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Published: June 18th 2007
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Hello all,
Well this has been my longest gap in blogs. Sorry but just been having too much fun. Im currently in the town of Vang Vieng in Laos.
My two days in Vietiane were fairly quiet. Its the capital of Laos but it really is just a small town. Everything closes around 10:00pm, bars, restaurants the lot. For the uneducated masses out there, Laos used to be run by the French and their influence is still very strong. You can buy fresh baguettes and a lot of the locals seem to be fluent in French. So the feel of the capital is ( I guess ) like Paris, drinking outside a pavement cafe, reading books or simply people watching. On my first day after wandering around a bit, I went to the Australian Embassy Club which has a swimming pool. I thought you could just turn up as thats what the Lonely Planet said but infact it is a members club and I think its for expats and their families. Waving my passport under the receptionists nose didn't seem to help but US$5 did and I got my swim. The next day I hired a motor scooter
( sorry mum ) and took in a couple of sites. This was also the day it decided to rain but I had a 'harden the fuck up pill' ( not really a pill mum, its just a saying ) and rode around anyway. I visited the Patuxai which is probably the most interesting building in Vientiane and has some nice views from the top. It was a gift from the the Chinese in 1962 and I reckon they must have used a French architect because basically it looks like the Arc de Triomphe. I think they also used English builders because here we are 45 years later and apparently its not finished......they went out to get some nails I think........
So as mentioned I have moved up to Vang Vieng. This is a mountain town ( village ? ) with about half a dozen streets that are either guesthouses, bars, restaurants or internet cafes. The Lonely Planet said all the bars show the tv series Friends all day and night and sure enough in the first few minutes of getting of the bus I passed 3 bars showing it. Howevver there is one thats bucked the trend and
shows The Simpsons all day and night. Its a very scenic place around here, there are mountains all around covered in thick jungle and the Nam Song river runs straight past. The river provides most of the day time entertainment as you can do tube riding, kayaking, swimming and so on. There are many caves around here and trekking is available. On my first day I decided to do some tubing. Its very simple, take 10 backpackers, give them a huge inflatable rubber tube, drive them 8kms up river and then release them into the water. The river flows pretty fast and you just sit there and watch the scenery go by for 2 hours. There are a few bars along the river and the owners will basically 'fish' for you to get you to stop and buy a drink. They will chuck ropes or long bamboo poles out into the water to pull you in. Some of the bars also have huge rope swings and flying foxes for you to jump into the water from. They are seriously high up and possibly dangerous but it doesn't stop drunken backpackers who are being cheered on by other other drunken backpackers
to do the wildest water entry. I didn't stop by any of these places on this day but more on that later.
The next day I decided to do a full day kayaking. Again take a big group of backpackers and take them 20km up river. However this activity does include a number of local guides so its pretty safe. It had been raining all night and was still raining when we started but more on that later too. We kayaked for about an hour and then stopped at a small community by the river. We then trekked through rice fields to do cave tubing. Great I thought, drifting through huge caverns sounds like fun...............totally wrong. We were given a tube ( obviously ), life jackets, a helmet and a miners torch to go on our head. We then had to lie as flat as we could in the tube and pull ourselves via ropes through the enterance and into yet more tiny tunnels and spaces. The ceiling of the tunnels at times was only inches from my nose and at times the torches kept flickering off and then its totally dark. I don't like small spaces and I
had to keep telling myself that it was all ok because my body was tingling as a warning that I was ready to freak out. After 5 minutes I caught up with 5 people and a guide that had gone ahead of me. We waited about a minute and then I started thinking why are there no more people behind me ( there was about 20 people on this trip ). Suddenly from the enterance we heard a whistle blowing and then a guide shouting something in Lao to us. Our guide started yelling 'get out!, get out!, water rising'. Im not shitting you when I say how panicked we all got and then it was full on to get out of there asap. What previously took 5 minutes we must have done in less then 1. What had happened is that all the rain from the night before had finally made its way to the back of the caves and the enterance was dissapearing fast. If we didn't get out we would have been trapped in the tunnels, maybe with an air pocket, maybe not. By the time we reached the enterance we had to get off the tubes
and swim out. I was the second from last person out and once I got to the waters edge the enterance had gone. Previoulsy where we had been standing when we arrived was now under water. Totally scary but a great story that I will tell anyone who wants to listen for years. If I have 9 lives then im officially crossing one of them off as being used. What was really lucky was that the girl who was meant to have followed me was freaking out at the enterance and held everyone else up. If we had all been in there together then I reckon my story could be quite different. So after all of that we went and had lunch 😊
We resumed kayaking for a few hours and then stopped by one of riverside bars I previously mentioned. Already plenty of people there doing the rope swing thing. Some people landing on the their head, back, front etc and coming up not smiling at all. Its just soooo high up and Im surprised I haven't heard tales of broken bones. So what do I do ? Well I've got to give it a go right ?
There are girls doing it and I don't want to be the only one not to give it a go. The long and the short of it is, I now have bruising on my left rib cage - just not my day that day 😊 Later we kayaked to another bar but I decided not to do any more gymnastics. It really was a fanatastic day and that night I hung out with people that I've met along the way and on the kayaking trip till 4:00am. Today is just a lazy day as I didn't get up till 1:00pm and im sore and creaking.
So, tomorrow im off to Luang Prabang. This is a new destination for me but I'll probably only stay 1 or 2 nights as I want to have a decent amount of time in Vietnam.
Thats all folks !
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Mother still -thank goodness
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My poor little boy!
I was feeling decidedly ill reading the last blog. I would have been the one that put everyone else in danger when I screamed and went insane inside the tunnel - even without the danger of the rising water! Always thought potholers were mad people with a death wish. Bet Nikki is really sad not to have shared your experiences in the caverns! Bruised ribs, bruised bum but having a great time. Bruises will go away but your memories never will. Thanks again for taking the time to share your experiences with us. Do take care, remember you are not as young as you used to be - what a daft saying that is!! Love, Mum and Tony