So, up north again from Vientien to Vang Vieng, having applied for the Vietnamese visa. The bus places are allocated on a first come-first served basis, and leave when full - hence my missing the Xam Nua bus, despite being 10 minutes early. This time I was a full half hour early, and was lucky enough to get the last seat.
Vang Vieng is gorgeous: lots of steep jagged grey limestone karsts all round, and excellent caving and river things to do. Met up with Marianne again (she had gone back via Louang Prabang) and a pile of others from all over during a long boozy first evening here (the most I've drunk in a long time), and have spent the last couple of days doing Energetic Things with them. Saturday, cycled 6 km out to a cave - beautiful all the way: luminous green paddyfields and little villages where everyone says Sa Be Di (hullo) with massive mountains in front. The road was well dodgy, potholes and ruts all the way, and I've discovered a lingering disinclination for all things two-wheeled since the last couple of accidents - but persevered to the official bike-abandoning point and walked the last bit to the river over which there was a big rope to swing on. So spent a long time whooping over the water and plunging into the current. Up a very steep rock and mud path to the cave, and joined a tour of about 18 people, only one guide with a good torch - my own torch being about one candlepower wasn't up to much, barely illuminated my feet, but marginally better than nothing. A couple of the others had small torches too, but the guide had trouble trying to keep us all together and lit for the dodgy bits, which were numerous. Good staligmites and staligtites though. When we got back down, had a final swim - and then the downpour began, stopping just in time for us to be too late for the ferry back, and lasting long enough to make the paths far worse. So waded knee deep in water where had previously just been a dribble of water; got to the place where we had left the bikes and decided to take a Chinese Buffalo from there. It's a kind of small two-wheeled, handcranked tractor engine made in China, to which you attach a plough or a people-carrying cart or whatever you want. The driver was all of 8 years old. His younger brother, aged about 6, was in charge of pushing the buffalo whenever it got stuck - with all the muscular power of a 6 year old. I hopped out at one point, when the cart was tilted over at a rather tricky 45 degree angle and not moving one way or the other, and gave a hand pushing it. However, I spectacularly slipped in the mud getting back in, and arose like a swamp monster with a nice big bruise as reward for my pains. I left the 6 year old at it from then on. However, the buffalo stopped at a small bridge and could go no further so the remaining 4km were done on my nice fresh saddle sores
And yesterday, went kayaking - an excellent trip: the rapids were minor but numerous enough to keep things interesting, with lots of good stop-offs. One for a bridge of bamboo and wire suspended across the river: hung from the side and jumped 20 feet into the swift current, which swirled you into shore. One for an organic farm (mind you, I think most farms here are organic by necessity) which served up mulberry tea and gooseberry wine (rather foully too sweet and sour). One for a cliff of about 25 feet, for a running jump into the water (scary, that - especially when I hit bottom a bit sooner than expected, and have a nice bruise on my arse to show for it). And the best one was for more caves, which you had to swim into, against a slight current and past waterfalls leading down from you; when you got into the dark then, scrambling up steep and slippery mudslopes, and sliding down mudshutes into the water, wading along subterranean caverns through excellent rock formations and staligs and columns - one low wide area like a dwarf's ballroom, with Palladian columns abounding - through to a cave with hundreds of bats.
Anyway, today I am wiped out, and taking a day off any form of exertion. Nice timing: it's been the wettest day so far, so just sitting around drinking coffee. Unfortunately, there are no bookstores here and I'm just about out of things to read - midways through A Brief History of Time, which is great value for money since it's taking me ages to get through - but not what you'd call a rattling good read; I feel more like a nice murder mystery at the moment. O well, gotta make do.