Cycling and Caving in Vang Vieng, Laos

Vangvieng really is a great place to stop for a couple of days and chill. Biking, caving, tubing, dirt bikes, mountain bikes, hiking, its got the lot. The scenery is spectacular with the limestone hills rising from the ground. We spent one day just biking along dusty tracks from cave to cave. Simply amazing ... strap on the torch and away you go. The caves are massive like underground cathedrals and most of the time you are completely on your own. Some caves stretching back into the limestone for 4 /5 km. After emerging hot, sweaty and covered in dust, there's usually a clear fresh pool to dive in and cool off.

Little kids with their masks and home made spear guns, they hop in the river and swim around shooting shrimp and anything that comes within range !! A little camera shy though!

May not look it but the water was baltic, i was shaking like a leaf when di took this and all i really wanted to do was get the hell out of the water and dry off rather than take 6 on another photo. In this pic we had just emerged after 2 hours in a submerged cave system. You can see the entrance under the overhanging rock behind me.

I am a mole and i live in a hole :)

Go Diane!

Bounty girl :) !!

So thats it .... after a long day above and below the ground, another cracking sunset hits the deck with the ching of a beer Lao!

Great food in Indochina

Tubing on the river in Vang Vieng, Laos (& video!)

Up early, brekka get tubes and we are heading out for a day of booze and tubing. Its also Australia day so the Aussies are out in force and everyone is made up. I'm sporting my Beer Lao vest and a smart new pair of boardies I picked up in the market.
We get up stream along the road by tuktuk in about 20 mins and are greeted by some people offering Mojitos for charity. Well Diane is straight into that action and i'm hot on her heels. We've now heard all the stories about the 20 m trapeze and zip line into the river and a bit of fire in the belly is needed. We can hear the music banging at the first watering hole and so step gingerly into the cool river to start.
This is a riot, 10meters down stream the bar staff throw a line out with which they haul you into the bar, a bamboo construction on stilts, its hot, crowded, the beer lao is flowing and everyone is just loving it. Me and Di pile on and meet friends and get the beers in. The river channels into a deep stretch and a large tree leads up to the first swing. You grab the swing, take a deep breath, leap into the air and scream, swing out over the river and let go at the top to fall into the drink. Yeee haaa its fantastic, everyone shouting, cheering and dancing around. I crawl back onto the platform stoked and have anothe beer :) Diane is lookin a little edgy by this time, like a rabbit in the head lights. Fair play.... a bit of nerves and she climbs upto the top, grabs the bar and leaps out over the river. So funny.... instead of swinging to the top Di lets go at full bore speed at the bottom of the swing and drills into the water at about 40mph. She comes up smiling though and got a huge cheer from the crowd. Some of the pro's are doing somersaults, real sportsmen ! We head off down the river to the next bar and the zip wire. On this particular jump one or two people grab the handles and slide down the wire, three quarters of the way down, the slide hits a back stop and the happy punters are immediately somersaulted into the water !! I,m like 'Diane theres just no way, no way on earth - its too dangerous' ..................2 beers later we,re climbing the ladder, just relax sweetheart it,ll be fine. We get to the top and grab the handles, i look at Diane and we,re both smiling, off we go, oh my god just relax i shout. Wallop we hit the backstop and somersault into the drink. Laughing and shouting we swim back to the bar. And so it went for the next 3 hours until we emerged drunk and happy. The last couple of KM we just drifted down stream.

Luang Prabang in Laos

Our second day in LPB was spend zippin around on a moped. Great way to see the countryside. Paddy fields, forests, mountains and waterfalls its all here. We headed off for a set of falls about 2okm out of town, me and Di humming "raindrops keep falling on my head" again. Took us about 40 mins to get out there and we began hiking up through the jungle. The falls were like something out of a bounty bar advert. The minerals in the water forming natural pools to swim in. We carried on right to the top of the falls and had a good roam around. We came accross a stream where the local hill tribe were growing water cress, just a serene place to be, quiet peacful just the birds singing and lovely blue skies. We wandered back down to take the plunge, the water looked inviting but hell it was cold crikey me mate!! In we went with a sharp intake of breath, once the initial expletives were out of the way it was a welcome relief from the heat.

Well after another great day we headed for the market and Papaya salad with a spatch cooked bbq fish, washed down with afew beer lao.

Pics of the slow boat in Laos

Agra and the Taj Mahal

These posts are all a bit out of order but you'll get the gist....

We finally got on the train from Jodhpur to Agra and settled down into our beds - absolutely exhausted and in need of a really good night's sleep . The train had been going less than half an hour when a herd of buffalo relocated into an adjacent bunk and started snoring. We've never heard snoring like it; it was absolutley unbelievable. No matter that we were shattered, there was no way we could get to sleep. Both of us were tossing and turning in our respective bunks and both of us were getting angrier and angrier that we could not sleep. After about an hour and a half of torture, Jonny leapt out of bed threatening to pull the legs off whoever it was snoring!! My head sprang down from the upper bunk (looking like a crazed Chewbakka from Star Wars) as I was quite ready to join Jonny in a total execution ........ It went quiet!!........for about 10 minutes before the snoring started again. Having established that it was the big fat bloke on the top bunk across the aisle from me that was snoring, I then spent the rest of the night pulling at his sheets every time he started until he stopped again.

We arrived in Agra at about 10 in the morning with bloodshot eyes, so when we were surrounded by the inevitable, hounding touts and had been scammed on a local telephone call, I completely lost it with one of them and hurled some unladylike abuse which ended with me telling him he was ''a disgrace to India".

Agra, described by someone else as 'the armpit of Asia' is home to THE most wonderful, and MOST beautiful building in the world - the Taj Mahal. It is one of those places that you have often seen in pictures and wonder if it will disappoint in real life. It doesn't. It is truly truly wonderful and I hope our pics do it justice.

Jodhpur and the school

Sorry for the delay but getting pics up has been a nightmare. Anyways, a little out of sync so here we go with the bits we are behind on. Briefly, after delhi belly on a camel that sent me crawling to the dunes on several occasions, we upped sticks and headed for Jodhpur. Man what a polluted city, this country never ceases to amaze me; absolute awe and amazement on one hand and utter disbelief at the levels of pollution on the other. We hired a motorbike and toured the maze of congested little back streets around the base of the fort; getting lost and passing the same places about 3 times before we found our way again. Levels of exhaust fumes you could cut with a knife, cows and carts everywhere, a real assault on all the senses. The Fort really is an amazing site when viewed for the first time. I'm having Lord of the Rings moments all the time. The sheer scale of the place is just mind blowing, looking from the battlement onto the blue city is a spectacular site. Back in the city at the base of the fort we experienced the famous Makhani Lassie from the shop at the base of the arch, near the the clock tower. It's got to be one of the tastiest things on earth. Apparently it is flavoured with cardomen and saffron. Its as smooth as silk, chilled and with a colour like pale lemon. After a mad day on the road we had a rooftop meal overlooking the city and hit the hay. The following day we visited Diane's old school (where she had done voluntary work). It was fantastic to see the kids again and Diane felt great when they remembered her. Then it was off to Agra. The train was due out 7pm and was delayed by 4 hours.... joy. By this time we were starting to suffer, lack of sleep a bad cold :( i resorted to counting rats in the station waiting area, no kidding people were asleep all over the floor i looked back towards the street and there were rats crawling around every door, i just smiled...... its india......Incredible India!!

The local cookie shop, i just couldn,t keep her out