Our itinerary includes cave tubing, a visit to the Elephant Cave, lunch and a leisurely paddle down the Nam Xong river.
Let's start with the cave tubing. Somehow, I assumed that cave tubing required sitting in an inner tube as one floated in and out of a large and easily accessible cave opening.
Not the case.
See the small slit in the below photo? Yes, well, that was the entrance.
After paddling over to the (I'm being generous here) "entrance", one groped around to find the guide line in the water whereupon one would pull themselves along against a slight current.
After a few pulls along the guide rope, all natural light disappeared and our headlamps came on. Looking ahead into the cave, there was no sign of any natural light up ahead either. With a fairly low ceiling above and being quite claustrophobic, I'll admit I was nearly catatonic.
With the help of some MAJOR deep breathing and rapid self talk (I'm pretty sure that was happening out loud!), I was able to calm down enough to look around. The cave was filled with interesting limestone formations. Stalactites dripped down from the ceiling and hugged the rock face in bulbous ripples of calcium. The walls appeared almost pock marked from years of water carving away at them.
We pulled ourselves along through the water in the pitch dark for about 1 km. It felt as though we were in the middle of the mountain, or perhaps, journeying down to the center of the earth. At some point, our guide gave the signal that we should turn around and start floating/pulling/paddling ourselves back towards from whence we came.
Yes, I am very proud to say that I made it out!
We recovered over lunch beside the river (alright I'm pretty sure that it was just me who was recovering!!). Next up was a visit to the Elephant Cave. Here a natural rock formation in the shape of an elephant stands guard above
a shrine. As the elephant is considered a very lucky creature round these parts, this cave is highly revered.
Now, the kayaking. After a few brief (and I mean brief) instructions for our group, most of which had never kayaked, we were plunked into double sit a-tops and sent cruising down the river, through the rapids and all.
The rapids weren't anything big, but still, if you've never kayaked before in your life..... it's safe to say that now it was the others' turn to go catatonic! Actually, everyone seemed to pick up the motions quite easily (really, was there any other option but to?!?!) and off down the Nam Xong we went marveling at the spectacular limestone karst valley surrounding us.
We paddle by children swimming and playing in the water, past men digging out cobras from the side of the river to sell at the market, past women collecting "river weed" to eat, past men fishing alone and in groups... right into party central. WHAT?!?!
We heard the pumping bass before we saw it. Bars line both sides of the river. One simply tubes up and commences the river drink-a-thon. "Buckets" of alcohol are cheap and plentiful and every tourist seems to be here whooping it up. They swing and jump from platforms, they flip off of zip lines, and they whizz off of giant "slides of death" (...of which we're pretty sure they do cause several of per year).
It is a conundrum — fascinatingly hedonistic and grossly appalling all at once.
Once through the first river bar section, I am filled with thoughts exploring this conundrum. On one hand, the town has gained a reputation as a party town and brings in a great deal of money because of this. On the other hand, this kind of tourism has decimated any (and all) sense of the area's traditional culture.
Both Keir and I agree that Vang Vieng lacks any kind of appeal for travelers in search of the real Laos... except for the incredible location. For us that makes Vang Vieng worth a stop.
No comments:
Post a Comment