Ever wonder what it's like to explore a giant cave in Laos? Me too!!!!! So Carolyn and I rented mountain bikes and set off to find an adventure in the mountains surrounding vang Vieng.
First off though we found a book store that had a 'better' guide book than our current haggard antique. We traded our current guide book and one of Carolyn's in and got the new one for 60000 kip (about $7.50). The new book covers Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam as well as parts of Thailand and China. Sounds great right? Well the first indication that this guidebook is inadequate should have been the fact that it covers 5 countries but is thinner than our Laos book. Ohwell. Luckily there is no shortage of wifi sites over here. Seriously on that note ... EVERYWHERE has free wifi. So we're in friggin Laos paying $10/night for our room and we get free wifi. But in the US you're lucky if you only have to pay $20 just to use the wifi. Crazy.
At breakfast we tried to nail down some travel plans but decided to wait until our friends (Rebecca and Sanna) got in so we can ask them about Cambodia and Vietnam. We're also thinking about cutting our SE Asia trip a little short and maybe going somewhere else. More on that later.
Ok so the adventure part. Well first let's picture what Vang Vieng (VV) looks like (besides and the couch bars playing Friends). The air is super hazy due to the villagers burning part of the forest in preparation for planting something. Sorta gives everything an LA feel, you know enough pollution and filth in the air to make you grow that 3rd arm you've been wanting. Only VV doesn't have a Hollywood sign, super highway or an In-n-out burger. But behind all that haze are magnificent karst mountains covered in vines and prehistoric looking trees. Occasionally you can see a little bit of the limestone underbelly of the mountain peering out at you. Gives a really cool white contrast to all the lush greenery. These karst mountains look almost like giant rounded lumps surrounding VV. So it's not a mountain view like the rockys or Catskills more like a giant dropped a ton of green gun drops all over a flat plain.
With that picture in mind ... We rented our bikes for 30000 kip each ($3.75) and even got a super crappy map!!!! We had to cross the river so we headed for the bridge which turned out to be a bit of a scam as it was an über-modern wooden bridge (dripping with sarcasm) that cost 12000 kip ($1.50) to cross. At those prices they should have a full scale replica of the Brooklyn bridge here!!!!! Ohwell. We found a dirt road on the other side and
made our way through some hill tribe villages (trekking!!!!!!) and grand scenery. The heat was pretty oppressive though so I had to risk tempting the local ladies and removed my shirt. The dirt road was actually more of an a generally straight path with no trees. It had no trees cause there were so many rocks I thought we were riding in a quarry. Needless to say the ride was treacherous, painful and down right exhausting. Carolyn was a super trooper and even though I know she was hating it she bit her lip and powered on like a boss! We made it to the first cave (Tham Khum) and after a short ride came upon a shirtless man hanging out under an awning. He came over and told us we had to pay 10000 kip / person to enter the cave. WTF. Who is this guy? Well clearly he worked for the Laos national park service and was a certified park ranger. So we paid the money and rode on. The cave was a long ride away and after getting there was clearly not worth it. The entrance opened up a bit by then shrink so that I had to get on all 4's to go through. I was getting a little paranoid about blind scorpions and hairy spiders so we decided to press on to the next cave. Further up the road was tham phu kham cave. Again we had to pay the same toll to enter but this one was actually worth it. In front of the cave is a cool little lagoon with rope swings and such. The water was mighty cold so we pressed on to the cave. He entrance was a strenuous climb up the mountain followed by a short scramble. Luckily I brought my headlamp cause it was daaaaaark in there! Of course there was a Buddha image inside cause what cave is complete without a Buddha right? Anyway the cave was amazing ... Huge open cavern with awesome limestone formations inside. Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with a dip in the chilly lagoon and then made our way back home. Dropped the bikes off, had our celebratory fruit shake (for surviving the bike ride) and an ice cream cone.
Later we met up with our Scottish friends and hammered out some plans for tomorrow then went to dinner at another Friends bar :). Something must be in the air here cause we can sit on these comfy couch things and loose ourselves in the beer Lao / fruit shakes while watching Friends on the TV.
Tomorrow is tubing day. Floating down the Nam Song with a couple drinkys and grand friends ... Woot woot!
Pics:
1) karst mountains.
2) Carolyn and the climb up to a cave.
3) Carolyn and some new friends.
4) karst mountains.
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