Caves and the Beach

The last two days have been so great. I'm in the small town of Vang Vieng, a five hour crazy, windy, rough road south of Luang Prabang. The scenery is amazing and I'm reminded of an untouched New Zealand.

Caving and Kayaking
Off to the day tour we go. We had a full day of four caves and kayaking in the area of Vang Vieng. Something new to me was tubing into a cave with good old fashioned inner tubes. Kind of sketchy when the head lamp is made up of exposed wires attached to an acid leaking battery pack that you had to hang from the neck...eek.

There was also a cave that I'd like to return to since it has no ending, according to locals. Our guide told us that one could walk for two to three days into the cave and be easily lost. Last year a foreigner went in with 10 candles and got himself lost. A dozen or so days later, he was found...uh, not alive. You'd think that a headlamp would be a better option, then again, one would have to be thinking first.

After caving and a little walk through the farmers fields, we jumped into kayaks for some class I river action. The major obstacles included drinking tubers, bamboo bridges, and floating poop. Yup, be warned of the floating feces as one swims in the river to cool off on a hot sunny day.

The Day of Sunshine
After floating down the river, Jacquie convinced me that we should spend the day relaxing on these bamboo shacks, half on land, half in the water. For sure a relaxing day and well needed since tomorrow I'll be teaching Jacquie how to rock climb for her first climbing experience - yes, it must be in Laos.