Vang Vieng

Hey All,

I'm back in Luang Prabang after spending 3 days in Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng was very touristy but still outstandingly beautiful. The first day we went out for a few beers in the evening. We got up early the next day to go tubing (floating down the river in a rubber tube, stopping at bars along the way...) it was a very boozy day but great fun none the less. The weather was great and it was a good party. There were some large rope swings into the river which were great fun. At the end of the day there were no signs telling you when to get off, and we ran into a couple of people later in the evening who had been on their way to Cambodia before they realised they should probably disembark...The following day Robin, Mike and I hired some bikes. We visited some caves which were really interesting; we were the only people there and the surrounding scenery was stunning. The cave itself had huge stalagmites and mushroom like limestone formations. The cave extended deep into the cliff and was considerably bigger than I anticipated. There were little cricket type creatures with large feelers as they couldnt see int he dark. There was a gorgeous pond with crystal clear water outside the cave, filled by water seeping through the limestone above. We then went to the 'blue lagoon' whilst the water was beautiful it was not a lagoon, it was a river. We went to another cave, this time a little boy showed us round. It was not as impressive as the previous cave but we saw an enormous spider. Jen had warned me to watch out for 'cave spiders' and this one the size of my hand was munching on one of the aforementioned cricket type things. I couldn't get a photo unfortunately as the battery on my camera had run out...The following day I decided I wanted to go trekking in Phongsali, but i had to come back to Luang Prabang first to get a connecting bus...I chilled out today in Utopia (again) I bargained hard in a book shop and swapped 8 books for 5, so my bag is slightly lighter again. Anyway off to the bus stop. Love to all, probs won't post a blog for a week or so until I'm in China.