A Week in Paradise

Home sweet home
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Vang Vieng is a small town between Vientiane and Luang Prabang.  It makes a great "stop-over" on the 12 hour bus journey.  However, we fell in love with all the activities and beauty and ended up staying for 7 nights--the longest time we have spent in any single location since our trip started.  Our home during this time was a small bamboo hut on the quiet side of the river.  The hut had a bed with a mosquito net and a bathroom (toilet with a bucket for flushing, cold-water shower and no sink).  Each night we had "creatures" (aka a mouse) who was fascinated with our soap (it ate through the plastic bag and chewed on it).  We figured at least it was a clean mouse and it wasn't eating our clothes or our food.  The town itself is situated along a river which winds beside beautiful limestone mountains.  The most popular activity is tubing down the river and such event has been turned into a spring-break extravaganza complete with music, zip lines, rope swings and of course bars (where you can drink beer lao or enjoy a fruit shake mixed with the drug of your choice).  But we did a lot more than just tubbing.

Tony climbing
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Day 1 - On our first full day in Vang Vieng we went rock climbing.  It has been 3 years since I've done any rock climbing and about 5 years since Tony's done any rock climbing.  Regardless, we climbed like champions.  Because the rating system is different in SE Asia we have no idea of the difficulty of the routes we attempted and conquered, but there were some good ones.  The rock climbing area was a narrow space (10 feet or so) between two limestone rocks, but the climbing was great.  There were 8 people in our group and we each did about 6-8 climbs in one long full day.  It was enough to make us both sore and tired.

More climing
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After rock climbing we decided to stop for a bite to eat at a local restaurant.  While we were sitting out front a couple came in and said hello.  Neil and Georgina ended up joining us for dinner.  We hit it off instantly.  They had come from Luang Prabang and were headed towards Vientiane so we swapped tips and stories.  We also decided to tube the river together the next day.

Day 2 - So I've describing the experience of tubing the river as a spring break extravaganza.  Its the description I can think of.  Basically you rent a tube and a ride which takes you about 4 kilometers outside of town and drops you off.  The tube then acts as your "bar fly bus" for you to float and stop at the bars of your choice.  The bars are basically make-shift platforms and huts which sell booze and drugs, play music and provide entertainment in the form of swings, zip lines, etc.  Perhaps our first mistake was actually buying a beer before putting our tube into the river (who can float empty handed right?)  Little did we know that the first bar was only 1,000 feet from the launching point.  Plus we had to stop at the first bar.  It had a zip line!  There were two options for the zip line.  Let go before the end and fall into the water or hold on until the end and get yanked.  People who held on ended up doing flips, belly flops and all kinds of unexpected poses.  I chose to let go, but Tony held on like a champ and ended up doing a partial flip and landing in the water on his back.  Thankfully the fall was only 6 feet or so which means it didn't hurt.

Bicycle riding through rice fields
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From the first bar we floated another 50 feet before a rope was cast out to us.  We grabbed ahold and were pulled to the shore.  This bar had a rope swing which looked fun and we needed more beer anyway.  They were also offering free Lao Lao shots (the local whiskey made from sticky rice which had 50% alcohol by volume).  Tony was the only one brave enough to take a shot.  We took our beers and floated to the third bar which had the largest rope swing on the river.  I watched Tony and Neil go several times before I was brave enough to give it a shot.  I don't mind swinging through the air or even falling into the water but getting up the guts to actually jump off a small rickety platform perched 50 feet or so above the water turns my stomach every time.  The liquid encouragement definately helped.  Needless to say I only did this swing once.  From here the details get a little blurry.  We stopped at a fourth bar because it had another awesome rope swing. We met some guys from Canada and talked a lot about our trip through Tibet and Nepal since they were planning to do the same in the opposite direction.  Eventually I got up the courage to climb the steps to the platform.  At the top I remember the guy counting to three but I told him I wasn't ready yet.  I have no idea how long I stood there but when I finally jumped I screamed the whole way.  I held on while the rope swing went back and forth, back and forth and finally I let go.  Even at its lowest point you still fell 20+ feet into the water.  Many people (including Tony) were letting go at the height which meant falling 40-50 feet into the water.  Yes, we were crazy.

View of Vang Vieng from the cave entrance
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At this point we had been on the river over three hours but we had only gone about 1 kilometer.  We still had 3 more to go before we arrived back in town.  We stopped at one more bar because I needed a beer and once again the guy was handing out free Lao Lao shots.  I remember looking at the bottle and there were rocks and snails in there.  I took one shot but managed to get back into my tube before he came around with seconds.  Tony, Neil and Georgina weren't so lucky.  From here we stopped at the last bar (where we had been rock climbing previously).  Tony told me he did the rope swing here but I was too busy huddling beside the bon fire.  The sun had gone behind the mountains which meant it was getting quite cold.  After the last bar it was another 1.5 hours back into town.  It was a lot of paddling and kicking.  I did manage to grab onto a few kayaks as they went by but had to let go eventually. Some lady grabbed us as we went under a walking-only bridge and gave us more beer (just what we needed).  Mind immediately sunk to the bottom of the river.  I meant to set it on my tube but missed.  When we finally arrived into town, it was getting dark and when we each stood up out of our tubes, we realized how much we had actually drank.  Somehow we managed to get our tubes back to the office and find a place to eat dinner.  After dinner Tony drug my stumbling self back to our hut.  I have no idea how I made it across the pedestrian bridge (a four-board wide uneven holey bridge all the way across the river (see the pictures)) without falling in the water.

Cave explorers
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Day 3 - I bet you can guess . . . that's right recovery.  We did make it into town to find some greasy pizza but had to go back home and take a nap soon thereafter.  The rest of the day was pretty much spent laying around reading books and watching movies.

Day 4 - Today we were feeling much better.  So we decided to rent mountain bikes and go for a ride to some nearby caves.  The road was dirt and rough but we had become very accustom to that by this point.  However the bikes weren't too great.  Although they had full suspension, neither of them shifted gears and they both had really small frames.  As usual we managed.  The first cave involved riding through a dry rice field.  We had done it on a motorcycle so why not on a bike?  The dikes were certainly easier.  Then we climbed up and explored two small caves.  Its funny because the caves like the lagoon and other things aren't really that great, but combined with the excitement and adventure of actually getting there make them so much better.  Its truly about the whole experience.  After these caves, we rode 6 kilometers out the road to another cave.  Tony and I both agreed that this was the best cave (besides Kong Lo) we have seen in Laos.  It was a very long hard steep climb to the cave entrance and once inside you had to climb in over and around a bunch of boulders, but the cave was huge.  We explored pretty much every inch we could.  Although you could tell there were multiple levels and probably a lot more water in the wet season.  After all our hard work we were rewarded with a dip in the river near the cave entrance.  We even got to jump out of the tree (an easy entrance when the water is chilly).  From there it was straight back home.

Tony hiking down from the cave
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Day 6 - Our bodies had finally recovered from the rock climbing and rope swinging and we were ready for more . . . rock climbing that it.  There is a lot of fantastic places to climb throughout the world (including Oregon) but neither of us had ever learned to lead climb--a necessity if we plan to climb alone.  So we decided to take a lead climbing course.  We both learned a lot.  I have to admit that its scary being on the rock wall when your last rope clip is at your feet and your not quite to the next clip because if you fall its about 8 feet before the rope grabs.  I fell once when the top of the climb got difficult, but it was a good experience.

Carrie learning to lead climb
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Day 7 - On our last day we decided some additionally relaxation was in order so we paid $2 each to use a local hotel pool.  The pool was absolutely beautiful.  It had an infinity edge and overlooked the river and limestone mountains.  What a perfect way to unwind after an adventurous week . . . reading, sun-bathing and relaxing by a pool.