World Wanderers: Life is an adventure. It’s not the destination that’s rewarding, it’s the journey.: Lovely Laos "In The Tubing!"

Our next stop was Laos. After an overnight mini bus journey with several other tourists, waking up to our body in bits from being cramped in an awkward position for hours on end and standing in line at the border for hours to get stamped, we arrived in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Laos is a communist country and Vientiane in particular is very French influenced...our taste-buds were appreciative of this! There were lovely French bakeries on every street corner and we spent a couple days cycling around the city, exploring Buddhist monasteries, eating Sushi (although not an original of Laos, still delicious Asian cuisine!) and getting our Chinese visa ready for our pending trip to Freddie Hogan. There were monks dressed in striking orange robes on every street corner. Very beautiful to see in the heart of a big city! I will also never forget speaking to my brother David over a wacky-skype connection on his last day of his degree at the University of Saskatchewan! He had been to the city before and we were so excited for him to be finished Uni!

The Gorgeous Golden Asian temples

Dessie and Dragon

Dessie with his map finding our way on bikes!

Monks in their striking orange robes

Ancient Temple

Monks everywhere!

Taking in the view!

Monk having a moment

Auto-rickshaw

Beautiful temples everywhere

Heading North of Vientiane, we arrived at Vangviene, the home of the expression “In The Tubing.” It is charming-though slightly tourist infested-town that hosts all the tubing adventures down the Mekong River. There are hundreds of little cafes (many of which you sit on the ground on axe cushions) that play re-run after re-run of episodes of Friends. After so many months away from television, it was a treat for a short time before the novelty wore off and the relentless sound of canned laughter as we walked down the charming little street began to pierce our ears. The panoramic views that surrounded us were breath-taking; almost like something I would picture out of the dinosaur age. The mountains were very erratic and spontaneous with mist and clouds hanging low upon them.

The gorgeous mountains of Laos

Des strolling down Vangviene with his water-proof sack.

Our big day tubing on the Mekong was an unbelievable experience. Although rainy we made our way to the little cement building, registered our names, got our black tire tubes inflated and hopped on the open top red bus with a couple other tourists. We arrived at the starting point of the Mekong and made our way across the bridge to the first stop which was one of many river-side bars. The entire river path that is used for tubing has had several bars built along-side it with exciting activities such as giant waterslides, mud-holes, zip-lining and diving boards. On this particular day, the water was very low and the current very weak which meant we had to be a bit more careful in what we chose to do as well as paddle a bit harder with our hands to make our way along the river before dark.

Loading our tubes onto the truck

Floating happily down the Mekong!

Our English Buds!

Stunning scenery that surrounded us

The Greeting shot--local whisky

Yuk!

Dessie goes for round 2!

Des and I had a blast with the zip-lining...swinging back and forth until making the last minute decision of the perfect time to let go and splash into the water. A few times my feet touched the bottom of the river which was a good indication of what not to do...ie, the diving boards! Later down the river we stopped at a bar where we were socializing with the locals and a girl went off a water slide into the shallow river leaving her in a lot of pain! Des and I also had a blast swimming in the mud holes and having tug-o-wars with other tourists in the mud. We hung out with a lovely English couple and had many a buckets with them!

As dusk was nearing, we decided to refrain from getting a water taxi back to base and made our own way there with our English friends. Bad decision! The current was so weak that it took another 2 hours to get back to the base and by the time we had arrived our arms were in absolute bits and a late fee was charged! I woke up the next day as sore as could be and had little lumps under my arms that scared the living daylights out of me...apparently a temporary symptom of the mysterious Mekong...

Drinking "buckets": Whisky, coke and redbull

Drying off on the fire

Des and I swimming in the mud holes

Tarzan man! Zip-lining over the river!

The rickety zip-lining platform

Kayakers down the river

Dessie and the local ladies

The crazy and dangerous waterslides

Had to bend my knees so I didn't look like a giant!

Buckets!

Happy out!

Should have gone on that speed boat--was a looong ride home!

Making our way back

Following Vangviene, we headed north to the gorgeous, peaceful and charming village of Luang Probang. The (somewhat brown) Mekong runs through the village with gorgeous green layers of land surrounding it. There are loads of little outdoor eating spots along the river and many beautiful gold temples to visit. The food was gorgeous too. One meal that sticks in my mind is the delicious cold vegetarian salad wraps and green papaya salad. We went and had a meditation in a gompa and I went for an exhilarating run throughout the village and along the river. We had an unbelievably huge and cheap meal in the market one evening. There was an alley with different vendors setting up buffets of noodles, rice, vegetables, salads, meat etc. You would fill a plate for about fifty cents and eat around a wooden table with other travellers and the locals. Although incredibly good value, it tasted mostly of oil so had a bit of difficulty finishing half the plate... but an experience eating out on the street for sure!