Hello beautiful Vang Vieng

From Vientiane to Vang Vieng is only a mere 168 kms. This journey however takes anywhere between 7-11 hours.
This is because you are driving through the most mountainous region, on the worst possible roads.
Steve and I had just gotten used to the idea of putting our luggage under buses- though we were told to be cautious of people hiding where the luggage is stowed to steal peoples belongings.
Well the system in Laos is completely different. Here they piles anything and everything on top of the minibuses, and tie everything down with a little rope. Perfect I thought. Sooner or later I'm sure to see all my belongings fly off the roof of our bus and sore into the mountain valley below us.
This didn't happen... Though I wouldn't have been shocked it if did.
I had a good knack of curling into a small ball and squeezing myself to the confines of my small seat in order to take a nap. I did this on almost every bus ride we'd taken. Steve says its the funniest thing to see and it looks like some sort of circus act- but yet a couple hours of sleep is a couple hours of sleep! Ill take it.
Even logging those hours of zzz's, the ride was still long. I will admit that the scenery is pretty nice, and while driving you get to see all type of laos rural life. My favourite is seeing all the little kids running around or bathing in the rivers behind their houses.
These kids look the most happy splashing around and playing with their siblings. There is a crazy bond that almost all families share here. They are so committed to one another. Yes this is seen (seemingly) by just passing by towns in your bus, but also in the heart of cities, where we would stay for a couple of days. Every business is a family business, every older child is taking care of their siblings and every mother is caring for her children- they just seem to have the utmost concern for eachother, no questions asked. It is refreshing to see.

Anyways- after the long journey we had finally made it to Vang Veing. This place is known as the party capital of Laos, where the hoodlums get drunk and float down the Nam Sung river in inner-tubes, stopping at the many bars set up along the rivers edge.
This has actually brought quite a bit of death to the region- with tourists drowning in a fit of intoxication, or simply those who suffer from stupidity and think jumping into a shallow river littered with sharp rocks is a good idea.
Needless to say, the locals, who traditionally would fish and bathe in this river are so deterred from those tourist's actions that they now believe that the river is cursed, and omit from fishing and bathing in it.
As many of the bars have now been shut now due to so many incidences, more locals use the river, but as I talked to a couple in the town, they still find it laughable and a 'stupid' thing to do...innertube down the river drunk, when there are so many more ways to appreciate the extremely beautiful vang vieng scenery.
Steve and I were both embarrassed to hear of how upset the locals were of the tourists, and by no means wished to participate in the foolishness.

After a good sleep in, I was feeling a little better from the poor food decision the night before. Steve and I had heard of the 'blue lagoon' which was only 7kms from the hotel we found (off the beaten path -bonus!).
We decided we would bike the 7km, and then cool off in the icy blue waters!
The bike ride nearly killed me. I must have sweat 10 gallons of water in the 40 minute ride. Riding in the hilliest terrain on a one-gear, bright pink, raised handle-bar bike was, funny- when watching steve, but very hard in reality.
The roads are also so washed out by the torrential down pores that happen every night, and there are huge potholes and slippery parts to the road. Ill add here that there are tuk tuks, and motorbikes whipping by you- and heards of cattle blocking the way every once and a while. We made it there though. I thought I had died when we finally arrived.

It was well worth it though. The water was beautiful, and we quickly realized why they called it the 'blue lagoon'. I'm not sure what exactly makes the water so blue- but literally it is a deep clear blue colour. Very cool, and very pretty.
Steve and I both got in, and the water was more then chilly. Refreshing for sure- but almost too much so! Not exactly sure how the water stays so icy cold- but I like it!
There was swings set up in the lagoon to sit on, and even a tree you could jump from. It started to rain, so once everyone had left steve and I could play around- the whole lagoon to ourselves. It was pretty fun.
On this excursion there was also a cave to explore.
We hiked a little ways up this mountain through the forest, and stumbled across the caves (tham phu kham) opening. At first we thought it was only a little cave, maybe 100 meters long. But then we realized that if you crawled around and over some big boulders, you could explore further into the depths of the cave. This became a little eerie, because by this point there was no longer any natural light in the cave and rather just the little beam from our head lamps.
I found this really cool, as did steve, but I was certainly much more scared. As we kept going further and further into the cave, I would suggest turning back, but steve insisted to push on. With giant holes 20 feet deep and slippery rocks everywhere- we did just that. Until we got to the very end of the cave. It was very neat to see all the stalagmites and stalactites and again almost a creepy feeling to hear the bats fluttering around and the water dripping all around us.
By far we found this the best caving experience we'd had so far. Though paradise and heavenly cave we massive in comparison, this cave had no artificial lighting so it was more of an 'explore' rather then a guided walk through.

We left the cave and jumped back on our bikes to head home in the pouring rain. This was much nicer to ride in, as it has cooled down, what felt like, 20 degrees.
The chain on steves bike came off a million times on the ride home- but that was the only hassle.
At one point three little girls were laughing at him and helped him put it back on. It was pretty cute to say the least.

We showered off (we were covered in mud after the ride home) and then headed out for dinner. Steve and I had gotten in the habit of falling asleep before eating dinner and we were breaking the pattern tonight. Our stomachs still weren't at 100 percent so we ordered something familiar. PIZZA!
The pizza here is nothing like home. But hey- there was bread and there was cheese. We gobbled it down and went to bed.