Vang Vieng, Laos

Once we arrived in Vang Vieng we were on the hunt for a guesthouse once again! Walking down the street you are usually greeted by people trying to sell you their room and take you on a tour. After the guesthouse we wanted was full we stumbled across a cute little guesthouse with a riverfront view and a nice open terrace with bar. It was also the cheapest we had found and a really nice room. The guesthouse came complete with two little puppies to play with for the three nights we would be staying. We got in in the afternoon so the first day we just walked around to explore the city and take in the beautiful river and mountain views. The next morning we had breakfast and went to rent tubes to float down the Namsong River. This river used to be known for quite the party. They used to have bars lined on both sides of the river along with zip lines, rope swings and water slides all leading you into the river. They had to close down everything because too many people were partying too much and not paying attention to where they were jumping and killing themselves. They have re-opened the tubing but all the other things still remain closed. Tubing down the river allowed for some spectacular sights. There are giant mountains on either side of you and a gentle current pulling you down the river. All in all it took us about 4 hours make our way to the endpoint. The next day we signed up for an all day tour. The tour included 2 caves, tubing and kayaking. We started with elephant cave. This cave like all the others we have seen had many Bhudda statues in it. They call it elephant cave because there are a few sections on the wall that look like elephants. The next stop would be tubing. Although we had been tubing before this time we would be tubing through the next cave. We grabbed onto a rope and pulled our tube through a gigantic cave. It was very dark, cold and a bit spooky but with our headlamp we saw some pretty awesome rock formations throughout the cave. The next stop would be kayaking! Me and Molly buddied up since I hadn't kayaked in forever and I wasn't super confident with my paddling skills. We kayaked down the river for about 3 hours. We did get caught up on rocks 3 times but nothing we couldn't manage getting out of and it made the experience that much more interesting. The next morning we packed our bags and prepared for our next stop...Vientane!