Tuesday, July 26. Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, Laos.

We loaded the Stray bus at 7am and were on the road by 7:20. We had our same Stray guide back, but we had been introduced to a new Lao guide, Pompillon but he goes by Porn, during the waterfall tour yesterday. The Stray team affectionately refer to him as 'Porn Star' and he finds this quite humorous. He seems to like telling what we would consider off-color jokes, but you don't always catch on right away as his accent and translation are not always clear at first. He told us this one local village joke about three bulls and a cow that needed to cross a river. Either Stephen or I can enlighten you about this story upon our return as it is better told orally than in writing. But we could tell there would be some fun times ahead with this jolly fellow -- in fact he kind of reminds me of a Lao version of Stratus (he is my mom's crazy, fun Greek, chef, limo driver husband for those of you not familiar with my family).

As we pulled out of Luang Prabang into undulating hillsides, the sun shone high and bright, and as we climbed there was a haze of low clouds hovering in the valleys, giving the drive an surreal feel as we wove between picturesque jungle- and Banana Tree-covered mountains.

We stopped at a little roadside town for a restroom break, snacks and walk around at around 9:15. Everywhere you looked there were gorgeous and dramatic views. Then it was on the road again for another 1.5 hours.

We were in the Phu Khoun region, which means 'high mountains', with an elevation of 1,800m you can see why (that's over a mile high and similar in elevation to Denver, Colorado USA).

We arrive in Vang Vieng and check in to the SomPhaThai Guesthouse, which is right near where all the tubing vendors leave from. The guesthouse has spacious rooms and newly tiled bathrooms. It is the first place we have stayed since Bangkok with a fresh, crisp coat of paint in the rooms. Also, it is the first bathroom since Bangkok to have bright bathroom lighting to enable me to tweeze my eyebrows. And although we do not have air conditioning, the building is brick/cement and remains fairly cool with the fan blowing.

We decided not to go tubing on the river as the water was high and fast-moving, so it was relatively expensive for the anticipated 1-hour journey on the river at 55k Kip, plus 60k deposit and 20k for lifejacket. There were also several bars along the river on the way and we didn't feel like fishing drunk tourists out of the river. Besides, unlike our UK travel mates, we could go tubing in the US on much cleaner rivers just about any summer. Instead, we took a tuk-tuk with Kirsten out to Cave Tham Phu Kham and the Blue Lagoon to cool off there.

It was a bumpy, 30+ minute tuk-tuk ride out to the Cave and Lagoon. Recent rains had left a lot of muddy areas that the river had to slow down and carefully navigate. We passed by a variety of villages ad rice paddies along the way and most of the children said Sah-bei-dee (hello) and waved as we went by.

The park cost 10k Kip to visit the lagoon and the cave. The aqua green-blue waters of the lagoon were very inviting after a hot day. The water level was very high to the point where the tree swings hanging over the water were 1-2 feet below the surface, so clearly the current water level is 3-5 feet above normal. The water was cool, crisp, but very refreshing.

After a bit of swimming, we decided to go explore the cave. It was a steep 100m ascent up steep, uneven rocks to the cave entrance. The cave was 5 degrees or so cooler than the outside air, and the mouth of the cave quickly opened into a big cavern with ribbon-like stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Inside the cave was a reclining Buddha statue. We couldn't go too far inside the cave as we weren't wearing appropriate footwear or a flashlight. But we definitely got a good feel for it.

We went back down and swam a little bit longer, before heading back around 5pm to get back for a shower and short nap before dinner.

We ate dinner at a riverside restaurant that had the typical mix of Lao and Western food. It was nice. And then we retired to a riverfront bar down the way that had pool tables and small tables with cushions to sit around. It wreaked of pot, but then again all the bars in Vang Vieng did, and most had 'happy' additives to choose to be added to your food or drink. We, of course, did not participate. But like pot smoking in Amsterdam, people tended to look at you a little strange for not paticipating. In their view, why else would you go to Vang Vieng.

I retired after one drink. Steve had already returned to our room, but we heard others in the group had stayed out into the wee hours of the morning.

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