Nam Lik Jungle Fly (zip lining)

Tim: Our last day in Vang Vieng Amber, Joe, and I opted for the Nam Lik Jungle Fly. The location was 2 hours south of us by van then a 20 minute boat ride, then a 30 minute hike. It is probably the first time this trip that we have been completely away from civilization, no cars, no motor bikes, no buildings. It was nice, and we definitely want to find more seclusion from the affects of modern civilization.

The Jungle Fly included 9 different zip lines, and 5 bridges. It took about 1.5 to 2 hours to make it all the way down. This zip line would probably not meet the safety standards required in the states, but that just added to the excitement. The equipment and gear was not the issue, it was more the limited supervision where we were hooking in and out of the safe ropes on our own. Also the platforms were very small with no railing. At times there were 8 of us crammed on one platform. It you did not clip yourself in properly it could be a 20 meter fall to the jungle floor. The land platforms were also low enough that if you did not lift your legs on the approach you could potentially split open or even break your shins. There was also no safety stop except for the guide who stood there to slow you down if you came in too hot to avoid smashing into the tree that the cable was secured to. In order to get back to the ground, the guides belayed each person down manually on a slightly weathered rope. Having said that, it was amazing, and We felt safe most of the time.

Overall it was a thrilling experience and definitely a highlight of the trip so far.

Amber:  After taking an hour to jump off of a fifteen foot cliff on Koh Tao, my fear of heights has been tested again.  A little more successfully.  The ziplining experience was terrifying and exhilerating all at once, but all in all, I loved it!  We had three guides, so one would always be in front of us with the other two either helping the other six people on the tour.  The main guide loved to torture the two ladies on the trip by dropping us from the 20 meter belay at free fall speed and then stopping us and letting us hang for a bit.  The guides had a great sense of humor about the whole thing, I screamed alot.  The ziplining itself was really fun; they started us out on smaller lines and by the end we were well up in the canopy, zipping along about 170m of cable.  We ended all too soon!  To wrap things up we took a quick swim in the very swift river and then headed back to Vang Vieng.

Caving in Vang Vieng

Amber:  After our first two days of river fun, we took a day off and pretty much did nothing.  Slept in, ate some Bacon, Chicken, Cheese sandwiches and banana and peanutbutter pancakes, watched some Dexter (Justin gave us seasons one and two, we're hooked), went and got a huge burger - six by six inches, double patty, home made bun... amazing!  Best burger we've had in SE Asia, hands down.  Watched more Dexter.... nice lazy day to catch up on some of the adreniline from the water slides.
Yesterday we got up fairly early and met up with Justin and Joe and got four motor scooters and some breakfast; sandewich and pancakes.  Getting a little tired of them, but they are still pretty darn good!  The motor scooters were in rough shape; mine had been laied down so many times it was missing a mirror, its right hand break was bent into the opposite direction than it was supposed to, missing chunks of its body, and all of their suspention were close to blown.  I was able to at least get an automatic, the shop only had one and after my last motor scooter feasco, wasnt feeling up for jumping onto a manual right away, and it was so damaged there was no way I could cause it harm - yea!
We filled up the motor scooters with gas (its common to be on E at pick up and delivery) and took off. It wasn't long before the road gave way to gravel mixed with streatchs of broken pavement.  Made for jaring, dusty travel, but the sun was out and life is good!  We navigated 13k down the road, took a small left along a rocky, near foot path, and made it to a beautiful streatch of the Nam Song.  Parking was easy as the locals had built a little shaded structure that for a small fine we could leave the motor bikes.  We crossed a narrow bridge (again, small tole), after a local on a motor scooter laden with goods crossed, no problem.  It was hard to walk side by side, two people, so she had skills that far surpassed mine on keeping that bike in a straight line under pressure!
The first cave, while interesting as it held a sitting Budda as well as reclining Budda, was small and after taking a few photos, we moved on.  A friendly local approached us and told us he would guide us to the next cave, the entrance wasn't far away.  We trampsed through the little village that seemed to have baby animals every where; pigs, goats, ducks, chickens, childern.... The path took us through some grass that was twice as tall as Tim, through some sparse trees, passed a few narley looking spider webs and arrived at the cave enterance.  This one also had a sitting Budda, but it streached on for what appeared to be miles.  He guided us for about one and a half kilometers along the caves windy, sometimes very narrow, path for what seemed like forever.  We had gone so far back that we all were starting to think that the cave must must make a loop... otherwise why would anyone want to crawl through a cave for so long?  As it turns out, there was a very cool reason.

Tim: After hiking by headlamp for a while longer, we met some shallow water. Our guide instructed us to take off our shoes and get ready to swim. Turns out we had another 100 meters to go wading through shallow water barefoot. It was slow going as our feet are not used to hiking barefoot in the dark. On the way we saw cave crawfish that kind of look like shrimp but have no pigment. There were about 3 inches long. We finally made it to our swimming destination. The water was cold but refreshing after sweating our way through the cave. We asked our guide how long till the end of the cave. He told us another 2 or 3 km. We ended up traveling about 1.5 km in before we turned around. A very unique experience that was alot of fun!
After this gave we ventured over to the water cave. This cave as the name would imply had flowing water coming out of it. The 10,000 kip ($1.25 US) also paid for the rental of a tube. Once you were sitting on the tube, you used a rope to pull yourself into the cave. The cave went in about 100 meters before turning around. All the caves were a great experience! The pictures appear light because of the camera flash, but it was pitch black besides the headlamps.

Tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos

Tim: The last few days in Vang Vieng have been relaxing and super fun! Vang Vieng is definitely not an authentic cultural experience as it is a major backpacker hang out. The main attraction here is floating down the Nam Song River on an inflated truck intertube. It cost $6.50 to rent an intertube and get transported the 15 minute truck ride to the edge of the river. The first kilometer of the river's edge is covered with bamboo constructed bars that boast various rope swings, zip lines, and water slides. This makes for an exciting time. After two separate days of tubing, we have pretty much done every swing on the river.

The main part of the town is full of guest houses and restaurants. We are staying at a questhouse for 60,000 kip per night (US$8.50). We don't need aircon here as the humidity is fairly low compared to Bangkok and the temperatures are dropping to 72 degrees F at night. Most of the main restaurants either have reruns of Friends upisodes or Family Guy. Those are the only two shows you will find playing in the restaurants. There are also road side food stands that are very plentiful and they all serve the same thing: Bagette Sandwiches and European style pancakes. There has to be at least 40 of these stands in the town and they all serve the same thing. You won't find a kabab, or pad thai, or spring roll anywhere. Good thing the Bagette sandwiches are awesome and put Subway to shame. Amber's and my favorite sandwich is the chicken, bacon, cheese. We have eaten at least 4 each since we have been here.

We are relaxing today. It is a little overcast, and we are going to skip tubing today. It's a rough life!

Amber:  Our last few days have been so fun!  We ended up staying an extra day in Bangkok so we took advantage of the spas.  Both Tim and I got manicures and pedicures; the Thai massuses laughed at Tim as his feet were too big for the bucket to soak his feet in!  After getting all scrubbed and trimmed, they offered him any color and found it amusing when he declined.  I got as girlie as possible and went for pink toe nails and a French manicure.  From there, we both decided to get an hour massage as it had started raining and we had some time to kill before our train ride to Laos.  The next day, after safely arriving in Vientiane, we decided to do our vacation right and went directly to another spa.  I got the best massuse and after a few trips into the sauna, drinking some herbal tea and getting an hour massage, was content.  Justin, Joe and Tim concluded that while the herbal sauna was nice, they had all had better massages in the past. 

We now are in Vang Vieng and love th Nam Song river!!  The first day we got a fairly late start but were able to float the entire stretch of the river.  I did my fisrt zip line and plunged into the river and it wasn't too bad.  In fact it was fun!  I was feeling very tough until I found out it was such a small zip line that Justin was considering not doing it as it was so... lame.  Oh well, baby steps!  From there we went to a few more bars along the river and did more zip lines and the 'slide of death' all that dump you into the Nam Song and then you cary on your way on your inner tube down the river.  All of the bars/rides are near the drop off, so after a while we were floating in a peaceful river, no more techno or buckets or screaming girls (me) going down a slide.  As we floated, we passed a group of five water buffalo, in circle formation, up to their ears in the river, relaxing.  It was awesome!