Day 79

Wednesday 19^th Jaunary 2011

From here on in the pictures will be taken with the back up Samsung Compact, apologies to your eye balls

Yuk, yuk, yuk! I don’t want to get up……. And I CERTAINLY don’t want to kayak to Vientiane! But we’d booked and paid the deposit……plus we had to get to Vientiane somehow. Kayaking had seemed like a great idea – I just hadn’t factored in how I would feel after two days drinking on the river.

Franky convinced me that a bacon and fried egg sandwich in the hotel would improve things – it didn’t.

By 9.00am we were on schedule at the tour operators office, in body if not in spirit. There were 3 of us travelling to Vientiane today – the Franks and a Chinese fella called Tao.

Fortunately the first part of the journey was in the truck so for 90 mins I was able to pretend it all wasn’t happening and try and get some sleep. This wasn’t easy given the bumpy roads. Although Tao didn’t appear to have any trouble as he fell asleep on my shoulder!!!

I wasn’t feeling any brighter when we reached the Nam Lik river. We donned helmets and life jackets and had a crash course from Ming, our guide, on how to use a paddle. Then he cheerily informed us that we would encounter 2 rapids in the river today and we would fall out of the kayak. That was it! There was no guidance as to how to approach kayaking rapids, or what to do to try to avoid going overboard and we were off! We had a further guide, Lud, who was bringing up the rear of the party.

Franky was at the back and had to steer and I just had to paddle. I didn’t find it particularly easy to relinquish this control and sneakily kept trying to steer myself which made for an interesting ride as the Kayak rocked dangerously and we almost tipped on several occasions. I began to accept the fact that we would not survive the rapids!

After around 45 mins the first one was in sight and Ming came over to our kayak. I thought he was finally going to offer the guidance of rapid technique but no, he simply advised us to take off our shoes and sunglasses and strapped everything to the kayak so that we didn’t lose it when we fell in. Thanks for that!

My reservations about Franky’s steering were verified when we became completely stuck on a rock some 10m before the rapid. Apparently he hadn’t seen it because he was, and I quote…., ‘looking at my shoes!’ these were the same shoes that were now attached to the boat safely in the rapid-survival location that Ming had just put them in!!! The shoes were fine. We, on the other hand were now precariously balanced on a rock, completely stuck and about to tackle our first ever river rapid in a kayak having had no instruction. Lud tried to paddle back up steam to free us but to no avail. Nor could he offer any advice about what to do to rectify this situation! As the front end of the kayak (with me on it) was completely raised up out of the water it seemed that the only way to get off the rock would be to weigh this end down and get us back in the water. So Franky had to climb from his end of the kayak until we weighed it down sufficiently to do so….. without tipping us…. and then as we re-entered water he had to scramble back up the kayak to his seat and paddling position before we hit the swirling white water of the rapids. Which miraculously we managed!

We hit the rapid head on and I opted to hold on as tightly as I could and ride it out. We have since been informed that this is completely the wrong thing to do and that best approach is to paddle furiously until you are out of the danger zone. However, the Gods were again smiling down on us as we came out of the rapid with both of us still on the boat! How we managed it I do not know! We promptly both began to paddle and steer in opposite directions which resulted in us spinning round backwards and almost re-entering the rapid before we realised that this was not the best course of action and managed to coordinate ourselves to travel downstream. I finally conceded that I should leave the steering to Franky who had safely guided us through the rapid.

The second rapid was much smaller and buoyed by our survival of the first one we hit it bravely and rode it out. And the rest of the day was literally plain sailing!!!!

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. There was another group of 4 tourists – 2 Brits and 2 French also on the river and we all stopped together on a quiet spot on some rocks.

We quickly discovered that Tao was a danger to himself and others. On disembarking the boat he managed to knock all the kayaks from the rock where we had moored them back into the water…. with his sailing off merrily downstream complete with all his belongings. Lud had to jump in another kayak and paddle furiously off to rescue it. This was only the first time… Tao succeeded in knocking his kayak and ours back into the water a total of 3 times during the hour we were stopped for lunch…  but more of Tao’s exploits were to follow.

Lunch was a pleasant surprise. I had been expecting a ham and cheese sandwich at best but Lud and Ming did us proud. They lit a fire and produced beef kebabs which were barbequed on the rocks and served with spicy sauce, rice and bread on a banana leaf! It was really tasty!

Franky and I were keen to get on and so after lunch we were first in our boat and heading off downstream when we heard a scream and a splash. I’m not sure how he managed it but Tao was now lying on his back in the river with his legs in the air NEXT TO his kayak. We had to paddle off as we couldn’t stop laughing!

After lunch the river opened out and we were able to enjoy the scenery as we paddled along.



The highlight of the afternoon was Tao taking a swim. About 1km before the end of our kayaking adventure Ming informed us that we could swim if we liked. The water was pretty cold and I was still delighted that I hadn’t been dunked in the rapids so I decide to stay dry, as did Franky. Tao on the otherhand was so eager to get in he completely tipped his kayak throwing Ming, who was his partner, into the icey water. I don’t think Ming had been intending to go for a dip but he took it well!

The next problem was that Tao couldn’t get back into the kayak. Ming had to stand up and haul him out of the water by his lifevest… and as Tao entered the boat he tipped it again and Ming shot out of the otherside – another impromptu dip!

That concluded our time on the river and far too soon it was time to get out and continue our journey by road.

Unfortunately we weren’t continuing in the truck as they were headed back to Vang Vieng. We were going by public songthaew. This is a bit like a bigger version of a tuk tuk with a narrow bench on either side. It would typically fit 8 people and be fine for short journeys. However, we were still some 100km from Vientiane so it was likely to take around 2 hours. We folded ourselves up like a piece of origami and slid down the bench with Tao and the French and British couples.

There were already a couple of Laotian women on board so it was cosy. Because this was a public songthaew it stopped, frequently, typically every 300-500m for someone to get on of off. At one point there were 12 of us crammed inside, 3 in the front and a further 5 people hanging off the back. This was by far the most uncomfortable journey of the trip so far.

We finally reached the outskirts of Vientiane at around 5.30pm and all 7 tourists were transferred to a smaller tuk tuk that dropped us in the centre of town. We had prebooked a hotel but had no idea where it was and so had to get a taxi. Ironically we now had a plush air-conditioned minivan for the final 3km of our journey when it was just the two of us - typical!

I was delighted when we finally reached our hotel, the Beau Rivage Mekong on the banks of the Mekong river which is the boundary between Thailand and Laos.

We took a much needed warm shower and headed straight out in search of food along the river. The riverside is undergoing development and I’m sure it will be lovely but at present there is just a dirt track.

We came across a Belgian Bar advertising steak and chips which was exactly what I needed. The steak was good – a little on the rare side, but really good. Franky had beef stew which he declared was equally good. We accompanied this with a selection of Belgian beers. I tried cherry beer and raspberry beer – yummy! Franky opted for a selection of 8.5% brews. Unsurprisingly by 9.00pm he was falling asleep at the table so we headed home to bed.