DAY 37

Thursday April 9th, 2009

After a few days in Vientiene I decided to make my way up to Vang Vieng. I reconnected with the group i had traveled with from Cambodia and Laos. The group had consisted of a Norweigan couple, and two English guys.

Vang Vieng is exactly what everyone described to me: Scenic views, relaxing atmosphere, tubing down the river. I can see why people come to Vang Vieng and decided to stay for weeks and sometimes months! The first full day in Vang Vieng i decided to skip the relaxation and do some rock climbing. Vang Vieng is supposed to have some of the best rock climbing in all of South East Asia, so i decided it was something i had to do! Being a beginner climber, i didnt get very far but managed to clear the 4 and 5 walls!
The next day i did some tubing inside a cave, which was really cool! The cave wasnt very big, and the entire journey took maybe about 20 minutes. We were given flashlights to wear around our heads and when we got to the end of the cave we turned them off. Trying to navigate through the cave without the lights would have been a bit difficult and scary because once the lights were out the cave was completely dark! Thank God there were no bats!
Next up was kayaking through the river. Kayaking rather than tubing through the river was awesome because we kayak a longer route than the tubers. Kayaking was surprisingly relaxing as we were going with the current. In the middle of out trip we made a pit stop for some drinks and some fun in the water. Most of the bars along the river have zip lines where you can zip line into the water. One of them even had a slide which ends a few meters above water. It took me a while to muster up the courage to get on it, but once i did it was well worth it!

After all the activities, i decided oto take a couple days and just relax and get some tubing in.
Tomorrow i continue North for Luang Prabang :)