Luang Prabang
After our grueling bus rides and border crossing difficulties it was time to take a few days to just hang out. Luang Prabang was a great place for that. It's a lazy little town right on the Mekong. They had a pretty extensive night market selling everything from BeerLao tank tops to fish on a stick (see photos). We enjoyed several meals in the restaurants overlooking the Mekong, and did a little exploring of the local waterfalls. Tad Sae falls were amazing. They were cascading pools of turquoise water and were a perfect place to let the little kid in us take over and just enjoy splashing about in the water. Tad Sae was where elephants became a new favorite animal. We were hanging out on a bridge over one of the pools and an elephant walked up and plopped his trunk down right next to us. We played with his trunk for probably 10 minutes before he finally left. Never piss off an elephant. He was being friendly, but his trunk still packed a heck of a lot of power.
BeerLao tank tops... living the backpacker dream.
Enjoying the local cuisine. One of the best fish I have ever had.
Tad Sae
How cool is that?
Mekong Sunset
Yes, I'm still a child.
Vang Vieng
Without a doubt I can say that this was one of the best times I have ever had in a single day. I had to wait a while before writing this post because I was worried that the slowly fading high I have been on ever since would make the writing unbelievable. The thing to do at Vang Vieng is to tube down the Nam Song River. We had heard stories of the tubing and some of them were so outrageous I could not believe the hype. I had decided to set my expectations at a relaxing float down a river while we enjoyed each others company and a few drinks along the way. I was dead wrong. While it did include some lazy floating, it was more like a mix of spring break, a water park and some massive rope-swings. Ill try to give an accurate recap of our day. We get to the rent-a-tube place and climb in the back of a tuk-tuk. They take us upriver several kilometers where we are dropped off and greeted to the sound of BLARING music from two bars that grab you before you even put your tube in the water. They tied a bandanna on our arm and handed us some free shots. I realized at that point that there would be nothing relaxing about the day and promptly ordered a 'whiskey bucket.' A whiskey bucket is a full tumbler of whiskey and some unnamed spirits mixed with a Red Bull and some sprite served in a plastic bucket. After hanging at the first bar for long enough to guzzle down our drinks and hit the waterslide a few times we grabbed our tubes and set sail.
1 minute later we were having ropes tossed our way at the next bar down the river. This was our first experience with the rope-swings. These were not like any other rope-swings I had ever done. They were absolutely massive and had a water-ski handle to hold on to. We spent the majority of our day in the air. Every bar down the river (10-15 bars in all) had some sort of rope-swing, zipline or waterslide as well as a dancefloor, free shots and cheap drinks. After several hours of adrenaline and partying it was time for a 45 minute relaxing float to the finish line. My day ended with a couple chicken, bacon and greasebomb sandwiches, which were conveniently located at the rent-a-tube place, and a bedtime of 8:30.
Trust me, John Grisham could not make this place sound as entertaining as it was. One of my new fantasies is to get a group of 20-30 of my friends to come over here for a long weekend and do it big. Anyone interested? As always pictures don't do it justice but check them out anyway.
Not evident in this picture is that everyone was tired and skeptical.
The mood has slightly increased due to the awesome music being belted out at the first bar.
This helpful lady knew that a plate of free shots and a whiskey bucket would get us going.
Ryan and I agreed.
Slightly intoxicated...time for some serious rope-swing action.
Did you know alcohol makes you stronger? It's science.
Those rope-swings were tiring. We had to fuel up.
Some beer pong...Why not?
By the end of the day we had some skillz.
Candidate for photo of the year...performance by Aaron S. photo by Antonia R.
The relaxing ride with the promise of a beautiful sunset.
Literally nothing to report. Just put this in here so you could follow geographically if you want. We spent two days here, saw a few sights and left. This was basically a stop to wait for Ian and Antonia to catch up.
Tha Khek (The Loop)
Ryan and I had considered calling it a trip after Vientiane and heading to Bangkok to relax for a few days, possibly eat some McDonalds and wait for our flight to Cairo. We were glancing through some other things to do in southern Laos and read about Kong Lo Cave. Lonely Planet is pretty good at making everything sound awesome but they did an exceptional job with this cave describing it as "where the entrance to Hades' Underworld must be located" etc. We figured it would be more interesting than getting scammed in Bangkok. There are two main ways to see the cave. One is a day trip where a minibus takes you to the cave and brings you back in the same day. The not boring option is to take on 'the loop' which is a 3-5 day, 300km motorbike journey through the Laos countryside.
There is almost a cult following of the loop and it has its own special logbook at the starting point, the Tha Kek Travel Lodge. To make a long story short we completed the loop in 2 days which was deemed "impossible." Adidas can we get some money? It was not without its hardships. We dealt with a broken down motorbike, rain, 'roads' that were nothing more than slippery mud puddles, running out of gas, and an extended stretch of riding in the pitch dark with less than average headlamps (less than average in Laos means we might as well have put a penlight on the front of the bike). This last stretch was one of the dumbest things I have ever done. For my moms sake I wont go into any more detail.
On the bright side Kong Lo Cave was the coolest cave I have ever been to (sorry Mammoth). They take you through the cave on a motorized canoe and it takes about 1.5 hours to get all the way through to the other side, they then rest for a little while and take you right back through. I have read that Kong Lo is the longest cave in the world which doesn't seem likely because my only source (Wikipedia) doesn't have an entry, but I would put it up against any other cave in the category of 'neatest slash coolest slash creepiest etc.' Our camera was not good enough to work with the zero light so no photo evidence. We do have a few shots of us on our hogs though.
Special guest appearance by John O'Hara!!
Gas Station
Broke down bikes lead to pissed off faces. See how pissed off he looks?
Cow herds are the most dangerous road obstacles. Especially at night.
The coolest dog in SE Asia, 3rd coolest in the world
This was basically the ending point of our trip. There is not much to do in Pakse. It is kind of a gateway city leading people who want to stay in Laos down to the 4000 islands and people who don't across the border to Thailand. We were able to find a couple waterfalls and some coffee plantations in the Bolaven Plateau which surrounds Pakse.
Ta Fane waterfall
See you guys in Africa...
-Kyle
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