Shaun & Rayann: Sunshine, Kayaking, Tubing, & Caving!! Welcome to Laos!

Goodbye rainy Vietnam and sabaidee (hello) Laos! After an all day "VIP" bus from Hue Vietnam, we finally made it over the border and into Savannahket, Laos. Our one way, non transfer bus turned into a transfer, local bus, which for those of you who haven't experienced a southeast Asia local bus means it tacks on another 2-3 hours to your trip. We spent one night in Savannaket as there weren't many sights to see and really just a stop over town. The next day we took another local bus, at the advice of our guesthouse manager and arrived in Vientiane about 10 hours later. I never saw so many people crammed onto a bus, alongside motorbikes, newborns, chickens and other live stock. Funny enough, we met a Loa woman on the bus who lived in Fremont, CA. She was with her family visiting her mom's town because there was a death in the family. Small world that we meet someone who lives in CA on a local bus in Lao! Needless to say, after that bus ride, we were exhausted & tired from those last 2 days. Vientiane is the capital of Laos and compared to Vietnam, SO MUCH quieter. There was rarely any honking in the streets and not thousands of motor bikes zipping around you! We spent the day walking along the very dry Mekong River. The Mekong in Vientiane borders Thailand, so we could see Thailand on the other side. We checked out a few beautiful wats and just really enjoyed a quiet day with lots of sunshine...and food of course!We saw the sunset over the mekong with some ice cold Bia Lao! That may have been a highlight after the 2 day bus rides :)

The next day we hopped another bus to Vang Vieng...known mainly for its infamous tubing and drinking down the river, oh and bar and bar lined with plasmas playing repeats of Friends and Family Guy. Think spring break, but for Australians! The town itself is not typical Laos, but a fun, warm and welcoming 3 day break with all the traveling, sightseeing and cold from Vietnam! We decided off the bat that we wanted to get a small bungalow on the river...at a whopping $10 a night! We loved the bungalow, especially for the hammocks, although we will need to definitely get in some more hammock time in southern Thailand.

Our first day in Vang Vieng instead of tubing, we decided to go on a kayak and caving trip instead. We left early in the morning and visited a few nearby caves (the Elephant cave an the Water cave). The water cave was a blast because they put the group in inner tubes and we followed a rope through the dark cave in our tube. We had headlamps on and swam a little in the cave. We had seen a few caves already in Vietnam but seeing one in the water up close was so much fun!

After the water cave we went down the river further to start kayaking. This time of year the rivers aren't so deep so we had to start a few kilometers down to avoid the dry spots. We hit a few fun rapids but nothing strong enough to tip us over. The 8 km kayaking trek included the 4 km done for tubing so this is where we started to see the debauchery and why Vang Vieng is known for this. There were bars lined up on either side of the river for about 4 km with slides, rope swings, zip lines, you name it, catapulting people into the river. There were tons of people partying, dancing and jumping into the river from these riverside bars and moving from one to the other as the sun moved throughout the day. We stopped at one bar, where after a few beers and a "whiskey bucket" (think scorpion bowl mixed in a child's sand bucket), the both of us got the courage to slide down one of the slides and Shaun jumped off the zip lines. We have some great videos of these, but you will have to wait until we download those on youtube :)

The next day we decided to do a few hikes around Vang Vieng which has beautiful local sights. We explored a few more caves (since we haven't had enough) and trekked around the surrounding rice fields. We also rented mountain bikes and biked about 4 km to a blue lagoon, where we swam while the sun was setting. The had a few much smaller rope swings and jumps there that we were happy to partake in after the crazy jumps we saw on the river.