Playing the tourist in Vang Vieng.

Today I got the chance to play tourist in Vang Vieng.  I'd never been to Vang Vieng before in my life and after watching 60 minutes in Australia and reading stories about people drinking too much alcohol and smoking drugs and happy pizzas, I thought I should ride a bike from Siem Reap in Cambodia all the way to Vang Vieng in Laos to check it out.  

For the princely sum of 12 dollars I went on a day tour where I was picked up at my hotel at 9am and taken with a group of young adults out of town where we would commence the day's activities.  We walked along a river and through a couple of villages to where we came to a large pool at the base of a mountain.  

It was from here that we were told to take off all our valuables and pick up a headlamp.  We each picked up an inflatable tire tube and jumped aboard.  We then made our way to the rope that would take us deep inside the cave.  For one who doesn't handle confined spaces too well, I was a little concerned.  Not scared, only concerned.

The group of about 9 people dragged themselves and their inflatable tubes along the rope that led about 200 metres inside a dark cave with the roof about 1 metre overhead.  We inched our way deeper and deeper and deeper till we could go no further.  It may have been only 200 metres inside the cave but it will be a journey I'll remember for a long time.  It was so cool to turn around and look at the trail of headlamps following in the distance.  I stayed close to the tour guide as he knew exactly what he was doing and there was no way I was going to take my light off him. 

 This photo is of more tourists turning up from China, Korea, Japan ready to enter the cave on an inflatable tube.

Now this lady was pretty brave. All she could manage was sitting her ass in the inflatable tube and going nowhere near the water.

Just another photo of activity at the entrance to the cave.

As we made our way from the river cave to the Elephant Cave we had to walk through a couple of villages.  The people always say good day to us and wave to us.  In this photo you can see the rocky outcrops which are famous around this part of Laos.  The river system and the town of Vang Vieng is surrounded by the most stunning mountains I've ever see.

 Inside the Elephant Cave is a rock formation that looks exactly like the head of an elephant.  Also inside the cave is yet another statue of Buddha.  At the entrance to the cave is a bell.  The bell is the made from the head of a bomb that never went off when the Americans dropped millions of bombs down on this part of the world.  The story behind the bell is that the local chief would ring the bell when something important needed to be said to the people of the surrounding villages. The message would go out that the chief has called a meeting and people would travel afar to hear the news.

 After leaving the Elephant Cave we got back into the jeep and made our way up stream where we would commence our 3 hours of kayaking on the river.  Once again I teamed up with the young tour leader, probably because I was the oldest in the group and he took pity on me.  During the kayaking we travelled down a beautiful river system with local children swimming out to us, people fishing and then there were the young foreigners riding the tubes. 

As we got about 1/2 way down the river we came to a jumping platform where of course people would climb and then launch themselves back into the water.  Although I had in the back of my mind the young Australian lad who lost his life doing the same thing last year, I thought this was stupid.  You jump at your own risk and I was not going to risk anything.

Around ever corner on the river the view was stunning.  With the stream meandering around each bend and people falling out of their kayaks every 10 metres I was having the time of my life being assisted by my guide.  I didn't have to paddle if I didn't want to.

 So my day ended at the the bridge over the river in the township of Vang Vieng.  All I had to do was walk up to the centre of town and I was back at my hotel.  I had the time of my life.  And I do have sore shoulders after all that paddling.Tonight we're going back to Milano's restaurant for more pizza.

Tomorrow is our 2nd rest day before we head south to Thailand.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.