Kayaking to Vientiane and onto the Islands down South

We woke up early and got into the back of a truck with canoes stacked up to the sky and hit the windey road, a Dutch girl who had a dogey stomach and gets car sick was in with us - another barf bag, and my tissues and wet wipe later she sheepishly with many apologies started looking helpless holding the bag and not sure what to do with it. Craig who was sitting next to her and looking rather green himself told her this is not Holland toss the bag out the truck.We arrived at our canoe stop and hit the river anticipating 2, 3 and 4 grade rapids and watched our bags disappearing over the hill on the truck destined for our end point, wondering if we would ever see them again.

Lou partnered with Bill, Nick with Craig, I definitely lucked out with Bill he and I were a team and he worked hard, Nicky on the other hand played the fool the whole trip and at one point as I canoed past he was lying back and using the paddle pretending to be doing bench press, he definitely is training to be Mr. Funny guy. We stopped before the big rapids, climbed out and walked round to check them out and then got a vague go to the middle mmmm, who bloody thought of this. Anyway Janine and Lawrence, me and Bill ended up capsizing, no one injured so all ok, they made us lunch on the side of the river little kebabs, with baguettes, the last part of the journey got a bit long in the tooth and I think we all lost our sense of humor, anyway at least the car to Vientiane was air-conditioned and a mini bus.

We got dropped off and walked towards town and the river all a bit frayed at the edges and there like a mirage in the desert was a shiny new hotel, I was saying in my mind – that’s for me and then Janine god bless her soul said it, we walked in did the deal and had shiny new bathrooms and rooms, what a pleasure. Hit a local expat French restaurant and tucked into steaks and red wine for a change and languished in our aircon rooms seeing what had happened in the outside world in the last few weeks, elections SA! Viva Zuma!

The next day awoke to no electricity, no aircon, no money and temperatures soaring. Realized my mobile had been switched of and packed in the bottom of my bag for two weeks, not missing it at all!

We have been in Laos about 2 weeks now, for a communist country it has been remarkably free and easy but time to move on. Bus to border, border crossing, overnight train to Bangkok, and flight to the South and the islands. All accomplished in 24 hours, its amazing how organized travel is in this part of the world. Small operators, very entrepreneurial and cheap, SA could pick up some good tips here.

Decided on new financial plan for the boys - pocket money 250 bahts each every three days. Arrived at Bangkok airport and both boys blew their new found wealth in one go on Sushi. Took Nicky a 10 baht bet to eat a big blob of Wasabi, should have seen his face on his first Wasabi rush priceless!

Raiders of the lost ark

We woke up and headed for more caves these ones you swim through, same turquoise color tunnels heading into the mountain. After an initial recci, Lawrence the Canadian, myself (Craig) and the boys wrapped the one headlamp we had in a left over blue barf bag from the bus and descended from the 40+ degrees outside into the bowels of the earth, a combination of cool water and chilled mountain air. Great adventure ahead!

Once you go round a few bends with the odd bump of your head or toes the natural light disappears completely. Now we were reliant on the headlamp, Lawrence and I took turns swimming one handed with the torch held aloft. Eventually after a few forks it dawned on us that if the torch dies or if we drop it we were going to be in big trouble and reach a silent unanimous cave decision to turn round and head back to the light!

Headed back to the caves from the previous day- the scenery is SICK (stupidly beautiful)– time for the meditation lesson. On the way I (Lou) got a flat tyre, everyone was ahead so Nicky jumped off and we drove/ walked slowly until I got to a guy who? – fixes tyres. The old way with a hot iron compressor thing. Craig by this time arrived in a cloud of dust to see what happened. I waited patiently until my tube was repaired (R20) whilst Craig and Nicky went ahead to a rickety 4 table restaurant to order noodles and papaya salad. In these little places everything is made from scratch in a tiny kitchen so food comes out fresh in dribs and drabs as each dish is completed. You get to taste everyone else’s food whilst waiting perfect!

Its one thing going caving with a slightly gung ho Canadian and quite another leading your wife and 2 boys in sans the psycho, no warnings, no signs, no guides, no entrance fee you are on your own, needless to say we never got round to meditating but everyone’s comfort zones were stretched to the limit by the end of the caving expedition.

Another long beautiful day of adventure. At the end of the day I think it was Janine that suggested we kayak to Vientiane to avoid another 3 hour bus trip - through a combination of swirling endorphins, cold Loa beer and too much sun we made a decision to go for it!