from best to worst

hey there all. apologies all around for not keeping the blog updated. we ran into a bit of a snag in vang vieng, laos... the main attraction in this small town is floating down the nam song river on big inner tubes. there are gigantic swings along the way, zip chords and the most spectacular mountain views. we had a fabulous time our first time down the river and decided (with our south african friend, roxy) to go 'round one more time. the scenery was so beautiful and the day so sparkling and the river so smooth that we brought along molly's camera in a dry bag. we decided that this was the most splendid day that we had had on our trip...

then our "most splendid day" turned into the worst day of our trip. as we watched the sun set we couldn't have been happier until we realized we were further from the river exit than we thought. sometime after the tubing exit, the river forks and one side gets rather "rough." because it was so dark we started to get a bit worried that we had missed the exit - there was very little electricity in the town - and had already lost a tube to the current. then we lost another tube. our friend roxy got out about 100 m upriver from us at a sort of staircase. we not-so-lucky-3 were presented with jungle as our exit! we scrambled up the bank into a thicket of plants. we recalled Sr. Louise from Cambodia telling us about these plants - the viet cong had planted them as a line of defence during the war becuase they are so unbelievably damn prickly. we had lost our clothes and shoes to the nam song so after tromping through the brambles we were covered in thorns and mosquito bites that swelled and hurt and itched worse than any bite ive ever had. (pictures to come) sometime during this hysteria we lost our dry bag with molly's camera and jeff and s's money, debit cards, credit cards and driver's licenses. our friend roxy was shouting to us from the outside "follow the light!" we walked and slid til we saw her and she kicked down the boards of a fence to get us out. we then began the 3 k walk back to town. it seemed like every tuk tuk in asia had wanted to pick us up no matter where we were. now NOBODY wanted to take us to town. the owner of the tubing place drove by on a motorbike and we eventually got home after much barefoot walking. upon return we were told we had to pay for the lost tubes even though we thought we were gonna die (maybe a bit of melodrama, but hey). then they got really ridiculous and told us we were gonna go to jail if we didn't pay the 7 dollars per tube. thankfully molly had stashed some australian money for just in case and we were able to pay them off.

next morning we got out of vang vieng as fast as possible. this experience, though much worse than any others we had, is pretty representative of loa. people depend so much on tourism for their income that we were lied to quite a bit. for example, on our 2 day slow boat from the thai border through loas to luang prabang, we had a night at a small town full of guesthouses and pushy loatians. our friends woke up to catch the boat and were told that it had already left and they would have to purchase a ticket on the speed boat. the speed boat was incredibly loud and fast, required life-jackets and helmets, and was two rows of people in a 3-foot-wide boat! our friends double-checked and, of course, found that the boat had in fact not left and they were being scammed. there's no telling how many times we were scammed and just didn't realize it. we caught a lot of the scams and made it through loas ok but it was work.

despite the dirty dealings we thought loas was the most beautiful country we travelled to. but we won't be going back to vang vieng any time soon...

there are many more stories to be shared but that's the big one for now.
hope all is well and i know i speak for all of us when i say we can't wait to see you!!!
peace to you,
s