Just a spoon full of sugar...

We have discovered Laos' version of Pai! Vang Vieng is a very hard city to leave as well. We don't have to be out of Laos until the 18th of December (when our Visa runs out) so we thought we'd spend some extra time doing nothing here. It is nice to feel settled in a city for a few days without having to worry which bus I'm going to be sick on next :)

Day Three

We decided to rent bicycles yesterday and take the 7 km journey to Poukham Cave. It is the most popular cave to visit among us farang so we decided to give it a try. We really enjoyed our visit to Chang Cave (which was the one we saw the day before) and were excited to see what people were describing as a "beautiful site." Most of the bicycle places rented old-school styled bikes (like the one you'd picture Mary Poppins riding). We rented two of those and at the time didn't really think anything of it. About 5 minutes into our trip we realized we should have had mountain bikes.

The road (if you could call it that) was mostly dirt and rocks (big ones). We were having a tough time just trying not to fall off the bikes! Every time we reached a hill we had to get off the bikes and walk them up. Along the 7 km route were these rickety old wooden bridges built by the villagers in the area. In order to use the bridge you had to pay a toll (or if you were cheap like one guy we saw you could take off your shoes and attempt to walk the river!). By the time we reached the cave we were hot, sweaty, very very dirty and tired (it was 32 degrees yesterday). We chained up our bikes and paid the entrance fee to the cave. We couldn't really see a clear entrance way so we asked one of the employees where the stairs were. He pointed to what looked like a wall and then pointed straight up. We walked toward the wall and saw that there were no stairs and that you had to climb this mountain wall to get to the cave. Now all of you who know Paul and I well know that we aren't exactly in peak physical condition (ha ha) and we were already exhausted from the bike ride. But this trip has brought out the adventurous side in us both so we decided to scale the mountain to reach the cave. Not once during the 20 minutes that it took to get to the top did I feel safe. The whole time I kept thinking "how the hell am I going to get down this thing!!" There were a few times where we both almost slipped, but by some miracle we reached the top and found the cave.

Although the cave was nice (as far as caves go) it was not worth the Mary Poppins bikes, the crazy road, the rickety bridges and the mountain climbing to get there. We spent lots of time exploring the cave and taking pictures (we actually got quite a few nice ones) - we did try to make the best of a very tiring situation. Once we gathered our courage and energy we started the climb down.

Paul took a picture of our route. He joked that we needed photographic evidence of our cause of death. I can laugh now, but at the time I thought the picture may come in handy!! We took it nice and slow and made it down safe and sound in about half an hour. We were glad to be out of the cave and heading back the 7km we came. A nice cold shower sounded fantastic.

Now we all know that things don't always work out as we plan. About 1km into our ride back to the guesthouse Paul's tire went flat. We both just about lost it. We didn't say much on our 6km walk back - I think we were both afraid that we might snap and kill each other (even though we knew the situation was not the fault of either of us). We returned our bikes and thankfully they didn't try and make us pay for a new tire. We made it back to our guesthouse and we both took the longest showers in history.

That night met up with a couple from Ottawa for dinner and had a great time. We had Indian food and talked until they shut the place down. We're planning on meeting them again tonight. Today we've spent lots of time doing nothing. Paul is reading the Da Vinci Code (which I just finished) and he can't put it down. I've never seen him read so much in my entire life! It's great. We might take a walk down to the market and look into buying a bus ticket to our next stop (Vientiane). We'll probably leave tomorrow unless we decide to go tubing down the river. We'll keep you posted.