Angkor Watt to Vang Vieng, the home of tubing

Team BEvans on the move again, good bye Angkor What???, Hello Tubing!!


Next morning we got our regular Tuk Tuk guy to drop us to the airport where we paid the extortionate tax to leave Cambodia and flew to Laos via a quick stop in savanahacket where we had to pay again to enter Laos. Having Ben with us we found out it's cheaper to be an Aussie than a European for this transaction! Another short flight later we arrived into Vientiane where we then went straight to the bus station and boarded the 3-4 hour journey to Vang Vieng , the home of the infamous tubing Laos - seemingly a must-do on every baackpacker's list.

We boarded the bus with our snacks consisting of Wasabi flavoured crisps which you can make EXTREME by adding varying degrees of extra wasabi powder and a box of Blueberry and Hazlenut pringles - they had to be tried! Let's just say unlike regular prigles once you pop it's quite easy to stop with this flavour!. To get to the only spare seats down the back of the bus we had to clamber over 3 giant rubber tubes which were taking up the whole length and width of the aisle. Then we settled ourselves into our very plastic and therefore extremely sweaty seats and prepared oursleves for 3 hours of EXTREME bumping and sweating mixed with a couple of roadside communal pee behind, beside and in any hedge you can find stops.

Around 3 hours later the bus stopped on the side of the road in what looked like the middle of nowhere and we were told this was our stop. Being the only Westerners on the bus we didn't have any backup to confirm we were actually in Vang Vieng so we took their word for it as they threw our bags out onto the roadside and every face on that side of the bus was now glued to the window staring at us and our bags as if we were some rare alien species. This seemed to becoming a regular occurence! It was almost 5pm and the sun was still pumping out the heat. We hitched our bags on and approached a lone tuk tuk driver to ask him how much into town. Seemingly it was only 1k away so when he told us it would be 10 dollars we told him where to go and proceeded to walk / wobble towards the town. within 3 minutes we had been approached by a guy on a scooter who told us he had a triple room with AC so we followed him about a k and a half and by time we got there we were ready to take our bags off and not put them back on for at least 3 days!

So we settled in to our very nice looking cabin with fan and Ac and pushed the two rock hard beds together to make enough room for the three of us. They weren't the most comfortable beds we've ever slept in but they did the job. Within 10 minutes of wandering around the town we all felt very old and sober and realised this was a town full of 18 year olds wearing not a lot and drinking goodness only knows what concoctions from buckets. If there was any place I could be to make me feel old the week I turn 31 this was definitely the best place for that! However , we had plenty of people watching fuel and we knew we were only here for a few days so we'd deal with it and have fun.

On our first day we decided to hire two scotters and go explore some of the caves.We bartered down the only two automatic scooters they had in the shop as Ben's horror stories of losing toes on manual bikes had put us off manual bikes for good! After a little test drive up and down the street as this was my first scotter driving experience we headed off in search of some adventure. About half an hour later we were lost in a very small village with an even smaller map. We quickly established we'd overshot the cave exit and made an about turn. Soon we were bouncing down a very muddy and rocky path and negotiated a good few unknown depth puddles. At the end of the road was the river and a local woman seleping under a bamboo shack signposted 'bike parking' It didn't take her too long to wake up enough to get money out of us for parking. I had momentarily turned my engine off as we were deciding whether we were in the right place and when I tried to start it again to roll into the parking place there wasn't any life in her. We tried everything and even got a local involved who couldn't figure it out either. Even the manual kick start failed , so we wheeled her in and decided maybe it just needed a rest after going through the puddles so we'd let her dry out, go see the caves and hopefully there'd be some life in 'My Lover' as its graphics said when we returned.

When we got half way across the rickety bamboo bridge another local appeared from nowhere with a little book of tickets and very angrily demanded 5,000 kip from each of us to cross the bridge. Already annoyed that we'd had to pay to park our bikes under a piece of bamboo we refused on principle to pay her to cross a public foot bridge. Instead we took a look at the local kids playing in the river and decided if it was safe enough for some little nippers to swim in surely it would be okay for us to cross. We stripped down to our bikinis and boardies , loaded our gear into the dry bag and proceeded to cross the river much to the amusement of all the kids who thought this was the funniest thing they'd seen all year.

It got even funnier , for them, when about 5 metres in the water level suddenly got very high, I went under, the dry bag which I'd been carrying above my head went with me and the current rapidly took me along with it. I surfaced just in time to grab onto a rock and recovered there for a bit while I analysed my next move and spat out as much of the manky brown river water I'd just inhaled. The kids thought this was great and stood and watched me cling to the rock with a mixture of smiles and looks of 'what does she think she's doing' looks as I hoped Ben and Jo would learn from my bad move and take a better approach. After a few minutes clinging to my little rock and feeling the fast current on the lower half of my body I decided to pick a line and just go for it. I'd either make it or get dragged with the current as far as the bridge we'd refused to pay to cross! Paying the 50c to cross it was now seeming like the more sensible option , but where's the adventurein that?! We had now officially become Team BEvans Extreme! I held the dry bag in one hand, hoping it really was waterproof as the camera was in it and cautiously let go of the rock. The current was quite strong so I had to do some rapid side stroking to make it over to the next rock. Fortunately made it without another dunking although ended up in a scummy pile of stagnant water - nice! I clambered out and watched while Ben and Jo made thier last moves to join me. Soon enough we were all on the river bank in one piece and walking past the lady who'd tried to charge us to cross with smug looks on our faces!

We followed a path for about a kilometre which led us through a tiny 'village' which seemed to have more farm animals than people in it. Pigs, chickens, cows and rabbits crossed our path and we only saw about 4 humans, 2 of which were bathing naked in the dirty river estuary/irrigation for field. We soon arrived at 'Water Cave' which is one of the four caves in this area. Here we hired a tube, a head torch attached to an extremely heavy and dodgily wired battery pack and a guide. We floated into the cave which was pitch dark, propelled ourselves along for about 15 metres and then left our tubes on a rock and followed our guide up a manky muddy slippery slope where he promptly got down on his hands and knees and started crawling army style through the cave. We had been expecting to spend our time in the cave gently floating along admiring the stalagmites andd stalagtites so this was a bit of a surprise to say the least!

You wouldn't want to be too claustrophobic in here either, let's just say anyone bigger than us would have found it a bit of a challenge seeming as our bums were getting stuck on the roof as we crawled along. Poor Jo who was behind me had a lovely view of my muddy ass as I crawled along ahead of her. After about 15 metres of this we were able to stand again and then we followed our guide in a crouched position through some shallow water parts of the cave. Soon it was back to crawling on our hands and knees. He didn't have much English at all and just kept laughing along with us as we laughed at how funny we must have looked and wished we'd brought the camera into the cave. He then started shining his torch towards the ceiling of the cave and making some weird whistling noise. I looked towards the light and realised he was trying to wake up the bats. I really don't like bats and especially not when they're less than a metre above my head and now on the move. I tried to avert my attention from their beady eyes and get the guide to move on. Another 20 minutes or so later , stiff from all the crawling we returned to our tubes and floated back out into the daylight. We decided that was enough caves for one day and made our way back to the bridge. We bought a couple of drinks from the lady who was manning the bridge (and only from her cus she was the only one selling drinks) . As we got up to leave and cross the bridge we couldn't believe she sent the old man down with the ticket book to get us to pay to cross. I told him there was no way we were paying after buying drinks from their shop and he continued to shove the ticket book in my face. with a determined 'no way' I brushed past him and just kept walking , hoping he wouldn't send scary woman after me. Without looking back I called back to Jo and Ben to keep walking. I heard Jo say 'well she has the money', smiled to myself and within moments we were all safely across the bridge and back to the bikes!

Unfotunately the whole 'wait for the bike to dry out' theory didn't work and there was still no sign of life out of 'My Lover'. Not such great Korean technology. In true local fashion all 3 of us hopped on the other bike and made our way back to town. the locals were loving the fact that 3 westerners had all fitted on the one bike because as maths goes in Asia, 3 westerners equals 4 Asians (size wise)! As we got back to the hire shop we got some strange looks from the owners as seemingly it was against hire rules to have 3 on one bike. Bit strange considering the locals usually have at least 3 on theirs! We explained that 'My Lover' was requiring some attention 10k away which they weren't too happy about and were even less happy when we demanded our money back for hiring us a dodgy bike.

An hour later we were still sitting there, I had glued myslef to the cash desk and was refusing to budge until we got some mony back. They produced a contract and said we couldn't get any money back according to it. Luckily this was the first we'd ever seen of the contract as they'd obviously forgotten about it that morning. Hence they had nothing on us, not even a name or where we were staying so we knew we had an advantage. Then they tried to claim that I should have checked the bike mechanically before I hired it! I asked them if I looked like a bike mechanic and then we told them that that was the most ridiculous thing we'd ever heard of. That was until they told us that actually we should be paying them because it would cost them more to fix the bike!! They were seriously mad in the head. A few phonecalls and some more arguing later we eventually settled on a deal for half the money back and 4 large bottles of water! Then we took our other bike , which we still had an hour of hire time left with and wheeled it out of their sight before loading all 3 of us back on it and off we went in search of the famous 'Blue Lagoon' . Another bumpy road later and some more pudles we arrived at a dirty bend in a river, and decided that this couldn't be the blue lagoon. With the petrol light in the red we opted to return back before dark instead of having to tell them we'd left their other bike 10k away!We would just have to imagine what it looked like!


Next day we went tubing (a different type of tubing)- what Vang Vieng is famous for, basically you rent a large tractor tube, get a tuk tuk 4 km up the river, jump in your tube and float / paddle down river back to the town. Where's the excitement in that I hear you ask? Well the 7 bars , ropeswings, giant slides, music , mud volleyball and more along the way adds to the novelty factor of it! This town doesn't really have that much to offer but thanks to two random backpackers many years ago who decided floating down the river in a tube having had a few drinks would be a good idea it has become a must on every backpacker's list of places to go in Laos. It is great fun but unfortunately the town is full of very young, very drunk and very unclassy youths, especially young Englsih girls wearing dresses far too tight and short for the amount of buckets of alcohol and choco bnbana pancakes they've obviously beeen putting away since arriving in this town!!

It was around 12pm when we arrived at the start and it was soon obvious that most people just floated back and forward between bar 1, 2 and 3 where all the action and most exciting rope swings seemed to be. Some on legit tubes, some on yellow / pink / orange kids tubes, some in armbands and some just swimming or hanging onto other randomers tubes.There was a sign on the tree at bar one that said 'Please buy a drink before going on swing'. I wasn't sure whether this was beacasue they thought one needed Dutch courage to go on the swing or whether it was rude to use their swing without buying a drink in their bar! Anyway one fruit shake later I decided it would be a good idea to do any rope swinging I was going to do early in the day.Seemingly this was the highest one on the river and by the time I climbed to the platform via a rickety wooden ladder up a tree I admit I was actually shaking a bit,it was quite high up there! I reeled in the elastic cord and bar and with a few charade actions of a demo from the local beside me I was off.

Once I'd stepped off the platform my nerves went, it was fun in the air until I had to decide when to let go in order to time it that I landed in the deep water. I let go at the right moment but unfortunately released on some weird angle and ended up hitting the water fully on my left leg. As I surfaced I realsied my leg was totally dead and after a moment's respite I very awkwardly swam over to the side and in extreme pain climbed out. That was the end of my rope swinging for the day and I'm now the proud owner of a lovely bruise over my entire left thigh! Still could have been worse and I live to tell the tale. I'm surprised there aren't a lot more casualties on the river with the shennanigans we saw going on from those under the influence of the local 'buckets' , basically any combination of alcohol you want served in a bucket, generally speaking the traditional child's sandcastle type one!. 6 hours later after an enjoyable day on the river only tainted by the momentary blip when some girl stole my tube and we had to chase her down we were back in a tuk tuk and on our way back to the town. It was a great experience, glad we did it , but also glad to be leaving Vang Vieng, there's only so much teenage antics I can put up with in my old age!

Next day Team BEvans went their separate ways as Ben went south toward Thailand and Jo and myself headed 6 hours north in our very fancy mini bus which we had to ourselves to a town called Luang Prabang where we are staying for 4 nights. It's a pretty chilled town, lots of activities to do nearby, waterfalls, kayaking, biking etc. Whatsmore it has amazing restaurants and a daily evening market - danger!!! On arrival at the bus station we were met by some guys tryng to get us to come to their guest house, it looked pretty good so we bartered them down to $2.50 each a night and loaded our bags into the tuk tuk and off we went.

Day one we went on a tour to the waterfalls after a yummy bday brekkie. Hhaving seen the amazing Iguazu Falls we are a little biased when it comes to waterfalls now and it takes a lot to impress us so after an hours drive we were pleasantly surprised to be impressed by these ones. There was a series of cascading pools and the water was an amazing aquamarine colour. After a sweaty and slippery hike up to the top we then took a refreshing dip and watched others have a go on the rope swing - I was still sterring clear of them after my dodgy landing! It was a nice way to spend my 31st birthday and later that evening I treated myslef to some decent French wine in a nice little wine bar and Jo bought me a ginger cake and attached the candle from the restaurant table to it - thanks Jo, it 's never really a birthday without a cake and a candle so that meant a lot especially being away from everyone else at home.

Today (the next day) we took a kayaking trip to some caves in the middle of nowhere where people have placed hundreds of buddhas there in a shrine. Getting organised quickly wasn't a strong point of the company we were with , it took them so long to get everything ready. Then we had to laugh when just as we were taking the kayaks into the water and the guide was tightening everyones lifejackets like it was a sure thing we were going to capsize he asked us if we could swim. We said yes ofcourse and he replied, 'oh, good because I am just learning so maybe you can help me!'Glad that we were obviously better swimmers than him and hoping he at least knew the best way through the rapids we hopped in and off we paddled.

We paddled downstream for about an hour and a half and successfully negotiated the rapids ,although there was one or two where we ended up grounded on top of the rock instead of steering around it. However, a few skillfull paddle movements and we were out of it and still upright! We ended our trip on the river with a stop at 'Whiskey Village' where they make traditional Laos Whiskey out of sticky rice. Some of it is 50% alcohol so we only tried a couple sips. The black sticky red rice wine actually tastes like port, quite nice! We were shown some very weird looking jars that contained a mysterious liquid along with varying objects such as snakes, scorpions, bears' feet and elephant's penis and vagina - nice!! Seeminlgy these are traditional drinks for helping one sleep or get energy or basically they have one to cure any illness. Think I'll stick to traditional medicine or at least soemthing not containing an animal body part for the time being!