Day Twenty three; Vang Vieng

Got up early and went for a morning of Kayaking. It was beautiful but I don't think I quite had the mussle power for three hours of non stop rowing, and I definately lacked the common sense to steer the thing. I did love the part when we headed towards the rapids and the guide shouted 'stop'...to me and Claire...really? We couldn't turn left at the mini rapids resulting in us getting stuck on a rock and having to be rescued from 6 inches of water...why would he think we'd know how to 'stop' when we were pummeling towards the fast ones? We came out backwards at the other end all the same though feeling tres smug because we didn't crash into a tree and capsize, like Thomas and Olda (teehee).

After the kayaking we went for lunch. I was feeling EXHAUSTED but next on the agenda was a bike ride which I really didn't want to miss. After lots of bike testing I ended up on a skinny wheeled rubbish bike with dodgy breaks, thinking it would be fine because JP said the road was flat. He didn't explain that whilst the hills on the road were few and far between the enitre route was off road rocks and stones, so basically my whole body was jerked and vibrated violently for the one hour and thirty minutes it took me in the mid day heat to manouvere myself 7km. I almost didn't enjoy it, but everytime I looked up it was impossible not to be knocked back by how beautiful the surroundings were (yep, I had a mirror on the bike-lol kidding). At the end of the trail we stopped at a 'blue lagoon'; where I swang off a rope swing and into the water to cool down. Actually it was freeeeezing so I got straight back out, but very nice haha.

I'm the one swinging on the rope...

At the blue lagoon there was a trail for a cave that we followed. The trail pretty much turned into mountain climbing, which was fun if not slightly nerve racking in slippery flip flops. When we got to the cave we ploughed in with no torch, and soon realised it was, funnily enough, pitch black inside. Luckily some tourists donated us their rented head torch so we could climb right in; appreciating in the light how huge it was, considering we had already climbed through two or three rooms to get to the one we were currently in. Wish we had longer to explore more but I defo enjoyed the hour I spent pretending to be Indiana Jones with Thomas and Olda.

We climbed back down and rode home afterwards; stopping to take ample pictures of the sunset which was again beautiful, and arrived with just enough light to see a few meters ahead and park the bikes back up at the shop.

Went for dinner straight afterwards, then went home and collapsed back into bed.

Candle at the dinner table