Hi there,

Well our second week of teaching thankfully went as smoothly as our first and the sun actually came out for our last few days in Vang Vieng so everything worked out swimmingly! The middle weekend between our weeks of teaching was spent dodging the rain showers mainly. We did however, take advantage of a clear Saturday morning to rent some bikes and head into the countryside for the day. Laos is 80% rural so once we got outside the town, we were surrounded by beautiful green fields and mountains. Every now and then we came across a nice little village or a herd of cattle being brought down the road! The villages were basic at best but the people were lovely; pointing us in the right direction when needed and telling us the best way to go etc. The villages consisted of shacks or small houses dotted along the main road. There were a few shops and small restaurants but nothing that resembled a pub for example. The people here do not really drink a huge amount and don't go to social places such as pubs...they leave that to the tourists!

At the end of our cycle there was a beautiful river, where I took a dip, and some cool caves that we explored. The local people place statues of Buddha in all the caves and come to worship them at different times of the year. The caves are also traditionally used by Buddhist monks on pilgrimages as places of rest. Just as we hit the road back to Vang Vieng, the heavens opened and torrential rains nearly drowned the two of us. The road became the bed of a river!!We even had to pull in at one stage and ask an old woman and her grandchild if we could use their front porch for shelter! By the end of it we were so wet that we entered some kind of delirium and just couldn't stop laughing at the state of both of us!

Because of the weekends weather we were reluctant to do much else and tubing down the river definitely did not sound too appealing! Monday morning brought new weather with it however and for the rest of the week we had lovely sunshine with only the odd shower! Unsure about the merits of tubing we talked to a few other tourists about it and many recommended kayaking over tubing so we decided to see the river in a kayak rather than a big rubber tube! The kayaking took a whole day so we set off at 9am with 5 other people and headed about 15 km outside of town. Firstly our guide took us to a few caves including one that took us a fair bit underground and of course wasn't lit up at all. With only torches to light the way, most of the fun was just trying to stay upright and not step on anything too slippery in the dark!! Our third cave was almost completely flooded and could only be accessed by tubing so got our tubing fix by doing this. We had to drift through the cave on the tube, using a rope attached to the wall or our splashing hands to guide us! It was great way to go exploring!

After lunch we hopped into our 2 man kayaks and headed down the river to tackle a few rapids! I was in the back of the kayak and Linda was in the front so once we sorted out which was our left and right oars we managed to go straight..... most of the time!! The scenery was amazing and it felt like we heading down the Amazon at times! Along the way we came across the part of the river the tubers used. It was completely lined with bars and it was great to see people jumping, swinging and sliding their way into the water as we passed by. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to indulge ourselves in any activities like that!

Apart from outdoor pursuits, we also did some more teaching. Our teaching day started around 3 o'clock every day when we would rent a motorbike from a local shop and head out the 3 km to the organic farm where the teaching organisations office was. They had computers and a printer there as well as some resources that we could use in the classroom so we used all these to prepare for our classes. There was a book and a curriculum to work with so we weren't completely in the dark when getting stuff ready and we had a rough structure to follow. At about 4.45 pm we would hop back on our motorbike (me driving and Linda navigating on the back and holding on for dear life at the same time!) and drive for about 3-4 minutes to get to where we taught. The organisation managed to raise money and build classrooms in a local field a few years ago. It consists of one building divided into three classrooms and is close to all the villages so kids come from all over the area. Transport is obviously a big issue for them so being close enough to walk or cycle is important.

We taught from 5 - 7pm every day, teaching beginners, intermediate and advanced pupils. We averaged about 20 kids in each class. There are normally about 30 or 40 pupils in each class but it was farming season there at the time so a lot of the kids were planting rice and helping to build fences. Many of the older kids were working on their parents farms but still managed to make it to the lessons so were tired by the time they came to class but they never lost their enthusiasm. We tried to keep it interesting for them by playing as many games as we could at the end of each class. We introduced them to Bingo only for them to tell us they had played it before, charades went down well and anything involving a ball always produced a smile on the kid's faces! By the end of the week we were sad to say goodbye; it's a pity we couldn't have stayed longer.

The teaching finished on Thursday and we left Vang Vieng on Friday afternoon. We headed to the capital of Laos, Vientiane. One uneventful night there was followed by a flight to Bangkok and then down to Ko Samui, which is an island off the coast of Southern Thailand. Fortunately the good weather continues here so we should have a nice few days by the beach before we come home.

We'll update you again from Bangkok before we catch our flight out of Asia and towards home.

Lots of love, Ger and Linda xx