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Woke up at 8, casually took us an hour to get out of bed! We went for toast in a cafe opposite our guesthouse and got back for 10:00 when the tuk tuk picked us up!
On the tuk tuk we met a cute lady called Val, she was Australian! Little did we know we would be Bessie mates with a 60 year old for the day!
Took us around 20 minutes to drive to the river, where we met a load of Korean college students! At first they were so cute, until they started screaming in the water because they didn't know how to swim! Then I could have left a few of them behind!
We all kayaked our way across river, me and annie were together and Val was with the tour guide! I daren't take my phone with me incase I lost it do I have no photos :(
We walked through a tiny village of around 20 huts! It was so nice I could easily live here! Not with all the locals staring at me all the time like they do though... I think they want to eat me??
We walked through a flooded rice field and along a dirt track, one of the bridges over the stream was 4 peices of bamboo! Not secured down, literally just rolling around! We held on to a tree branch for our lives, but I think we left our gracefulness In the kayak!
Finally we made it to the cave! It looked like paradise! The water is a turqioise/green colour and it disappears underneath the mountain through a cave, with about a foot of space between the water surface and rock!
They throw tubes in and you just jump on, the water was freezing cold! I hate being so tall I could hardly fit in the cave, and I daren't touch the rocks above me to save my head, just incase I moved something and caused an avulanche!
They have ropes set up all the way to the other end of the cave and you pull yourself along, the first lagoon area was okay as the sunlight shone from underneath the water and it looked beautiful, the rest of the journey is in total darkness!
We all had torches on our heads but I think I would have preferred to have not seen anything! Every crevice was covered in cobwebs that look like little icicles hanging from above! And there was a water beetle/cockroach looking monster lurking around! It moved so fast and all the Koreans nearly screamed the cave down!
Half way through the cave the rope ends, as you have to turn and go down a different passage so you have to get up and walk against the rapids! Annie lost a flip flop! It only takes a second and it's gone forever as the force from the water is so strong! The group left us behind with me and annie lost in a pitch black cave getting carried away by waves trying to search for one stupid flip flop with nothing but a torch and our matching IQ's!
After half an hour of caving I think I could have caught hyperthermia it got so cold the deeper we went and I think the walls started talking to me! :s
I escaped with all of my possessions and limbs which is more than I can say for some! We ate dinner before heading back to the village to visit elephant rock! I asked them to organise us both vegetarian meals just incase the meat was a bit dodgy so we were both stuck with egg fried rice! They make it better in the jungle than they do in the restaurants! It was most likely washed in the Mekong river mind, so maybe that was what made it spicy ;)
I ended up throwing half my meal to the ducks and chickens! There was a cute little malnourished duck that I kept attempting to feed but the big fat beastly chickens were too quick! Before I knew it my rice was gone and I'd not even fed myself! :s
Only joking mummy I don't stop eating, I'm such a fatty ;)
After lunch when we got back to the village we went to see another temple! It had a huuuuge foot print imprinted into the ground so I'm assuming this was worshipping place of the giant buddha!!! Behind this was elephant rock which literally is, a rock, shaped like an elephant! Personally I think it was shop bought from B+Q and just planted there! Sit couldn't have done that by itself!!
We then walked back to the river and then kayaked our way down the mekong for two hours! Me and annie do NOT work well as a team! Val said what everyone says which is we both sound like an old married couple! Only because I was captain at the back so I'm in charge of steering so annie decides to steer in the opposite direction! Which meant we were both cascading backwards into the 9mtre deep rapids! Bliss :|
Then as she was too busy trying to turn around taking photos of the river, pretending she's Tyra banks ;) We went head first into A bush by the side of the river were a million and one tarantulas jumped on ship!
There all jumping around all over the kayak and I could only concentrate on making sure they didn't jump up my shorts! So we couldn't even pick up the ores to paddle away, I used them to squash the little b*****s!! I considered jumping ship and leaving annie but then am I really better off swimming through the river snake infested waters??
The other kayaks quickly came to save us as soon as they heard Annie's screaming!!! We squashed as many as we could and the tour guide kept splashing water all over our kayak which eventually got rid of the blood suckers!! My near death experience was a close one!
Later on, half way through the rapids of the Mekong, me and annie are just trying to stay alive, not just from fear of drowning but also stopping ourselves from killing each other! Then the tour guide shouts "look out for the wasps nest!" I could've died! We were headed straight down a slope were a tree branch hungover our heads with the biggest wasps buzzing around! They were all black and it literally was like a black cloud swarming towards us!!
We had to close our eyes and mouth and just hope for the best... Easier said than done when your plummeting down a sheer drop of sharp rocks and waterfalls carrying half of Noah's arc on your kayak!
Afterwards, he told us they were only jungle flies!!! Lying little swine! Annie needed 5 puffs on her asthma pump to stop the palpitations!!
About 90 minutes in we got to where all the bars are, it's such a shame you kayak past some amazing scenery, waterfalls and mountains and then you get to a strip of bars with signs everywhere advertising free shots and buckets!! The bars are right on the riverside and have balconies that hang over the river, where they reel you in when your tubing!
I can see why the locals hate the tubing and think its ruined the culture because it really does spoil a gorgeous landscape! But on the other hand, tourists only come here to tube as its what it's famous for, and without the tourists I don't think there would be any money coming into this town!
We stopped off at one of the bars just to have a look, didn't jump into the river as everyone does because didn't want to keep poor Val waiting!! :)
We found out that a Korean guy we were singing Tina Turner's 'Rollin on a river' with as we we kayaked, was actually a celebrity!! He's in Korean Drama movies and he's a comedian on-stage! He was hilarious, he just told us he was a professional smoker!! He sat at the front of his kayak smoking his life away while the two guys behind him paddled the whole way there! Couldn't find a leaf for him to autograph though :(
After the bar stop we finished off the tour down the river stopping once more to walk along a bridge over the river, made from bamboo and chicken wire!! It was rocking left right and centre and creaks with every step you take! On the photos it looks robust but believe me, it doesn't when your walking on it!
On the way home my arms ached so much from doing all the work ;) The tour guide said it was going to rain so I've never paddled so fast to try and beat it! We made it! To the pier just in time! Then he told us we had to walk home alone! Great, val was dropped off right at her hotel!
Only took fifteen minutes, would have been ten if we'd have not walked straight past our street and around the block!
We showered when we got back and went out to eat, I was so hungry and tired there was no time to be messing around eating noodle soup with chopsticks so, it pains me to say I went for a big fat chicken burger!!
We then went home to lie down and around 7pm I fell asleep and then didn't wake up until 8am the next day!!!
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