Out of Routine

The four of us took a night bus that would get us from Luang Prabang down to Vang Vien without the fuss of using up a day travelling. Bleary eyed, we arrived at around 4am and jumped in the first guest house we could find - something we'd tried our best to avoid. The rooms were a bit skanky, the beds stained with goodness knows what... but we were tired and didn't want the hassles of finding somewhere else in pitch darkness.

So after a long sleep, quick shower, trip across time to a new guest house, another shower just to make sure... we were ready to go tubin'!

A tuk-tuk drives you about 3 miles up stream and drops you off. The river doesn't flow particularly fast but it is littered with bars all along. We made a point of stopping at each one for the first section of our adventure, but would soon find we wouldn't have enough time before sundown to complete the route back to town.

As we stopped at our second watering hole, we couldn't help but notice a huge swing and zip line suspended above the river. We took turns in sliding the zip line and gave ourselves points for artistic impression for the landing. If you held on long enough, the jolt from stopping would whip you in any random direction. Andy Ludlow delighted the crowd With a beautiful face-slap to surface landing. The results of which stayed with him for the afternoon.

After negotiating rapids, logs, kayakers and floaters - the sun was on its way down behind the impressive hills. On one of the banks, we spied some crafty hopeful tuk-tuk drivers who were the proud owners of a whole US dollar for driving 4 shivering, slightly drunk Englishmen back in to town.

***

After what seems like way too many rough bus journeys across Nepal, Thailand and now Laos, it was great to discover a new mode of transport to get us to the Laos capital - Vientiane. Again we jumped on the back of a tuk-tuk for an hours drive, this time however, we were dropped by the river again, but with Kayaks.

The scenery we took in was quite breathtaking, huge jagged rocks and dense jungle foliage dominated the landscapes. Soon we were more concerned with staying upright on our kayaks, since it was the first time most of us had tried our hand with a dual paddled... err paddle. Dave and Ludlow managed to test the water several times before we broke off for lunch.

The heat we'd gained from the exercise made Nick and I quite envious of the other guys earlier dip. So along with Flo, a German guy also on our trip, we took turns in jumping into the river from the rocks we'd landed on. The tour leader noticed what we were doing and ran off in typical fashion laughing and shouting "big jumps, hehehehe"... so of course we followed.

The first drop he led us to was probably around 3metres in height, but everyone jumped right off straight away... The 2nd took some bare-foot climbing skills to get to the ledge for jumping. As we looked down the 8metre dropped, it took a few second thoughts to make the jump. But eventually, we all made the plunge with finesse.

We jumped back in the kayaks and paddled the remainder of the journey. Another tuk-tuk would drive us the remaining hour into the capital.

***

Our day spent in Vientiane was pretty good, since we'd headed South for the past few days, the temperature was nice and hot again. The city (reflective of the country) is not very well developed just yet, although it does have it's share of glamorous hotels etc. We dropped into the Laos National History Museum before heading to the bowling complex. Maybe I play better nearer the equator, but I couldn't quite believe the score I racked up in my first game... 120-130 would be a pretty regular score for me; but today, the bowling Buddha must've been shining on me setting a PB of 198.

Our time with Dave and Andy was now over and we headed off to different bus terminals for our night time transfers. We were headed for Vietnam. We'd been warned about the trip we were about to take:

"One of the worst 2 trips in SE Asia"

So, armed with a plethora of baked goods, we took our seats on the 24hr trip across the Laos/Vietnam border. We'd heard the route was used by 'Nam citizens to traffic their contraband - it was 5minutes before we noticed the sacks in the overhead stores moving. 3 sacks loaded with snakes. We quizzed the driver about them - he did his best to deny the contents but our questioning succeeded in seeing them moved to the luggage hold for the trip. Good thing too!

We managed to sleep a small amount before the bus proceeded to border control... we felt a little like POWs as we were herded between no-mans land but eventually, we got our passports stamped and Hanoi was awaiting us.