Wake up, breakfast and leaving the village at
0730 went all according to plan. Lao people seem to prefer hard beds – my theory
is that airy soft mattresses (i.e. normal comfortable mattresses) suck up the
moisture from the humid air making them… moist… therefore requiring something
less inclined to take in water. I give you: The Lao Rock Mattress. While I wouldn’t
say they are completely like rocks (rather like very thin mattresses on rocks),
there were people not getting much sleep due to the concrete as they called them.
We arrived at our guest house in Vang Vieng an
hour later with barely any issues when leaving the town (the lack of rain
during the night helped a lot) and soon after arrival we paid for the day’s
activities; kayaking, ziplining, tubing and vising the Blue Lagoon nearby.
View from our hotel room.
We got into 2-man kayaks not far from the guest
house and with a guide in front we went down the Mekong River. I was in the
rear and had never done this before, but the girl in front knew exactly what to
do when to do it so she yelled commands, I did them as well as I could, she
commented how (almost) useless I was, I agreed, and so we went down the river in
a fun and relaxing manner. We at least didn’t tip over on the way – a few
others did and one lost his glasses, and considering how firm she was about not
wanting to tip over I have my doubts I would have survived if we did.
Halfway down the river we stopped and went up
on land. Here we got put into our tubes and went through a cave after been
given head torches. We got into the water in the tubes and then used mounted
ropes to pull ourselves along. Due to the rainy season some parts of the cave
were inaccessible so the tour ended up being relatively short lived.
Coming back out we had lunch before doing the
zipline course. Having never done it before I was a bit nervous (wouldn’t be
the first time I’d get hit by my fear of heights) but being tied up in a
harness and clicked into the wire it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared. The
last two lines on the course, one being the longest of them, was done
superman-style; instead of just being hooked up and sitting (-ish) while
zooming across the mount got moved to your back putting you in an almost
horizontal position. That was fun – after the first few seconds, that is.
View of the river from the tubing/ziplining place.
Coming down we returned to our kayaks and went
back out on the river. We were moored in a sharp turn in the river and to leave
we had to navigate the obvious stream that you came into almost immediately. We
started with a quick 360° turn when leaving land which left my co-kayaker very
unimpressed, but we were soon after heading in the right direction without
further issues and shortly after we arrived back at our hotel around 1500.
From there a ½-hour drive took us to the Blue
Lagoon, but to be honest it wasn’t as impressive as they had made it sound. It
was a natural pool of water being blue-ish with a few towers you could jump
from, a couple of inflatable boats and the like, but that was pretty much it. It
was nice and relaxing, though.
Everybody were just enjoying some relaxing time.
A reddish dragonfly at the pool.
Back at the hotel – again – a well needed shower
was had and at 1900 we went out for dinner. We ended up in an Irish bar which
people were happy about as it guaranteed the possibility of food without rice
(our guide is Cambodian and even he admits that he and his stomach isn’t too happy
about having sticky rice multiple days in a row). Afterwards some people went
out for a few drinks while half of us went back to catch up on some much-needed
sleep.
Sunset.
This guy was spotted returning from the restaurant. Estimated length 20-30cm.
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