On the third day we chose to partake in Vang Viengs most popular past time and go tubing, ie. floating down the river in an inflated car tube. Having done it before I readily agreed to making it a Happy trip as four hours with a wet bum gets a bit much if your mind isn't preoccupied with the overwhelming importance of all things mundane, or psychedelic. We stashed our valuables in a 'dry bag' and Adam and Gemma foolishly nominated me as its guardian. Hanging out with pink elephants, I thought I would use the 'dry bag' as a submerged pillow believing its folded seal to be up to the task. That it wasn't going to be up to the task was a fact that being Einstein was not a prerequisite to realise, but not being stoned was. Most valuable casualty; my camera. The memory card survived but the camera has opened it shutters for the last time.
Day 4 was spent relaxing and watching the brilliant 'Happy feet', in no way related to all the other Happiness going on in Vang Vieng. In the usual amusing Asian manner, the movie was an obvious knock off and subtitled by someone with a fairly relaxed approach to translation. I don't know if something's gone wrong at Disney but I am pretty sure a kids movie wouldn't normally contain expressions like 'mother fucker' & 'chew me out'.
Day 5 was a repeat of day 3 with kayaks replacing tubes, and arduous activity replacing blissful floating. The hard work became too much and after constant water fights with Steph, the kayak decided to evict us, in the most populated spot. Apparently our kayak had a crack and had taken on too much water. After her tube sprung a leak the other day, and was sneakily exchanged for someone else's at a beer stop, I should have woken up to the fact that Steph and Lady Luck were not seeing eye to eye.
Day 6 and I made a last minute decision to change my impending flight to stay another 6 weeks and spend some of the banks money. Ultimately, I was just not ready to face up to going home yet; not actually sure where home is any more either. I may not be back for awhile so I thought I may as well make the most of the situation. Day 6 also involved long talks about Buddhism, playing cards by the river and ridiculous amounts of food.
Day 7 was back on the bikes and a dirt track cross country lead to the caves and blue lagoon of our destination. The blue lagoon was magical with azure blue waters permitting perfect visibility to its 4 metre densely fish populated depth. A massive tree overhung it with 2 rope swings that the inner child in me was powerless to resist. After stinging my flesh with a few graceless belly flops, Steph started kicking it new school by doing a back flip of the top branch. She then came as close to killing herself as anyone would not want to by nearly losing her grip as she swung out over some rocks.
We scaled a steep hill nearby and entered a huge cavern that a camera can only make a mockery of. Guideless, we wandered in as far as our bravado would take us, not far at all, as the oppressive darkness swallowed the tiny light our torches produced.
On the way back, Steph and I stopped near the site of our Day 5 capsizing and carelessly threw ourselves into the rapids that had conspired with our leaky kayak. The first 2 seconds were great until a submerged rock tenderized my bum and all further rides were tarnished by a fear that other sharper rocks laid waiting with the same malicious intent.
We all ended our last night in Vang Vieng with Happy pizza, a movie and everyone consuming twice their own body weight in munchies. Such behaviour prompted the quote of the day from Steph that best summarised Happy Vang Vieng, "Do you want any of these peanuts, cause I am prepared to die for them?"
