Today we revisited the tubing office (actually it was a different office. It looks like they have different operators running the show on different days) and took the short tuk tuk trip back up the the launching point of the tubing run.
We politely waved off the bar owners and their bamboo poles, determined to make it the whole way this time. And we did! Four hours later! Let's just say the river gets slow at spots. We also stopped for lunch at the most deserted bar we could find. Unfortunately the staff thought that two guests constituted playing some blown out Eminem from four enormous speakers. We ate quickly.
I'm glad we did the whole trip properly, for a while we were actually out of earshot of the dance beats. The highlight of the trip was witnessing a heard of water buffalo going for a dip not a few metres from where we floated. There were about 10 adults, 3 of which I think were albino(!?), neck deep in the river, and 4 calves, who refused to get their hooves wet. From a distance we thought they were rocks, until some kiyakers passed and suddenly all the rocks emerged from the water and had a go at munching on the grass. As soon as the kiyakers had gone, they all returned to the water, still chewing and snorting softly. They kept dunking their head under the water, some of them stayed under, checking things out on the river bed.
So that was really beautiful, and at the same time sad. The only other water buffalo I have ever seen are on farm land, and only get to sit in knee deep still water.
In other news, I broke my super expensive sandels but got them repaired by a friendly magician.
Tomorrow we catch the 10am VIP bus to Luang Prabang. A super lovely girl sold us the tickets. From there we hope to somehow get to Vietnam. We'll see how that goes!
Bec
Vang Vieng
We politely waved off the bar owners and their bamboo poles, determined to make it the whole way this time. And we did! Four hours later! Let's just say the river gets slow at spots. We also stopped for lunch at the most deserted bar we could find. Unfortunately the staff thought that two guests constituted playing some blown out Eminem from four enormous speakers. We ate quickly.
I'm glad we did the whole trip properly, for a while we were actually out of earshot of the dance beats. The highlight of the trip was witnessing a heard of water buffalo going for a dip not a few metres from where we floated. There were about 10 adults, 3 of which I think were albino(!?), neck deep in the river, and 4 calves, who refused to get their hooves wet. From a distance we thought they were rocks, until some kiyakers passed and suddenly all the rocks emerged from the water and had a go at munching on the grass. As soon as the kiyakers had gone, they all returned to the water, still chewing and snorting softly. They kept dunking their head under the water, some of them stayed under, checking things out on the river bed.
So that was really beautiful, and at the same time sad. The only other water buffalo I have ever seen are on farm land, and only get to sit in knee deep still water.
In other news, I broke my super expensive sandels but got them repaired by a friendly magician.
Tomorrow we catch the 10am VIP bus to Luang Prabang. A super lovely girl sold us the tickets. From there we hope to somehow get to Vietnam. We'll see how that goes!
Bec
Vang Vieng
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