Tubular

Hello all!

Day Four

I know it's been a few days but there really wasn't much to report. We spent Monday floating down a river in Vang Vieng in big inner tubes. We woke up bright and early (for us), smothered ourselves in sunscreen, had a bite to eat and headed down to Vang Vieng Tubing Group where we met up with Dara and Meghan (a woman from California that Dara met on the bus to Vang Vieng). These tubing guys have a pretty lucrative business going. They provide tubes and transportation up the river for $3.50 USD (each). The river provides the rest of the entertainment. The journey down the river is covered in beautiful scenery (lush green mountains) and the occasional bar (where you can get off the tube and partake in a Beer Lao if that is your cup of tea.... well beer). It was a great day. You had no choice but to sit back and be at peace with nature - my kind of fun. Turns out we also went at the perfect time of day as well because all the drunk people hadn't gotten out of bed yet (ha ha). The river still had enough people on it to socialize, but you could float all by yourself if you wanted to. By the time we finished it was still nice and warm out, but you could see people with poles stationed all along the river, who, for a modest fee, will fish you out and bring you back to town if you get too cold (or drunk).

We finished the day with a late lunch, some laundry and book reading (Paul finished The Da Vinici Code - woo hoo!). That night we found ourselves a quiet little restaurant that played movies and watched The Incredibles (for the 2nd time since arriving in Southeast Asia). Good fun.

Day Five

On Tuesday we decided that we would once again brave cave exploring. On our map (very generously provided by our guesthouse) there was a cave a mere 2 km from town called Lusi Cave. We crossed the river (after paying the toll for the rickity bridge) and started to walk. At first the trek was through fields that someone had mowed a path through. As we got further along the mowed path turned to a forest. We walked for what seemed like forever and we didn't see a single person along the way (except what I will assume was a Lao farmer who had a rather large knife with him). I started to get a bit nervous - we all know how paranoid I get. After about 45 minutes of walking we arrived at the cave. The other two caves we visited had ticket booths and employees. This cave had four drunk (and I think a little high too) Lao men who wrote on a piece of wood...

Trip to Cave - 5000 kip

Trip to Lagoon - 10 000 kip

MUST HAVE GUIDE

Once again entering the cave involved climbing up a steep cliff. I didn't exactly have too much confidence in the men that were to be our "guides". I looked over at Paul I could see that he felt the same way. We turned our butts around and made the 45 minute walk back without ever seeing Lusi Cave. But heck, we're alive to tell the tale :) We got back to the room, showered and headed out for an afternoon/evening of Friends watching.

Vientiane

We have now arrived in Vientiane and I must proclaim that I DID NOT get sick on this bus. Thank you to the makers of Gravol. We did have some entertainment on the bus though (thankfully not provided by me). About 2 hours into the 3.5 hour trip we blew a tire. I thought for sure this would take forever to get fixed, but this very handy man changed the tire in record time and we were back on the road again.

Our guesthouse is quite nice - off the main road, clean and relatively cheap for Vientiane (which is an expensive place compared to Vang Vieng). We have a shared bath this time, but it's nice and clean. We have prepaid for two nights and at this point we're not sure if we will stay longer. Our Visa expires on Sunday, but I think we will probably head to Nong Khai on Saturday. We'll keep you all posted.

Just a Note About Christmas:

For those family members who are expecting phone calls on Christmas - rest assured that we will do our very best to call on the actual day. We expect that the phones will be quite busy that day and there are only so many international phones to go around. If you do not hear from us it is not because we fell off the Earth :) - we will try and call the next day. We look forward to talking to you.

Love Correne