and waited....
and waited...
"OH WAIT....IS THAT ONE....no, just a plant..."
and waited....
FINALLY after some painstakingly slow waiting, in the blast of the heat, the rare dolphins peaked out their fins (personally I think its because I had perfected my dolphin mating call!). Slowly the dolphins became a little more adventurous and came closer to us - very hard to get a good photo however - my best shot resembles someones poor attempt at a Loch Ness Monster sighting...
With the dolphin box ticked we set off for the waterfall, a pretty spectacular water cascade but with our energy fast draining from the morning's travels we did not spend too long there. That evening we made good use of our riverside hammocks, having a quiet beer and watching our family of geckos chow down on the frenzy of flys on our porch. The is not much in the way of night life on the islands,mainly due to the fact that all power shuts off at 11pm (so much for our fan room!). We both decided that with our main objective complete here it was time to move on - our South East Asia clock beginning to tick down and bear weight on our minds.
We were heading north to a small town called Vang Vieng where take part in a timeless ritual called TUBING!! It was going to be a long journey up however - small 5 hour bus to Pakse, 4 hour layover, overnight 13 hour bus to Vientiene, 5 hour lay over, 6 hour bus to Vang Vieng - fun times! Thankfully we got catching to two Canadians who were on the same journey north from Don Det so we were able to share in our misery! The overnight sleeper bus was a joke - we were shown to our "beds" - a top bunk that was both too short for us and so narrow that we both could not lie on our backs at the same time - cosy to say the least! I drew the short straw and was on the outside, i.e. the death seat! Laos drivers like to see themselves as formula one drivers, whipping around corners, in and out of traffic at speed - I almost nose dived about 20 times throughout the night! Eventually we reached Vang Vieng, much to the delight of our aching back and Sam's travel sickness! We found ourselves a small riverside bungalow for about $3 a night - nothing fancy but we weren't planning on spending alot of time there! As it was too late to go tubing for the day we decided to take in some of the surrounding sights - namely the Blue Lagoon and Poukham Caves. We wrapped ourselves a picnic (ok well not so much a picnic as some beers and crisps!) and hit the rocky rough road out. The lagoon was beautiful, a crystal clear blue - deep, cold and refreshing. And before anyone starts
panicking I know the limits of my swimming abilities so didn't do anything too crazy
(I went off the hign branch - Gareth went off the middle one...we met on the way down!)
(It's ok...I've got it all under control...)
We dried off and went exploring the hillside cave...which was all going well until we realised two very important points
a) Caves are dark,,,very very dark
b) We had no torch.
So with that, our cave expedition was over and we went back to town to concentrate on the evening's festivities - we were invited to the official opening of our guesthouse (an Aussie and German couple had just taken over the running of it that day) so we had a lovely local meal of sticky rice with chicken and spices - lovely, but hot! A lightning storm was electrifying the sky around us as we hit the Bucket Bar for, yes you guessed it, BUCKETS! Our excitement was building for our first day on the river...it felt like Christmas Eve except with more debauchery (although in saying that, alot of you have never seen a Tully Christmas...). We had planned two days of tubing before going to Luang Prabang so we really wanted to make the most of it. We rented our tubes the next morning and were driven out of town up to the drop off point - now for those of you who have the misfortune not to know what tubing is please let me explain...
The main idea is that you rent a giant rubber ring (although you don't have to, you can walk or swim it) and are brought up river where there are a number of bamboo constructed bars lining the riverside. You arrive around midday to the first bar, enjoy a few beers and banter there before hopping in your tube and floating down the river. As you pass another bar they toss out a weighted rope and pull you in.
Every bar has some sort of rope swing or zip line, pumping music and an unfortunately large amount of free laos whiskey given in shots to anyone willing. It culminates in the final bar between 6pm and 8pm as the sun sets and the bonfire rages skyward. From there you take your tube and any belongings you haven't lost in a tuk tuk back to town. A seriously fun day! Now, again I know what you're thinking (yes, I'm talking mainly to you here mother!) - your wonderful darling son is what some might call "aquatically challenged" - so with that in mind I came to the river prepared...
(River Lifeguard...on the job...saving lives)
(I can FFFLLLLLLYYYYY!!!)
I struggle though to put into words how much fun it is - the whole vibe on the river is infectious - everyone is out to have a good time, with no shortage of people to banter with from all corners of the world - including one girl I met who lives on the same road as me! Random! Gareth and I were enjoying it so much we quickly waved farewell to our Luang Prabang plans in place of more days on the river. We were joined in our adventures by a group of English guys we had met in Ko Phangan - a fantastic bunch of lads, I don't think I;ve ever laughed so much the few days we were with them! Tom, Jon, Rob and Chris, we love you! A ton of other people we had met along the way were drawn by the lure of the tubing including half of our adopted family, Team Sweden (Denize and Kim), Johanna and Lauren Thorp-edo - by the end of the week we were sitting down for our first beers with a group of about 25 of us! We tubed for 6 days straight - every morning we would wake up, body aching, head thumping, covered in marker slogans ("Property of Dr. Gareth Anderson") but ready for another day! I honestly think it was the most fun week I've evr had - even small upsets like my first bout of travel sickness couldn't dampen the enjoyment! Every day held its own little charms - whether it was the day we had a beer fight...or abusing Tron and my scar...or convincing everyone Gareth was a doctor and I had just had a heart transplant so we were on a life changing mission to the South Pole to wash seals (called Operation Barbossa) - everyday was just as good as the last.
We eventually had to call it a day as again we became aware of our dwindling time in S.E. Asia. We left it until the last possible moment, and much to the abuse of Kim and Denize (thanks guys!) we left for Luang Prabang where we had booked a flight to Hanoi the next day (there was no way we were going to do the journey by bus - a 28 hour NIGHTMARE journey...best $130 I've ever spent!). So sad goodbyes again to all the guys - although our paths will hopefully be crossing in Southern Vietnam aswell as Australia. So we spent a pretty uneventful night in Luang Prabang where the was a power shortage for most of our time there. We now have the task of getting from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City in 11 days - while trying to maximise our "tourist time". Well, no one said it was going to be easy...
No comments:
Post a Comment