Exploring Caves and Tubing through the Mountains...

What a beautiful country!

Today was another action packed day. It started off well because the cheap hostel bed did not disappoint! Mind you, it was my first real bed in almost a week, so perhaps anything would have been good. But I got a good night of sleep without Gravol and finally feel half normal today.

And what a good day to feel normal it was!

We went for a lazy tube ride down a river. The mountains and lush greenery were simply breathtaking. The tropical terrain is always a treat to us Canadians, I suspect. There were some stops along the river such as zip lining and rope swings. I did a couple, but that sort of thing doesn’t do it for me. Dana was having a heyday. When I did the rope swing (which is just grabbing onto a rope on a high platform and swinging over the river, Tarzan style, then letting go to splash into the water), and being the brilliant person I am, kept my shades on. Needless to say, they didn’t surface with me. To add insult to injury, I left my shoes at one of the stops. And I was just laughing at Meaghan the other day for being scatterbrained...I blame my father's genes for this!

There was a 100ft rope swing that I took a pass on. I’ll jump from high places, provided it doesn’t give me that “whoosh” in my stomach. That feeling makes me want to vomit, and I'd rather keep my delicious Lao food down, thank you very much. Meaghan, Dana, and Ben did the jumps with screams of glee. Kevin was jealous; he would have loved to, but couldn’t get his knee wet.

After lazily floating down the river, we took our scooters and bikes and drove to explore a large cave. This was pretty cool; only pictures can describe it. I won’t even try. I’ll try to post some pics soon.

On the way back from the cave, we had to cross a suspension bridge. We thought it might be fun to rock the bridge, and didn’t really notice all the Asians crossing the bridge in front of us. Well, rock it we did, and couldn’t help but laugh as the scared Asians scampered off the bridge like lemmings over a cliff. But we felt bad when a toothless monk clung to the side for dear life, so decided that perhaps we shouldn’t try to get our kicks if it involved scaring poor Asians. They did seem somewhat amused, though, because once they took refuge on solid ground, they whipped out their video cameras to hopefully catch the crazy White people swaying the bridge.

I tried a bit of off-roading on my motorbike which was quite fun. I've never been dirt biking before. I did get stuck. I did take a tumble. I am a little sore. But hey, isn’t that what a Honda 250 is all about? It was a blast; I think I need a dirtbike now.

We’re moving at a keen pace around Laos, but loving it. The scenery here is just breath taking. It feels rural in a lot of ways- primitive almost. The English here is very broken, much more so than in Thailand. But it’s what makes it fun. We are really enjoying the food. The French colonized here, so it's like Thai food with a French twist. Deeelicious! Plus, they make a mean mojito here.

Tomorrow we move on to Luang Prabang. Oh yeah, I finally learned the name of the city we've been staying in- Vang Vieng. (Now can you see why I can't get these names straight?)

PS I’m posting some pics to yesterday’s blog. I don’t always have access to upload pictures, and most of today’s pictures were taken by Meaghan and Dana’s camera. I promise I'll post them when I can!