Activities! Tubing, Kayaking, and Caving!

STILL here. On the porch? Yep. It’s early morning, just me out here, waiting for my coffee to be delivered from the restaurant - ahh, here it is. Kevin, our very funny hammock-loving neighbor, left the day before yesterday, heading to Vientiane, then to the south of Laos, and eventually down to the islands of Thailand. Peter, our other neighbor, has rented a motorbike for the day to go to Vientiane to get ANOTHER 5-day extension on his visa (he’s been here for six weeks now). We have a new guy in Kevin’s room - his name is Christophe from Denmark. Nice guy.

Anyway, one may easily think that I’ve been doing nothing but sit on the porch for the past few days, but alas, it’s not true! Actually, I’ve been fairly busy, mostly because I thought I was going to leave today and wanted to do some stuff before moving on (turns out we decided to leave tomorrow instead so we could have one more day just sitting on the porch - ha!).

Three days ago was a full porch day for me, but Winston and Peter went off on their rented motorbikes for a day trip. Turned out to be a a really good day for them, besides one minor mishap that Winston had with a tar patch, resulting in a bit of a’roll’ off the bike, some tar-covered clothes, a small case of road rash on the elbow, hip, and back, and one unrecoverable sandal lost forever in the liquid tar. Everyone was glad it wasn’t serious of course, but we did have to take the piss out of him just a little bit because he was sort of (ok, really) bragging beforehand about how he only ride big bikes at home and how he almost bought a Harley in America and how he has loads of experience on bikes. All of which is true, fair enough, but you know what I mean. We told him he was officially a member of the Farang Motorbike Accident Victim’s Club of South-East Asia, one of many, many other tourists. He didn’t like the comments of course but how could we resist? Like so many others, he’s damn lucky it wasn’t worse (and no, he wasn’t wearing a helmet).

Onward. The next day (two days ago) I finally pulled together a little motivation, and got up early and went for a 1.5-hour walk, down a dirt road through the rice fields towards the lagoon. It was the first time I had done anything in two days, and man, it felt great to move. It was starting to get hot in the sun when I got back though, so I retreated to the porch to cool off in the shade. Hung out around here during the middle of the day, and then Winston and I rented tubes and went tubing down the river in the afternoon. It only costs just over $1, and they drive you 6km upriver with the tubes, drop you off, and you’re on your way. The tubing itself was ok; I must admit that I was eyeing the kayakers with envy as I lay helplessly on my tube, but the scenery made up for any lack of excitement on the tube. There is absolutely NOTHING built on this river; no hotels, no restaurants, no NOTHING but trees, mountains on the west side, and more trees. Occasionally you will see some locals fishing along the banks or swimming near the shore but that’s IT. It’s about as perfect as a river ride can get. I so worry that in another 10 year’s time it will be lined with Hilton’s, Marriott’s, McDonald’s, and casinos. It’s an amazing place.

The only injury Winston had that day was that he lost his thumb ring to the fierce rapids of the river (actually it was smooth as glass). No luck for him lately.

Continuing ahead. Yesterday. Our most active day here yet - a FULL day of kayaking and caving!! This is the tour that I wanted to do since we first arrived in Vang Vieng, but I had just gotten too relaxed to bother. Well, we finally booked the trip and paid $6.50 each for a great day, including breakfast and lunch too. There were 6 people in our group plus 2 guides. First we drove upriver (about 15, 20km?) and put in the boats under a bridge. I was so happy to be paddling after being in a tube that day before!! It was Winston’s first time in a kayak so he was a bit nervous but he did really well in the end. The river is essentially flat with just a few little rapids, but it has a fairly strong current which makes for nice downstream travel.

We paddled for about an hour until we reached our first stop along the river: Crawling Cave. Appropriately named for sure. Mind you I had absolutely no expectations for the caving part of the day because personally I just wanted to do the kayaking, but it turned out to be so cool and it was the highlight of the day! Not at ALL like so many other caves I’ve been to in SE Asia which are big, dusty, lit up with lights, and well, just boring. We walked through some rice fields to the base of the cave where a fairly deep stream of blue, clear, and cold mountain water was coming out of the cave. We were each given a tube and then got in the water and hand-paddled upstream into the cave. At times the ceiling was pretty low so it was actually easier to just pull yourself along the walls. Slowly the light from the entrance disappeared and we were in the full darkness of the cave. On tubes! Cool!!

We finally reached the end, set the tubes up on the rock, and started doing what the cave is named for: CRAWLING. We literally crawled through the rock, sometimes on our stomachs just worming through, into various caverns in the cave. Some had water in them again and we walked up the stream again; some were completely mud-covered and we crawled through the mud. So cool!! Our guide was leading us by candlelight and other than that we had a few flashlights between us but that was it. No bats, no rats, surprisingly enough, but there were a few spiders, one really big one too. We were told to keep our lifejackets on from the kayaking and when I was in the cave I was glad to have it as the lifejacket provided extra protection from the rock and cave floor while crawling. It didn’t nearly seem so long, but we were inside the cave for 2 hours!

Once outside we tubed downstream a few minutes, put the tubes back, and then had lunch by the river. After lunch we set out on the kayaks, paddling another 3 hours or so back to Vang Vieng. So beautiful! By then we joined up with another group and there were quite a few boats on the water, and I was having my own fun, going out ahead of the whole group and scouting out the rapids on my own, then lingering behind and taking in the scenery all around me. By the end Winston was pretty knackered and complaining that he couldn’t get comfortable (it was his first time so ok) and he was also wingeing a bit about his road rash. I just couldn’t help but start to call him Bad Luck Bob because it just seems like nothing is going his way lately. He doesn’t seem to think it’s nearly as funny as I do.

Last day to enjoy the porch. Tomorrow we’re off to Luang Prabang.

Water Girl meets Vang Vieng

Another one for the Images of Asia collection

Add comment October 12th, 2002

An enviable state of mind - Chill sessions on the porch in Vang Vieng

The days seem to have passed by here very easily, sitting here on the porch of the guesthouse with our view of the river. Still have the same neighbors - Kevin (Australia) and Peter (South Africa). Two days ago we did venture off to the lagoon across the river for the day, first taking a boat taxi across the river, then hiring a tractor tuk-tuk to take us for the 30-minute drive through rice fields and villages to the lagoon in the jungle. A great place to lay on a bamboo mat in the grass in the shade and CHILL. I decided to walk back from the lagoon instead of take the tractor. It was a magical walk back through the fields with the setting sun behind me, with the birds singing in the trees and sounds of local children playing. That was a great day.

Yesterday I was going to rent a kayak or an inner tube to float down the river or go to a cave or have a walk, but I never seemed to make it off the porch. I had started a new book and was quite happy to spend the day reading and chatting with my neighbors. It doesn’t really sound like much, but it was one of those relaxing days full of laughs that I like to think of as a great traveling moment.

‘Wimps lick, men burn. You should take pride in everything you do from wiping your bum to building a house.’

‘I really should get a diary so I don’t miss any appointments today. 8-10, f-all. 10-12, maybe something. Afternoon, hmm, I dunno. Evening, f-all again.’

‘You should go faster.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because it’s red and got a number on the front.’

‘If I loved the world half as much as I loved me I would never have an enemy.’

Today (this morning) I am here on the porch again and enjoying the (cooler) temperature, blue sky, bright sun, and ever-always perfect view. Winston and Peter have rented motorbikes to drive up towards Luang Prabang and back for the day. Kevin’s in his hammock, and I’m sitting here on the bench. We’re talking about eating healthy breakfasts (chips, aka French fries, on bread) and what being ‘happy’ actually means.

‘See, I’m having a vegetable for breakfast - potato - that MUST prove that I’m health-conscious.’ - Kevin

We’re also discussing the Scots and their incredibly unhealthy diet and how they deep-fry pizzas and even Mars bars.

I may actually venture out later today and go for a walk or go back to the lagoon. We’ll see…

This one could be called Images of Asia

The lagoon swimming hole

Walking back to the guesthouse through the rice fields

Add comment October 9th, 2002

Talking with the neighbors and soaking in the views

Early morning in Vang Vieng. It’s been raining steadily for 3 hours now, but I think I have the best place in town to watch the rain. Yesterday we changed guesthouses and moved to this little gem - a simple but beautiful place right on the river, with only 7 rooms, each one overlooking the garden and river just beyond. On the other side of the river are these amazing limestone cliffs jetting straight out of the land, from 200 ft to 1000 ft high and there is nothing else on the river at all except a few thatch huts. This place isn’t in the guidebook and I found it through a recommendation from a friend (thanks Brent!). The town is just a 2-minute walk away but you can’t even hear it or see it at all from where we’re at. At $4/night for a room, I can easily see why our neighbor Peter (born in Botswana, raised in Ireland, now living in Cape Town, South Africa) has been here 5 weeks already. It’s definitely a relax and chill kind of place.

There are 3 rooms in our building (one half of the guesthouse) sharing one big long porch overlooking the river. We’ve got Peter in one room, who seems to spend most of the day either in his hammock, chilling out, watching the tourists float by on inner tubes down the river alongside the locals fishing off their boats, or he ventures out to a lagoon which is a great swimming hole across the river and down the road a bit. On the other side is Kevin, 35 years old, born in Australia and living in London for the past several years now. He spends the day in his hammock, doing, well, pretty much the same thing as Peter. There is actually a lot to do in Vang Vieng, from hiking to caving to tubing to kayaking, but when you’ve got a view this nice it’s hard to peel away.

Kevin is an interesting guy - he’s done a lot of travelling himself over the years. Last night he was telling us how he travelled all through the Middle East in 1984 for 6 months, and spent only $500 USD. He was saying that a lot of the towns he went to and took pictures of are now just burnt-out bomb craters and fields of nothing, He can’t believe it when he sees it on the news. We had some deep converstaions about politics and war and such, but we were also talking at length about spiders and geckos and mozzies. I told my scorpion in the bathroom story from when I was on Ko Lipe in Thailand. People always seem to love that story.

Today is beckoning a book read, a card game, and more quality porch talk I think.

‘That bubble bubble bubble means trouble trouble trouble.’ -Kevin

The town of Vang Vieng

With a view like this, who needs a tv?

My memories of Laos will be this

Add comment October 6th, 2002