Apologies for the delay in posting; for 5 days now we've been in Vang Vieng; where the internet is
outrageously expensive and the booze is far far too cheap.
It is, admittedly, not the culture capital of Laos but there is much partying to be done so we figured it'd be rude not to get stuck in...the name of the game here is
tubing and the rules are as follows;
1) Get a vest with the word 'tubing' printed on it at least twice
2) Take this vest and a
tube - an inflated inner-tyre (massive rubber ring) - north up the Mekong River to the aptly-named 'Bar 1'
3) Receive your first free Lao Lao whiskey shot of the day (note with shock that there are wasps in the bottle from which you are drinking....this will cease to matter later on)
4) Buy your first bucket / beer of the day
5) Mingle on the decking in the sunshine with some newly acquired friends
6) Slide down a flume with your tube (drink is optional here - but recommended) into the river and sail onto the equally-inspired-named 'Bar 2'
7) Receive another free Lao Lao whiskey shot...or three
8) Swing off a trapeze into the river, get hauled back in by grabbing onto a rope thrown out to you
9) Drink more, dance more vigorously
10) Sitting in your tube, float down to...yes...you've guessed it 'Bar 3'
11) Receive more free shots, better still; just cut the sting off one of the afore mentioned wasps and eat the wasp [equivalent to 2 buckets of alcohol, so we hear...]
12) Play drinking games with your new best friends
13) Drink more, jump of more trapezes and dance with less and less regard for the rhythm of the music
14) Locate your tube and set sail to 'Bar 4'
15) Eagerly receive another free shot of Lao Lao...
16) You get the picture
...
Try to make it back to the finish point (Bar 10) by 6pm to return your tube and continue the party well into the night
That's right dear readers; tubing is a day time activity but the fun does not stop there! When we weren't too hungover to party (roughly every other day) we were out and about meeting all sorts of wonderful people - Rob even bumped into a course mate from uni! - and dancing to what could have easily been a Saturday night in Bournemouth.
We were really lucky with the weather too and had glorious sunshine and blue skies all day, every day. Team 365 is happy to have left with everything (if not our livers) intact* and to have avoided the dreaded pink eye (conjunctivitis) which spreads through backpackers here faster than the Mekong does through the town.
All in all - it was awesome; everyone should tube!
*due to the responsible and safety-conscious matter in which we tubed, Mums, this was not a surprise
Hello indeed -apologies for the rushed nature of this post - after quite the ordeal (I promise to explain this at a later date) we have made it into Thailand! Hurrah!
As well as walking and feeding the elephants twice a day, every morning the elephants were collected from where they sleep - about 2km from the lodge in dense jungle with plenty of food and space - and taken down to the river to be washed; which is probably even more fun than the pictures would have you believe - check them out here.
The boat races themselves involve two teams of between 20 and 30 men in brightly coloured shirts rowing vigerously in longboats (very long boats) down a strech of the Mekong past the crowded banks of locals cheering, banging drums and drinking beer lao. But that is just the reason for the parties that were breaking out along the water.
We spent the day meeting the friends and families of our hosts and through one man that spoke the best English we were introduced to wives, daughters, sons, a friend that worked in construction ("he build that bridge!"), a man that made furniture ("you want chair?"), and a lady that ran a guest house in Luang Probang ("you stay with me now, na?").
And our final dish was Geng phet, a creamy curry that was light relief from all the above frying.
6) Slide down a flume with your tube (drink is optional here - but recommended) into the river and sail onto the equally-inspired-named 'Bar 2'
12) Play drinking games with your new best friends
The last stop on our almost- Motorcycle Diaries adventure was a 7km long cave called Kong Lo and it was even more spectacular than we had imagined a cave that was 7km long would be.
We set off bright and early from Tha Khaek with Steve and Jeff and after an initial detour (which was literally taking the scenic route in this case) we found our way on the smooth roads of Route 12 to our first stop; Tham Pha Fa; a remote cave filled with Buddha statues. The amazing thing about this cave, apart from how so many stone statues got there when it was discovered by a local farmer in 2004, is that in the dry season it is accessible by foot. When we arrived kids were throwing themselves off a bridge into the swollen river and we had to access the cave by boat; we sailed above bars and tables and benches and scrambled up the rock face into the cave.
But the bike tour needed to go on and our third and penultimate stop was to be the most adventurous yet. We'd heard that the dirt track to The Falang could get a little hairy in the wet season so when we rolled off the tarmac and into thick sticky mud we quickly disguarded the motorbikes and took off on foot. The path that we hoped lead to the shady swimming spot went from muddy to very muddy and we eventually ended up wading through a puddle that was waist height - it was awesome. Luckily our navigation had been accurate and we found the cool spot and slid down the muddy bank into the cool waters of the Nam Don river for a swim.
Our last and final stop in this, the southern section of The Loop, was at Tham Aen; a huge cave that we had to wade over a river to get to. As the sun set we made our way round the gloomy interior by incredibly useful, if a little un-aesthetically pleasing, staircases that had been built in.
diculous ponchos we headed off into the light drizzle and fortunately by the time we reached Tat Champee the sun had come out (a bit) and in true British spirit we dipped ourselves into the cold water for a dip in the pool below the gorgeous falls. Rob even went for an expedition around the back of the waterfall that ended in a few tense moments of cross-current swimming back to our side of the bank - you can follow his jaunt on the photos scrolling on the right >>
ng cards and taking bets on when the torrential rain would stop. At 6pm (Jeff won the bet), when the sun had set and everyone's hands were red-raw from many-a-round of Chinese Snap, the rain did stop. Rain had stopped play for the day but it was a relaxing and fun day even when the water falling wasn't exactly as we had planned.
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