Vang Vieng is described by "the book of lies" as the Koa Samui of Laos, and to a large extent it is - albeit a much more chilled out and smaller version! Having arrived quiet late we quickly booked ourselves in a hostel and then headed into town to book the next days activities - caving and tubing!
The following morning we headed into town and after I'd finished throwing up my anti-malarial tablet (never take Doxicylin on an empty stomach after a heavy night the night before!!), we were introduced to our tour group and soon heading towards Elephant Cave for our first activity of the day - cave tubing.
Just before the cave tubing our tour guide decided to take us to a local village shrine (left). However, it turned out the locals had built it directly under a rather angry hornets' nest!!
Now, during this holiday I have learnt many things about my travelling partner and beloved girlfriend - notably that insects, particularly mosquitoes, love her. Whilst this has destinct disadvantages for her (in that she wakes up covered in bites), it hold numerous advantages for me (I don't get bitten at all!!) .However, upon entering the enclosed area hosting the local shrine, we discovered that angry hornets also hold a certain liking/disliking to her. So, as we stood there desperately trying not to laugh as the Budda (above) which had been given lady bits for a mouth, Holly started getting dive bombed by the afore mentioned hornets. Not knowing what to do (can you kill wasps in a Budist temple???) we started off by simply moving to another place in the temple , thinking the hornets would go for someone else. This didn't work and they soon sought Holly out again! We then tried moving outside the shrine, which also failed, and finally, we started walking round in circles, though to not great avail!
At this point I was getting attacked too, as Holly had taken to hiding behind me (despite being told "Pirates Code had been initiated and that she was on her own!) and so deciding I would take it up with Budda at the Pearly Gates, I started swinging at them! After braining two of the little buggers, they called for reinforcements and so as I tour guide continued to bore everyone to death with the Buddish tale of the flamingo, toad and the fish (which basically involves a devious flamingo that tells a fish and a toad that their river is getting low in water, offers to move them to a fuller river for free but shock, horror it's actually a river with less water in it and then charges them money to be moved back. The moral of this amazing tale is that some people are bad and will lie to make money, however, he dragged that gem out for about 35minutes of hornet attacks!) we made a run for it and eventually managed to loose our winged attackers!
Anyway, after this we were taken to the cave (below). After waiting an hour and a half for the
group infront to finish their tour of the cave, we were given a handfull of head lamps to share between the 30+ strong group and a track tire inner each! We then spent the next 45 minutes paddling upstream backwards through freezing cold water in the near pitch black like a bale of demented turtles! After this time and in no particular place, we turned of the failing head lamps, a few people screamed (there's always one!!) and then continued our reenactment of Blue Planet, though this time in a downstream direction!
After lunch, we were then bundled into a Tuk Tuk van and then taken to the section of river just north of bars where we'd be doing our tubing.
For those that don't know, the tubing, for which Vang Vieng is famed for, basically consists of being given a tractor tire, floating down the Nam Song river on said tire and stopping off at the numerous bars along the way! In short, it's carnage and whilst we'd taken waterproof cameras with us and thus have plenty of photos, they are going in the private collection as we ended up lobster red and with buckets on our heads!!
The following morning we headed into town and after I'd finished throwing up my anti-malarial tablet (never take Doxicylin on an empty stomach after a heavy night the night before!!), we were introduced to our tour group and soon heading towards Elephant Cave for our first activity of the day - cave tubing.
Just before the cave tubing our tour guide decided to take us to a local village shrine (left). However, it turned out the locals had built it directly under a rather angry hornets' nest!!At this point I was getting attacked too, as Holly had taken to hiding behind me (despite being told "Pirates Code had been initiated and that she was on her own!) and so deciding I would take it up with Budda at the Pearly Gates, I started swinging at them! After braining two of the little buggers, they called for reinforcements and so as I tour guide continued to bore everyone to death with the Buddish tale of the flamingo, toad and the fish (which basically involves a devious flamingo that tells a fish and a toad that their river is getting low in water, offers to move them to a fuller river for free but shock, horror it's actually a river with less water in it and then charges them money to be moved back. The moral of this amazing tale is that some people are bad and will lie to make money, however, he dragged that gem out for about 35minutes of hornet attacks!) we made a run for it and eventually managed to loose our winged attackers!
Anyway, after this we were taken to the cave (below). After waiting an hour and a half for the
group infront to finish their tour of the cave, we were given a handfull of head lamps to share between the 30+ strong group and a track tire inner each! We then spent the next 45 minutes paddling upstream backwards through freezing cold water in the near pitch black like a bale of demented turtles! After this time and in no particular place, we turned of the failing head lamps, a few people screamed (there's always one!!) and then continued our reenactment of Blue Planet, though this time in a downstream direction!After lunch, we were then bundled into a Tuk Tuk van and then taken to the section of river just north of bars where we'd be doing our tubing.
For those that don't know, the tubing, for which Vang Vieng is famed for, basically consists of being given a tractor tire, floating down the Nam Song river on said tire and stopping off at the numerous bars along the way! In short, it's carnage and whilst we'd taken waterproof cameras with us and thus have plenty of photos, they are going in the private collection as we ended up lobster red and with buckets on our heads!!
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