was so cold. Only myself, Arthur and Fabien decided to go in the cave. We entered into the cave not actually knowing what we were in for. It got darker and darker until it was dark enough for our head torches to work. We were directed to a rope that was anchored to the wall. The cave was almost like an underground subway but smaller and it remained the same shape and size most of the way. It was almost too perfect in some places and it looked man made. We only went in 200m before running out of time and returning into the
warmth of the sun. It was now time to head back to Vang Vieang to catch our private bus to Luang Prabang. We all had a really great time seeing the sights outside of town and with Annette and Marte deciding to come with us to the next town, it was great to keep our group together for a little longer. Our private bus cost 850000kip and between all of us only cost $19AUS each for the 200km 6 hours trip. On the way we had to deal with cows, chickens and pigs crossing the road. It got quiet dark and it was the first time that we had seen stars and the Milky Way in all its glory. In the distance you could make out the dark silhouette of the limestone mountains and we all got a little disappointed when we couldn’t seen the landscape and scenery at night. The road was unbelievably windy and with only 50m to each U-bend you ended up facing the opposite direction every 20sec as you snaked your way up and down the mountains. I ended up getting mildly car sick which is very unusual for me and I just couldn’t shake the
feeling, I think I put it down to drinking and being tired. We arrived in Luang Prabang at 11:00 at night and started to search for a place to stay, a half hour later and a dozen guest houses we had no luck. Everything was either closed, full or way to expensive. We ended up settling for the first guest house that we came across and just paid the 150000kip for one night.
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