Vang Vieng. We arrived here after another winding local bus trip, and were again happy to get off the bus, onto a tuktuk and delivered straight to a guesthouse (best one we've had!). Had a look around that evening, and in the morning, found mountain bikes (2$ for the day) and took them over the bridge (1$) and then along a dirt road, through village areas and eventually to a fantastic swimming lagoon, and cave to explore. First, pat the 'little moo' cows, then look at the fish in the crystal clear water, then swing out and fall in! Very refreshing, but not the highlight. After a quick fried noodles snack there for me, we climbed/scrambled up 100m to get to the cave mouth, which opened to a huge cavern, apparently used by many in the past wars as a hideout, but still not the highlight.
Riding back along the road, between vast rice paddies and mountainous peaks, we see another sign - yet another swimming lagoon and cave. we took it. The swimming lagoon wasn't notable, compared to the last one, anyway, but the four newborn puppies were very happy for new friends. Three village boys were loving taking pics with our cameras, and wanted to take us to the cave. 'cave?' ... 'cave?' they said. 'Cave?' We said, and followed them. They turned out to be great guides, showing us interesting plants on the way, helping us over creeks, fences, and when we got into the cave, they were very careful to light the way for us - and took us 50m deep into limestone cliff! Cool little friends, they got us out again quickly, and we found out the other english word they knew. 'money?' - They deserved it, and the tip. That was the highlight :)
