#63 Sore muscles, aching bones, possibly broken ribs, a huge headache and all well worth it.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!

My first day in Van Vieng (don't know the spelling, but what does it really matter?) I rented a moped at cruised all around town. The cheapest moped what a manual geared one so I forced myself to learn how to drive one of those (what better way to learn anything than on a rental). It wasn't so hard; it may have been hard for the bike, but I survived the day. I went and visited a few caves in the surrounding area along with doing a couple of walks through woods, farms, over a river which water buffalo were bathing in. I went down local, random streets and found places to eat were no one spoke english and I was back to pointing to what I wanted, which just because I pointed did mean I knew what I was eating, I just knew someone else was eating it and it looked a better color than the other things I saw. It was a great day to kick back, feel the wind at my face and check out the local area. The girls and the others got into town that night and we planned to meet up the next morning so I went out and got my street food for dinner which consisted of the traditional sticky rice along with kabobs that were delicious and only about 10 cents each; I didn't just have one.

The next day Mark (a guy I had met in the previous city) and I headed out to go tubing down the local river. There is a famous song about floating down the Guadalupe river in Texas which is about people sitting on a innertube for hours while drinking and partying all the way down the river. (Do you guys know the song I'm talking about?) Anyways, this is what I had in mind. It started off that Mark and grabbed a breakfast before going and then washed down breakfast with a cold beer Lao. After floating down the river for 20 minutes or so we were pulled in by a long bamboo to the first bar. These bars are just a bamboo floor and then the activity. The first activity was to climb up this tall ladder attached to the bar where you grab on the the handles of the zip line. You speed down this thing until it hits the end, coming to a big jolt that sends your body into a natural back flip. We spent a good hour here doing this over and over until heading off to the next group of bars.


I forgot to turn the picture, sorry.

After another 20-30 minutes of induced tubing we hit our next bar where we were joined by Little Lady Lane (if you remember from previous blogs). After doing this swing at this bar into the water we could see a couple bars down that they had the biggest swing on the river and so we headed down that way. At this point we were only about halfway down the river and so planned on a little while here before heading off. We ended up leaving this bar when it was closed, catching a ride and forgetting to return our tubes. In between arrival and that however we would climb up to around 35 ft grab onto this swing, take off and land anywhere from a smooth fall to a body shaking crash into the water (I did more of the second one). I must have swung on this thing 10-15 times and the more beer/mixed buckets we had in us the more exciting each swing became. I have a couple of cool videos on my camera to show when I get home. (Oh yeah, good news, between the 3 of us we lost sun glasses, two pairs of sandles, some money and forgot our tubes, but I have the camera and it still works).
The 3 of us hung out on this little deck right on the river, talking, making friends, going for swims and swings, drinking too much, but mostly just enjoying each others company before parting ways the next day.


When we got back to the tubing place I was scolded as the others ran away. I told them that someone said they'd return them which I'm sure someone will return them, then I ran away ready for bed like I've never been before. I decided I needed some fruit so I went and got a double banana and chocolate pancake topped with sweet milk.

The following morning I would have sworn that I was hit by a train the day before, every part of me ached and now being my second day it isn't much better. I also ripped a chunk of skin out of the middle of my hand by going on the swings more then is recommended. You would think that the day after this would be a great resting day; so would I. Instead I got up early to go for a day kayaking trip that I had paid for in advance. An hour drive south before stopping at the river with quick instructions of what you do if your kayak flips over and we were off. After cruising down and enjoying breathtaking scenery with only the sounds of the river and the jungles around us we had to pull over to look at the rapids ahead. We were instructed on how to do it the safest way and then one by one we went; I was the first to flip over.

We then stopped and had a fresh made barbeque lunch by our guides and relaxed until continuing on. We stopped partway down the river where we had the option to jump off a 10 meter (sorry about mixing the different units up) cliff into the water. We were told not to try to dive because you could break your neck or color bone easy. (If you were looking down from this height I don't think it would EVER cross your mind to dive) As sore as I was I had to do it while I was here. I even thought maybe this will jolt things back into place; it didn't. For the last leg of the kayaking, some local fishermen boated along side of me smiling and singing some local Laos songs until we came to our finish spot.

I got on a overnight bus afterwards and fell right asleep not even a bit bothered that an old Laos man was cuddling up in the seat next to me. When we arrived this morning in a city in the south called Pakse it was pooring rain and went on for hours. It was the first rain I had seen in months. Today is a resting day. I'm not sure my plan from here now that I am on my own after traveling with a group for some weeks now.

I have been buying the cheap local bottled drinking water and twice someone has told me "that water doesn't have any minerals in it, you shouldn't drink it." I had never really drank water in the past for nutrients, I usually drink it when I'm thirsty or to hydrate myself. Isn't that water a balanced diet is for, vitamins and nutrients. If water has no nutrients, what is it? It has to have something in it, doesn't it?

The biggest reason I'm not worried about it is because in Laos I'm a millionaire, that's right, me!!
$1 = 10,000 kip, so if you change over $100 dollars you get a fat wad of money which makes you a millionaire. It is easy to go from riches to rags quick though.

He who knows how to be poor knows everything. - Michelet

In God we trust, all others must pay cash. - American Saying

If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice of how he acts when he loses money. - Simone Weil