Vian Vieng, Laos
Well, today was what I would call reasonably productive. I woke at a reasonable hour, 12.30 and got up to find the sun shining. I got through my morning absolutions and made it out on to the river just as the clouds began to wet us from above. Oh well.
The ride there was interesting. The place where I got my tubes, piles them on top of a tuk tuk and then loads the back with tubers. Our load was 9. The tuk tuk was not the more powerful variety and stalled out several times why en route. We did make it though and proceeded to unload the tubes and splash our way into the swiftly moving river. Swiftly indeed. As the rain season hits, the water is flowing far faster and higher than during the dry. Supposedly, someone drowned just 2 weeks ago. I dunno.
It's a nice river to float on though. On the right bank tower the hills, usually wreathed in cloud. It wasn't long till we floated to the first riverbank bar. Guy's with long bamboo poles drag the tubes to shore and one slides up the hill towards food and drink. And a rather daunting rope swing. It's got a trapeze handlebar and you get flung well out there. Actually, not so bad, much better than jumping. I had a beer at the bar along with brunch, and there met another Yank, Justin from Brooklyn.
As it turns out, Justin's last name is also Stein. I believe he's the first other Stein that I've met traveling. As common a name as I think it is, I don't meet a whole of other Steins. Cool. Interesting guy, a teacher from Brooklyn on his summer holidays.
After tumbling into the waters, it was back to the boats and on to the next bar. No rope swing at this one, but I believe there was a closed jump off place. Pity it was closed...really. Another round was drunk (I had a coke, in case anyone was about to make a comment), and I watched the child behind the till throw up. He seemed fairly nonchalant about it, so I wasn't too worried.
From there, it was time to head back. The sun had sunk behind the hills, illuminating them in a late afternoon glow. The group that I floated off with decided to skip the next bar and I got into a fierce tubing race with a Kiwi for the final leg into the finish point. The nice thing about tube racing, you don't do anything, let karma take over. My kind of racing.
And that was about the busiest day I've had here so far. Woof, I'm exhausted. Probably go get some dinner in front of a movie. If I haven't mentioned it yet, the restaurants here have made these wonderful beds with tables for watching either Friends or a movie while eating. They're such seductive traps.
The ride there was interesting. The place where I got my tubes, piles them on top of a tuk tuk and then loads the back with tubers. Our load was 9. The tuk tuk was not the more powerful variety and stalled out several times why en route. We did make it though and proceeded to unload the tubes and splash our way into the swiftly moving river. Swiftly indeed. As the rain season hits, the water is flowing far faster and higher than during the dry. Supposedly, someone drowned just 2 weeks ago. I dunno.
It's a nice river to float on though. On the right bank tower the hills, usually wreathed in cloud. It wasn't long till we floated to the first riverbank bar. Guy's with long bamboo poles drag the tubes to shore and one slides up the hill towards food and drink. And a rather daunting rope swing. It's got a trapeze handlebar and you get flung well out there. Actually, not so bad, much better than jumping. I had a beer at the bar along with brunch, and there met another Yank, Justin from Brooklyn.
As it turns out, Justin's last name is also Stein. I believe he's the first other Stein that I've met traveling. As common a name as I think it is, I don't meet a whole of other Steins. Cool. Interesting guy, a teacher from Brooklyn on his summer holidays.
After tumbling into the waters, it was back to the boats and on to the next bar. No rope swing at this one, but I believe there was a closed jump off place. Pity it was closed...really. Another round was drunk (I had a coke, in case anyone was about to make a comment), and I watched the child behind the till throw up. He seemed fairly nonchalant about it, so I wasn't too worried.
From there, it was time to head back. The sun had sunk behind the hills, illuminating them in a late afternoon glow. The group that I floated off with decided to skip the next bar and I got into a fierce tubing race with a Kiwi for the final leg into the finish point. The nice thing about tube racing, you don't do anything, let karma take over. My kind of racing.
And that was about the busiest day I've had here so far. Woof, I'm exhausted. Probably go get some dinner in front of a movie. If I haven't mentioned it yet, the restaurants here have made these wonderful beds with tables for watching either Friends or a movie while eating. They're such seductive traps.
posted by Bob Stein at 7:06 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home