Nothing says trip of a life time, like having breakfast beside the river over looking the mountains. This was paradise. This was also going to be a big day. Our tuk tusk arrived at 9 to take us on our Cave Tubbing and Kayaking adventure and we were off!
The Tuk Tuks dropped us off at the river, and we had to cross a rice field to get to the caves. At the caves, we were all given head lamps, and a tube. We then lined up to follow the guide rope into the cave. the Cave pretty much allowed us to float in for about 15 minuets, until we reached a large cavern. in the cavern there were mineral deposits coming down from the ceiling. It was pretty cool.
After our group photo, which turned out surprisingly well, we took a tunnel to get back to our tubes. After we got out of the water we headed back to our Tuk Tuk to go to our kayaks. When we got to the kayaks, we found a bunch of Laotians building a bridge across the river. apparently with all the rain they were having, they were losing a lot of bridges.
Our kayak guides were awesome. They made sure to take time with all of us. When it got to warm, they engaged us in a splash fight. And they pointed out where all the rocks were that we should avoid. We also saw lots of bars along the side of the river. Our guides told us, that a few years ago, you used to be able to float down the river and go bar to bar getting buckets of booze. They would have slides and zip lines from the bars to the river, so that people could have fun drinking down the river. But that would equal a lot of deaths. SO they stopped that. Me and Andrew shared a kayak, and raced the americans up the river until we got to our hotel. It was a great way to stay cool in the morning.
In Vang Vieng, they have this weird idea that americans only watch Friends and Family guy. SO they had a million restaurants where you could go and order food and watch friends on couches. All the tables were set up so that you could only see the tvs and sit side by side. There was no way to sit facing your friends. It was a great way to zone out after a busy morning.
After we rested it was finally time for our Hot Air Balloon Ride. We jumped in a Tuk Tuk and went to the old air strip where our balloon was waiting. I was so excited – ever since I saw Wizard of Oz, I wanted to ride in a hot air balloon. Of course we didn’t know it but that was not the best day to ride a hot air balloon. There was not a lot of air moving that day, so our balloon was finding it hard to get lift. We had a terrifying first 5 min of skimming the trees. But we finally got straight into the air and were able to see the sun setting over the mountains. However we were not out of the woods yet, little did we know that our friends who were in the balloon after us, were also having trouble getting lift off, specifically they were finding it hard to not rise into the air without hitting us. There was a terrifying moment where we realized that they were directly below us, where we panicked a little. In the end we were find. The landing was the easy part. We came down slowly and landed perfectly in a farmers rice field. The basket didn’t get dragged or fall over like we expected it too.
