Daredevils in Vang Vieng

One would think that with all the troubles that Vang Vieng has had with young people getting seriously injured by jumping off ledges, someone might start to clamp down.  You can see from the guy in the above photo that he was not only stupid for jumping off the platform, but he went one better by diving.

On Saturday Len and I hired motorbikes and rode out to the Blue Lagoon for a swim.  The road was really terrible, rough, rutted and dusty as hell.  We did manage to go the wrong way and I'm sure Len will say in his blog that it was my fault.  We eventually made it back to the lagoon to witness the brave jump from the tree into the lagoon. 

The photo below actually shows a man in mid air jumping from the very top of the tree.  I was going to jump but remembered I shouldn't take the risk. People lined up during the hour we were there to take the leap into the blue lagoon.  We both went for a swim in a beautiful clear lagoon in chilling waters.  It also gave me a chance to have a wash after collecting a mouth full of dust on the ride to the lagoon.  I'm so happy we decided against riding the bicycles out here.  It would have been painful.

 Can you see the chap in mid air?  Great technique.

 Just another photo of the blue lagoon.  It was such a nice place to cool off and relax and keep out of the midday sun.

 Just another sign I saw at the blue lagoon.  The young ones had a problem with smoking drugs and doing stupid stunts out of the trees.  It was decided that a degree of safety had to be implemented by introducing a drug free zone.

 As I'd mentioned before, Len and I stayed at the Laos Haven Hotel and Spa in Vang Vieng.  In the photo is the owner Michael and his son Marcus.  2 truly nice people.

As we were heading back into town from the blue lagoon I stopped to take a photo of the mountains that surround Vang Vieng.  Each day the mountains are covered in a haze of either humidity or smoke from all the burn offs in the region.

Now for Sunday.

Since we had ridden to Vang Vieng, we decided to catch the mini bus back to Vientiane.  There was no reason to ride back over the same terrain.  This would also give us another free day to play with later on in the holiday.

We caught the mini van early today arriving back in the capital at 12.30pm.  It was the good trip and the driver was well behaved behind the wheel.  Usually these types of trips can be like the ride to hell.

As soon as we got our bikes and bags off the roof of the van we went back to our respective hotels.  Tomorrow we're riding back into Thailand and stopping at Nong Khai.  It's from here we start the long ride back to Cambodia.

On a side note, Len is a mad supporter of the Michigan University basketball team.  Well, his team won today to put them into the final of the NCAA tournament.  Now this is a huge tournament.  I remember one Andrew Gaze from Australia played in the NCAA tournament final in  1989 when he played for Seaton Hall university. On that occasion they played Michigan and lost.  Michigan last won the NCAA title in 1989 and this could be the 2nd time in another 2 days.  I know what Len will be doing on Tuesday morning.  I might get to sleep in whilst his listening to the grass grow.  That's listening to the basketball match.

Until tomorrow, safe riding and see you in Thailand.