Day 10 - We Are Really Flying Now

I was awake at 5.59am, when the rodent started gnawing away at our wall again. I banged on the wall, turned the light on and off, but nothing would deter him. Twenty minutes later he just stopped and silence fell upon our room once again apart from Jackie’s shallow snoring.

When Jackie finally woke up, she announced that she was feeling slightly queasy and didn’t feel up to the zip line, but she could manage the strenuous planned Viewpoint climb.

We departed the hotel at 9.30am and rode to Luang Prabang Bakery & Restaurant again. I ordered a simple iced Americano whilst Jackie ordered the same as yesterday, iced Americano with pink milk and a large pain au chocolat.

There was no sign of Jackie’s coffee 10 minutes after mine had arrived. She was convinced they had forgotten, but then her pink and brown two-tone coffee arrived. It was a sickly sweet strawberry milkshake flavoured coffee and nothing like yesterday’s coffee.

We then set out for more adventures and rode out to Horkham Viewpoint. On the way we passed Nam Xay Viewpoint, which is probably the most famous, because I understand it to be the first with a motorcycle installed at the top. It was obviously also the most popular judging by the amount of scooters and other vehicles in the car park, therefore too busy for us.

Instead we parked up at Horkham Viewpoint and paid the standard 20,000 Kip entrance fee. This hike was different in as much as we were required to scramble up over rocks and boulders sometimes on all fours. It also felt that we had ascended higher and for longer than the previous day’s viewpoint climb.

What turned out to be about halfway up, we came to a footpath T-junction. One way led to the plane, the other led to Pegasus, or as Jackie called it, ‘the pony’.

We had already planned to head to the plane, so onwards we climbed. Eventually we arrived at the summit puffing heavily and sodden. There were a nice young Korean couple who were taking photos and fresh as daisies. We sat/lay in the wooden shelter and cooled down.

After 10 minutes or so, I plucked up the courage to attempt to board the aircraft that was positioned on the top. Jackie videoed me climbing in not so elegantly. To climb into the tiny cockpit, it required me to stand on the wing whilst clinging on to the rim of the boiling hot cockpit for dear life. Then I had to step up and over into the cockpit with a sheer drop looming on the other side. A fall would surely guarantee instant death.

Inside the cockpit, I donned the very sweaty helmet and waved the Laos flag. After a few minutes in which I’d hoped Jackie had taken a photograph or two for prosperity, I tentatively climbed out and returned to Jackie anticipating a heroes welcome. I was sadly disappointed, but the Korean girl was full of praise for my achievements.

Jackie dithered as to whether she would get in the plane, so an Asian lad who had now joined us asked me to take some photos of him. I did him proud.

By now Jackie had built up the courage to give it a go. I filmed her boarding the plane with an audience now behind me encouraging her on. After taking sufficient photos, including of a concrete gorilla in a bamboo cage, we headed down the mountain. It was steep and took a lot of concentration, but we arrived at the bottom in one piece and elated that we had conquered Horkham Viewpoint or at least half of it.

We had a cruise through the Laos countryside and villages, before heading back to Vang Vieng. We stopped at a shack overlooking the Nam Song, where we shared 3 large beers and a plate of pork ribs. It was a pleasant interlude as we watched incompetent kayakers beach themselves on the rocks in the shallow river.

Our next stop was Tham Chang, Vang Vieng’s most popular cave and tourist attraction:-

Tham Cham is described as a spectacular cave consisting of numerous beautiful and rare stalactites. Located in Meuang Xong Village, this spacious cave was used as a bunker during an invasion in the early 19th century and a haven for local inhabitants in the civil war. To enter the cave, visitors need to climb up the stone stairway with a couple of hundred steps leading to the mountainside entrance. Inside the cave, there are several well-lit pathways that lead to different sections of the cave with myriad stalactites and rocks in weird formations, one of which leads to a nice viewpoint outside where you can take in the countryside scenery. Tham Chang Cave is also an ideal spot to cool off from the hot weather as the temperature inside the cave is fairly low.

We paid our 22,000 Kip each admission fee and headed straight for the cave and climbed the 171 steps (I counted them) to the cave entrance. Inside, we followed the path through the cave, enjoying the cool air more than the rock formations.

After 20 minutes of rock watching, we exited the cave down the 171 steps and found ourselves a grassy spot between the lagoon and the Nam Song with an ice cold can of BeerLao. We watched the zip liners and the highlight was a French girl, who took a bit of a running start causing her legs to swing forward then back, whereupon she lost grip and face planted from quite a height into the lagoon with a hell of a splash.

Her friends were beside us crying with laughter, when she dragged herself out of the water with a red stomach and thigh that was clearly smarting.

Jackie considered going in for a swim, but then decided that we would return tomorrow instead and she would give the zip line a go then. We shall see!!!

That night we extracted another 2 million Kip from the ATM and had to then buy a new purse to all the notes in. We returned to Kook sawarng restaurant starving hungry and promptly over ordered. We ordered TWO plates of fried pork belly, Pad Thai with tofu and fried spring rolls.

I ploughed through my pork belly with a couple of spoonfuls of Pad Thai, whilst Jackie could only manage half her pork belly and the remainder of the Pad Thai. The spring rolls just sat there untouched until the end, when we had a bite into them and decided it was too much.

We left the restaurant feeling sick and desperate for air. We were annoyed at ourselves for being too greedy and ruining a lovely meal by devouring what felt like a whole pig.

We waddled home and sat on the balcony with a nightcap, when the rodent mystery was solved. A small rat appeared from the balcony ceiling, probably lured by the pork sweat emanating from our pores, ran along a cable, then scuttled back into the ceiling when I turned the outside light on.

Song of the Day - Flyin’ High (In The Friendly Sky) by Marvin Gaye.Leggi altro