Have just arrived in Luang Prabang. After 6 hours in a mini bus on a very very windy road I have decided to see my trip out in Luang Prabang (and not go to Luang Nam Tha) as there are some excellent tours to do from here ... I have just booked 2 tours for the next 5 days. From tomorrow I am doing a 2 day Mahout Course where I learn to be an Elephant Driver ... it's a crash course ... but we ride the elephants and learn the commands and bathe and feed them and hang out with the baby elephants too.... sounds pretty amazing .. and then the 12/13/14 I am doing a 3 day trek with Mr B to the minority villages and a waterfall and climb a mountain for a good view of the Mekong. He is going to put the word out to get other trekkers but if not it'll just be me and Mr B.
And then on the night of the 14th I'll catch up with Mike and his partner in Luang Prabang (thanks to facebook). I did Year 12 with Mike at Nambour and haven't seen him I reckon since year 12 so can't wait!
Now getting back to Vang Vieng ... Vang Vieng is like a big drunken Summer Camp for Backpackers!
I did the tour yesterday ... surprise surprise the itinerary I booked was not the itinerary on the day !!
Anyway had a great day and met some really nice people again. We drove to the elephant cave and walked 3 metres into it (this was the caving!) .. it's called the elephant cave cos a stalagmite in the cave looks like an elephant but it's a very sacred cave. Then we drove to another spot and walked to the creek (this was the trekking!) where we sat for nearly 2 hours waiting our turn to tube into a cave.... we were all best friends by the end of the 2 hours ... the tubing into the cave was great.... we pulled ourselves along through this tunnel cave in huge tyre tubes and we had head torches ... we had to get out and walk at one spot and then we got to a dead end and had to go all the way back ... it was fun but the water was very cold ... felt a bit hypothermic by the time I got back.
And then we drove to the Nam Song River (after another short trek back to the car !) and we kayaked down the Nam Song. There were 1-2 grade rapids so this made it more fun. We stopped at the tubing bars.... far out I have never seen anything like it ... all these ramshackle bars on the banks of the Nam Song River with 100s of drunk backpackers drinking and dancing and there are home made water slides and home made swings and the music is blaring ...there were signs up to entice the tubers in like Mud Pit, Mud TugoWar, Super High Brownies, Whiskey Bar, Free Cocktails for the Ladies etc ...it was pretty messy ... I'm amazed only ONE person gets killed a year!! We stopped at one of the quieter bars that had a fairly sturdy looking water slide ... a few in our group had a go but I just sat and watched. Don't think my travel insurance would cover me injuring myself on a homemade water slide! It was funny for the first 5 minutes and then I just got bored... if only I was 10-15 years younger! The funniest was when this girl went on the waterslide and cos she had not body weight she stopped half way down and then had to walk to the end of it and jump into the water.... was pretty funny :))
So we kayaked from the bars back to Vang Vieng .. it's another 2kms down river and all the drunk tired tubers where struggling... a few asked for a tow on our kayak .. felt sorry for them.... and the water was so cold... this was about 5pm ... then all these motor boats passed us heading up the river to try to get some business to tow them back I guess.
Last night I was sitting have dinner in this place that plays continuous episodes of Friends (where I was staying continually played Simpsons ... doh!) and all the drunk tubers started walking and yahooing back into the main street... this was the backpackers behaving badly the night before ... !
Well better go and have a Beer Lao :))
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