Vang Vieng

Gorgeous was my first impression. Nam Song River set amongst beautiful limestone cliffs/hills! Way to westernized was my second.

Showered, lunched, internet time (to buy my ticket to London) and ready to explore.... we found a local cave. As I'd seen a few caves lately, I didn't pay to go in. After Marie came down (and assured me it was a waste of her money!) we went swimming with the locals. It was awesome. It was this cave under the hill thing? I dunno... we jumped in crystal clear water and just kept swimming deeper into the cave... but stopped when it got too dark. Again, I seemed to be a hit with the Laotians. There is this bar called Bucket Bar and if you go before a certain time you get a free BUCKET of alcohol. I went, didn't drink (thank goodness I can't have whiskey!) and left shortly after. My back was spasming REALLY bad and I again was in tears from it. And I hadn't been feeling the party thing lately as anything I can drink is 3 times the price of beer or the cheap whiskey. Oh, that night was an awesomely loud storm and about 230 in the morning (i was awake from the back pain) a huge BOOM echoed through the streets and the power went out.

Now I must explain a bit about vang vieng. Its a drunken fest for westerns. There is a river set amongst gorgeous hills where you tub. Well, some people tube. At the start of the river are a BUNCH of bars and each have either a zip line or roap swing. Think high up and awesome. Now, remember its dry season and the water is low. Combine that with way too much alcohol. Oh, and the entire town is full of these 'friends bars.' They have tables and pillows set out and Friends blaring. A couple play another show (think south park or simpsons) but 85% are Friends and all a different episode, season, etc. How pathetic... travel to Laos and spend days sitting around watching friends!

Ok, so my version. Marie and I went cheap and rented 1 tube to share. We stopped at a few of the bars. Played on some awesome rope swings and zip lines. I kept encouraging her to move on as I actually wanted to tube the river. Short version. It was a good compromise of swinging, zip lining and her hanging out and us tubing. Just incase you wondered, the water was a decent level from the few storms the nights before. However, tubing 2 to one tube was very hard! We sucked at it, actually. We had to push, crawl and climb our way at times (the water was really low at points). In the end we relaxed, joked about how inept at tubing we were and eventually had to get out and take a tuk tuk back to get the tube back so we didn't get a fine.

That night I met up with Micky that I met while volunteering in Cambodia. Must admit the dinner that night was enjoyed over a great episode of friends as we were a bit sore from the flying adventures. Again, everyone went to bucket bar and Miek and I enjoyed a great cup of tea then headed to our respective beds (at 1015!)

I woke up way too early the next morning because I was going to find a village to volunteer in for a few days. Turns out I decided I wanted to go north and do some trekking and see some hilltribes. Bought a bus ticket to Luang Prabang and was really excited