Tubby Tubers in Vang Vieng

Hi everyone, I'm making the best of a good internet connection and putting up as many photos as I can at the moment. First up below is an example of the awesome snacks you can find from the street sellers in Laos. Five or more ears of corn usually costs the equivalent of about 20 cents, and comes with the guarantee that it's sterile and unlikely to make you sick! You don't see purple corn that often in Oz, or come to think of it, in South America either, the home of corn. We bought this batch from some street sellers on the way to Vang Vieng from Luang Prabang by bus.


Upon arrival in Vang Vieng, we were in for a bit of a shock. The town basically exists to service 18-22 year old tourists from Australia and the UK on their way to either country. Most of them are overweight, loud and insensitive to the local people. The most sought-after activity seems to be 'tubing' which involves hiring an old truck inner tube for the day and floating down the river, stopping at as many makeshift bars as possible. Not suprisingly a few people do die this way, from swift currents, hidden derbris underwater or from plain drunkenness. The water's a bit murky and swift-flowing at the moment for my liking so we opted out of any sort of tubing. Instead we hired some bikes and rode out to the caves and swimming holes that surround the town. The views were spectacular and we had a great time. And as a bonus, the 'tubby tubers', as Pete nicknamed them, were mostly too lazy to do likewise so we almost had the place to ourselves.

Here's Team Trek showing off his wheels. I was Team Chinese, with some sort of dodgy Chinese contraption with no gears, questionable brakes and a flat back tyre. I didn't go quite so fast that day.

This is one of the best water holes we visited during our bike ride. The water was pretty clear and very refreshing. You might be able to see a rope swing in the background - of course Pete had to try it out. He managed to squash his finger between the rope and the stick so now he has a mark underneath his fingernail. All in the name of fun I suppose.

This was the view from the waterhole above. It was so lovely, and special since there were only a handful of other intrepid travellers and local kids to share it with.

Here's the view we checked out as we were having lunch. Lunch was a bit of a mixed bag. We were starving so the fried noodles with veggies definitely filled a hole, but there was so much MSG in them that we both drank about three litres of water afterwards! Nice scenery though....


And finally, on the way home, I had some fun with the camera. I'm quite good now at taking one-handed action pics, and I'm quite pleased with this one! The local kid was chasing his dad's tractor, I think. My tyre got worse as the afternoon wore on, and by the time we cycled over the last bridge each rock was hitting the rim. Lucky I only paid a dollar for the privilege.


We have one more day in Phnom Penh, then we're catching the bus to Siam Reap. I'm so excited about seeing Angkor Wat. The Cambodians are certainly proud of it: It's on everything from their beer to their flag so it must be pretty good. Stay well.